SEQUIM – Lyle Prince, 80, is the last full-blooded Jamestown S’Klallam tribal member.
He’s the great-grandson of Jamestown S’Klallam Chief Chetzemoka, the leader of the tribe during the 1800s and namesake of Port Townsend’s Chetzemoka Park.
Many who come to the tribal elders’ luncheons at the 7 Cedars Casino know this.
Prince is surrounded by family at a recent lunch, including his sweetheart, Margie Lester.
Prince is growing frail, and isn’t eager to talk about his unique status.
“I’m still a kid yet,” Prince said, as he and Lester, also 80, shared smiles.
Tribal elder and story keeper Elaine Grinnell well remembers growing up with Prince, who is her uncle.
“He was one of the best boxers around, in the ’40s; a local hero,” she said.
Prince traveled on the Golden Gloves circuit until he went to serve in the Merchant Marine during World War II, she said.
Prince and Lester became a couple nearly seven years ago, after both were widowed.
Prince was married for 54 years to Patricia Elaine Johnson, a Caucasian, so their children are 50 percent Native American.
Friends, of course, lament the fact that the Jamestown tribe, with 574 enrolled members, will one day lose this man.
“It’s a sad thing,” said Jeff Monson, 42, a son of Florence Adams Monson, who’s seven-eighths Jamestown S’Klallam.
