Ninety miles north of Seattle on the Washington coast lies bellingham bay, where a rough settlement founded in the 1850s would become the town of whatcom. Here, the lummi and nooksack indian people fish and farm, hermits...Ninety miles north of Seattle on the Washington coast lies bellingham bay, where a rough settlement founded in the 1850s would become the town of whatcom. Here, the lummi and nooksack indian people fish and farm, hermits pay their debts in sockeye salmon, and miners track gold-bearing streams.