State, tribe agree to talks about old tribal-village site

The Associated Press

PORT ANGELES — Gov. Christine Gregoire and the head of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe have agreed to formal negotiations early next year on all the issues raised by discovery of remains and relics at the waterfront site planned for development of the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard.

For centuries, the site was occupied by the tribal village Tze-whit-zen.

Tom Fitzsimmons, Gregoire's chief of staff, said the tribe has agreed to publicly support the state plan to build huge concrete anchors on the shoreward edge of the former graving-yard site, which allows the project to move through the permitting process.

In return, the state has agreed to reimburse the tribe for more than $600,000 in wages paid to 108 of its members for archaeological work at the site, which was occupied by the village until the 1920s, when a sawmill was built there.

The bargain struck Thursday by Gregoire and Chairwoman Frances Charles came one year and one day after construction was halted at the site, where bridge pontoons and anchors were to be built for replacement of the deteriorating east end of the floating Hood Canal Bridge.

The halt, requested by the tribe and approved by state officials, was prompted by the discovery of human remains at the ancient village site.

During the negotiations, all lawsuits the state and the tribe have filed against each other will be on hold, at least until mid-March, Fitzsimmons said.

Unresolved issues — such as preservation of Indian artifacts recovered at the site — will be at the top of the agenda when the tribe and the state begin negotiations, Fitzsimmons said.

Another key issue is disposal of 20,000 cubic yards of earth removed from the site and trucked to the Shotwell Recycling Facility west of Port Angeles. The tribe wants the earth returned to the village site and sifted for ancestral remains and funerary artifacts.

The negotiations also will focus on what the state will do with the steel pilings driven into the ground to contain the graving yard.

The state and the tribe also will talk about future development of the Port Angeles waterfront, which has been thrown into question by the discovery of tribal remains and artifacts.

Charles said she got the call from Gregoire while she was Christmas shopping Thursday morning, and she joked that it kept her from buying everything on her list.

On a more serious note, she said she was pleased that Gregoire approached the tribe on a government-to-government basis, honoring the Centennial Accord the state struck with tribes in 1989.

Charles thanked Gregoire for "the respect that she has for the culture and the tribe's concerns. She really came through with some commitment. I was really happy to have this happen before Christmas."