Pacific Northwest Native American Playing Cards

Formline art – stylized, flowing animals fashioned in bold blacks, reds, and whites – is a familiar motif of the Native American culture of the Pacific Northwest. This Bicycle© deck celebrates that tradition. Each court is a different animal group: spades are birds, hearts are land mammals, clubs are aquatic mammals, and diamonds are sea animals. You can see slight echoes of the international pattern in the King of Hearts, who has a paw positioned like the Suicide King and the Jack of Spades’ profile.

Pip card suit symbols are also stylized, yet easily recognizable for gameplay. Spades are thunderbirds (a mythological creature), hearts are cougars, clubs are orcas, and diamonds are halibut. The jokers are the elusive Sasquatch and a raven, a trickster figure in Native American mythology. The tuck box proclaims: “Thank you for ordering your chaos from us.”

Pacific Northwest Native American Playing Cards produced by USPCC Bicycle© brand for Seattle Royale, a Native co‑owned business partnered with the Duwamish Tribe of Seattle. 52 cards and 2 different Jokers in tuckbox.

This deck is connected with the Duwamish Tribe of Seattle, which is involved in an ongoing contested campaign to be recognized as a sovereign tribe by the US federal government. An accompanying card appeals for support of the tribe’s “struggle for justice” – it’s an example of the secondary use of playing cards for social/political messaging.

It’s unclear whether the cards represent Duwamish-specific art and whether the deck was published by the tribe itself.