In a Feb. 6 letter, the writer stated that if Hazel Wolf were still alive she would not have agreed with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s plan to grow oysters at the Dungeness Refuge.
This is untrue. She believed the tribe has been a relentless steward of their lands, waters and environment.
She had the deepest respect for W. Ron Allen’s leadership.
The S’Klallam people have been growing and harvesting shellfish since time immemorial, selectively harvesting to ensure continuity by keeping the bay clean and providing shell substrate for spawning bivalves.
It was their refuge long before it became a national wildlife refuge.
Their village was located at the mouth of the river, until settlers pushed them farther away from the waters that had always been their home and provider.
Modern oyster aquaculture has been done in Dungeness Bay since the 1950s; the farm was leased by the tribe in 1990 to ensure their treaty rights in their territorial waters.
When the growing population’s up-river uses and septic systems polluted the river and bay, the tribe spent more than 10 years leading the cleanup so that they could continue to grow and harvest oysters in their ancestral watershed.
Hazel Wolf was a champion for tribal rights and for the environment, and she believed that both work together.
The tribe has shown repeatedly that they can use 21st century technology while sustaining the environment.
Furthermore, Hazel’s daughter, Nydia Levick, my mother, now age 103, agrees that this is more accurate of her mother’s sentiments about the tribe.
Marguerite Ann Sargent
Sequim