Who Belongs Here?, also, Violence and Vitriol. Labor, Immigration, and Exclusion on the Waterfront, also, Cycles of Exploiting and Excluding. , Who Belongs Here? , For a century, Seattle’s waterfront was a place where people came to work, trade, and start a new life. Native people were here from the beginning. And starting in the mid-19th century, immigrants arrived from China, Scandinavia, the Philippines, Japan, Russia, and other points worldwide. But not everyone was able to decide for themselves whether they would stay in Seattle. Some people were forced out by mob violence and racist laws. For them, the waterfront was also their point of departure., Seattle’s First Workforce , Seattle’s early economy was fueled by the labor of Native Americans. Local Native people worked in Henry Yesler’s sawmill, caught and preserved fish for sale, and ferried cargo, people, and mail by canoe. Later, Coast Salish people, along with Indigenouos people from British Columbia and Alaska, came to Seattle to do business and find work. A local hop boom between the 1860s and 1880s was only possible because Native people provides a ready supply of labor. Over decades, Seattle became the city it is thanks in part to Native and immigrant labor., From Asia to America , Seattle was a gateway to opportunity and the promise of a better life for people from the Asia Pacific region. The Chinese were the first to come, drawn by news of a nearby gold strike and jobs in railroad construction, logging, and canning. Japanese immigrants made up a second wave some years later, and Filipinos followed in the early 20th century. Often doing hard work in harsh and abusive conditions, all of these immigrants were vital to Seattle’s burgeoning economy and helped create its rich, diverse culture., Violence and Vitriol, Cycles of Exploiting and Excluding , In 1865, a city ordinance called for the expulsion of Native Americans, even as local industries continued to hire them. Native people were eventually allowed to live only on so-called Ballast Island, a rock pile in the bay at the foot of Washington Street. They were eventually forced from there as well. In the following decades, widespread anti-Asian sentiment increased and led to the expulsion of Chinese workers by both law and mob violence in the 1880s, housing and employment discrimination, and the expulsion and incarceration Japanese Americans during World War II., 1865 , City of Seattle Ordinance No. 5 prohibits Native people from living within the city limits unless employed by a white resident. , 1866 , Petition signed by white Seattle residents blocks a reservation for Duwamish Tribe as promised in the Treaty of Point Elliott., 1882 , Chinese Exclusion Act bans immigration of Chinese laborers., 1886 , Seattle mob herds Chinese aboard a waiting steamer for expulsion., 1890s , Oregon Improvement Company’s wharf expansion covers over Ballast Island., 1921 , Alien Land Law bars Japanese and other Asian immigrants from owning land., 1924 , Immigration Act of 1924 essentially ends all immigration from Japan and Asia., 1942 , Under Executive Order No. 9066.200 residents of Bainbridge Island are the first of 120,000 Japanese Americans, mostly from the West Coast, sent to incarceration camps. , 1943 , The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act permits Chinese immigration for the first time since 1882., 1968 , The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 takes effect, erasing what’s left of anti-Chinese exclusion laws. , “When we got into Seattle, the train was waiting for us on Alaskan Way and on the overheard viaduct, people were lined up watching us, all kinds of people, and curiosity, friends, whatever. Some of them probably glad to see us leave, but yeah, it was a very trying time.” , , Isami Nakao on what it was like to walk from Colman Dock to the train, with people on the Marion Street Overpass watching them.,