Court: Namesake lake belongs to Quinault tribe

Published 12:01 am Thursday, May 21, 2015

TACOMA — A federal court has reaffirmed the Quinault Nation’s control of its namesake lake in Grays Harbor County.

A corporation calling itself North Quinault Properties LLC had challenged the tribe’s jurisdiction after the tribe closed the lake to nontribal fishing nearly two years ago.

Fishing rights were restored to nontribal people April 14, 2014, although boating and water recreation rules still apply.

The tribe had cited pollution from lakeside septic tanks, invasive species and degraded habitat in the nearly 6-square-mile lake that nestles against Olympic National Park just northeast of U.S. Highway 101 near the hamlet of Amanda Park.

The property corporation and Thomas and Beatrice Landreth filed suit late last year contending that federal doctrines preserve navigable waters for public use.

The suit named the Quinault Nation and the state Department of Natural Resources, which the suit said should manage the lake.

But U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton earlier this month ruled that an action against the Quinault was barred by the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity and that DNR was immune under the 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that grants immunity from federal lawsuits to states.

Both actions were dismissed without prejudice, giving the Landreths leave to amend their suit within 30 days.

The Quinault Reservation was created by the 1856 Treaty of Olympia, ratified by Congress three years later and enlarged to 208,150 acres by order of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873.

‘Never in doubt’

“This quick and explicit ruling was never in doubt,” Quinault Nation President Fawn Sharp said in a statement.

“Lake Quinault is undisputedly within the Quinault Reservation. Lake Quinault is sacred to us, and we take our responsibility to manage it properly very seriously.”

Sharp said most nontribal landowners around the lake support the tribe’s steps to manage its environment.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the number of returning bluebacks sockeye salmon dropped from as many as 500,000 in the early 1900s to about 39,000 in the 1990s.

Since 2000, the Quinault Nation has invested more than $5 million in blueback habitat restoration, including restoration on the Upper Quinault River and monitoring, according to tribal spokesman Steve Robinson.