 During the 1850s, he lived at the largest village of his people located at "Toultʷ", a fishing village at the confluence of the Tolt and Snoqualmie rivers (today, Carnation, Washington) in a complex containing sixteen longhouses.He was the dominant power from Whidbey Island to Snoqualmie Pass, between what is today British Columbia and King County, Washington According to historian Bill Speidel, his was the major Indian power on Puget Sound, in no small part due to control of Snoqualmie Pass and therefore the profitable trade between the tribes on either side.Patkanim first gained notoriety among American settlers by arranging a meeting on Whidbey Island in 1848, of 8,000 Puget Sound Indians to discuss the rising threat of white colonists.