The state has filed a countersuit in its dispute with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, alleging that it shares in any negligence that led to the failed Port Angeles dry-dock project.

The state walked away from a Department of Transportation project on the Port Angeles waterfront in December, after spending $60 million and inadvertently uncovering an ancient Indian village and 335 intact skeletons. The state was attempting to build a dry dock on top of the site, which it needed to construct replacement pontoons for the aging Hood Canal floating bridge.

The tribe filed a class-action suit against the state in Thurston County Superior Court in August, accusing it of knowing and willful desecration of Indian graves. The tribe demanded reburial of its ancestors.

But if the state is found liable for negligence, the tribe certainly shares some of the blame, according to the countercomplaint, filed Monday.

"The state's response shows how the responsibility is shared among all parties," state Secretary of Transportation Doug MacDonald said yesterday.

The state alleges it undertook the project at Port Angeles in part because it had relied on the tribe's representation that an archaeological or historic find was unlikely. The tribe has breached its responsibilities, the claim states, in part, by failing to consult its elders about the site or disclose any oral historic record about it or the limited extent of its investigation of the location.

It was also the tribe's duty to prepare a protocol that would suit its spiritual needs during the recovery of skeletal remains. Tribal members worked side by side with state contractors and did much of the work themselves, the complaint states. So if remains were handled improperly, the tribe "breached its duty of reasonable care," the countersuit claims.

The tribe also accepted a memorandum of agreement under which construction proceeded and accepted $3.4 million from the state in return for its promise not to sue, a promise the state maintains is binding.

Debora Juarez, attorney for the Lower Elwha Klallam, said the state has missed the tribe's point in filing its suit.

"The tribe's position is there is a lot at stake here; it is not a chess game, a poker game, an opportunity for us to bluff or posture. It is a human-rights issue, to protect our dead, and to honor our dead. It is a moral issue. You dug up our people. Now help us rebury them."

MacDonald says he hopes the dispute can still be settled out of court. He said the state supports reburial but so far hasn't been able to reach an agreement with the tribe.

Meanwhile, the state has chosen another place for building the pontoons to replace the eastern half of the Hood Canal Bridge. Concrete Tech, in Tacoma, was not selected by the state the first time around, but rose to the top now that the Port Angeles site has been abandoned.

In an alternatives analysis that led to selection of the Port Angeles site, the state found the Concrete Tech site small, requiring a lengthy, staged production process. Federal regulators also were concerned that parking the pontoons in the water, before towing them to the construction site, would shade fish habitat, possibly harmful to salmon.

MacDonald said those concerns "ought to be able to be addressed." He said the pontoons should be installed by 2009. The first hurdle is funding: The $162 million project is funded by a gas-tax increase that is being challenged by Initiative 912, which is on the Nov. 8 general-election ballot.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com