BLYN — Although S’Klallam people have been around for millennia — ages before the North Olympic Peninsula was first seen by white settlers, long before Blyn became the center for economic development that it is today — the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe received federal recognition only 30 years ago.
Celebrating that sovereign status Saturday at the tribe’s totem-graced tribal center, more than 150 tribal members and leaders joined those who supported their cause in remembering how far the tribe has come since Federal Recognition Day, Feb. 10, 1981 — from a few homes and a whole lot of blackberry brambles to a thriving, attractive village.
Before the U.S. government recognized the tribe, its leaders met in coffee shops, not a tribal center, they recalled.
“We’ve traveled a long trail,” Tribal Chairman Ron Allen said before the afternoon of recollections, feasting and entertainment was launched.
“We are celebrating a chapter on who we are as a people. We wanted to develop a political infrastructure to pursue economic development and to stand on our own two feet.”
Allen quickly admits that at the time, he had no idea the tribe’s fortunes would grow to such an extent — from a budget of less than $25,000 in the early 1980s to $24.5 million in 2010.
Some of the tribe’s bounty could be tasted during the celebration’s luncheon, a traditional feast featuring fishhead soup, devil fish (squid), geoduck cakes, salmon eggs, bread and seal oil as well as elk stew, Dungeness crab, clams and smoked salmon.
Schoolchildren with Sally Fairbanks’ after-school program sang traditional songs and kept time with drums.
The Jamestown S’Klallam village in Blyn on U.S. Highway 101 east of Sequim features a large-scale tribal center that overlooks the majestic head of Sequim Bay, as well as 7 Cedars Casino — the Peninsula’s largest casino — and a market and gas station, a Clallam County Fire District 3 station, the Northwest Native Expressions art gallery and the Jamestown Fireworks stand.
The tribal center also houses the offices where the tribe’s commercial fishing, construction, golf course, restaurant and real estate properties are managed.
The tribe oversees the education, health and welfare of its citizens and their children — one result of federal recognition.
The tribe operates the Jamestown Family Health Clinic in Sequim to provide primary health care services to tribal citizens and nontribal residents.
The tribe’s first major investment was a multimillion-dollar casino that hit some rough patches during its first four years, resulting in layoffs, but Allen said “persistence and determination” — and slot machines — turned that all around.
“In the short time, 30 years, it’s amazing what they’ve accomplished,” said Stan Speaks, Bureau of Indian Affairs regional director out of Portland, Ore., who has worked with the tribe since a year after it was recognized.
“I always think of this tribe as one not afraid to step out and make it happen.”
Speaks described the Jamestown S’Klallams as one of the more “aggressive” and “progressive” Native American communities.
Tribe Cultural Director Vickie Carroll recognized former tribal council members in attendance — Sandy Johnson, Marlin Holden, Les Prince, Elaine and Jack Grinnell, Jerry Allen and Steve Johnson as well as the present council, which is chaired by Liz Mueller and includes Theresa Lehman, Kurt Grinnell and Heather Johnson-Jock.
Carroll said she grew up hearing the stories of the difficulties the tribe went through to achieve federal recognition.
Today, she is heartened to know the tribe “can continue to be the strong people,” referring to the indigenous name of the Kallam, which means “the strong people.”
Allen recognized the tribe’s publication’s specialist for her nearly yearlong effort to produce a commemorative look at the tribe, Thirty Years and Time Immemorial, to mark the occasion.
The 50-page book is on sale at the Northwest Native Expressions gallery, at the tribal campus and at The Cedar Bough Gift Shop inside 7 Cedars Casino for $14.95.
Both Jeff Schuster, the tribe’s attorney who closed the federal recognition process with the Bureau of India Affairs, and attorney Emily Mansfield, who worked with the tribe in the 1970s as it wrote its first petition for recognition, also spoke briefly.
“I was always pleased and proud to be involved with the original petition,” Mansfield told the celebrants.
Schuster said the federal Department of the Interior had decided to no longer recognize the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, requiring the tribe to rewrite its petition for recognition.
Also addressing the event was Barbara Lane, an expert in tribal anthropology and rights who has given evidence in more than 40 court cases, including the Boldt decision that was pivotal in determining Native American access to fisheries and land claims.
Allen called her “our champion,” saying the tribe held her in high esteem.
Establishing government-to-government relations once again reaffirmed the tribe’s treaty rights to commercially fish in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and ensured the tribe access to health care, education and needed housing assistance, Allen said.
Ron Charles, who was Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal chairman at the time the Jamestown S’Klallams sought recognition, said he was glad his tribe had supported its neighbor.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe also supported the petition.
“The fact that our sister tribes endorsed us was the clincher,” Allen said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.