BLYN — For a people who existed for millennia, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe was left in limbo for 120 years — following the signing of the 1855 Point No Point Treaty — about its promised status as a sovereign nation.
That all changed in 1981 when the U.S. finally granted the tribe federal recognition, officially opening a government-to-government relationship that cleared the path for the tribe’s development of Blyn, home of its tribal headquarters and its economic engine led by 7 Cedars Casino.
The tribe’s most recent history, the past 30 years during which it became a real player in the Indian Nation, is celebrated in a new publication produced by tribal leaders and tribe publications specialist Betty Oppenheimer.
Thirty Years and Time Immemorial: Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Official Recognition of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, 1981-2011, details the tribe’s known history, with a focus on those past 30 years.
The 50-page booklet is on sale for $14.95 at the Northwest Native Expressions gallery, at the tribal campus off U.S. Highway 101 at Old Blyn Highway, and at the Cedar Bough Gift Shop inside 7 Cedars Casino.
The book explains why tribal citizens felt the need for federal recognition.
As Oppenheimer and tribal leaders put it, the book “illuminates the historical data which was required to prove that the tribe met the seven criteria established by the federal government in order for any tribe to successfully earn full recognition.”
The process took about 15 years to complete.
“This book outlines what became possible as a result of recognition and highlights many of our key accomplishments and contributions to the local community over the past 30 years,” Tribal Council Treasurer Theresa R. Lehman said.
The book includes an interview with Tribal Chairman and Chief Executive Officer W. Ron Allen, who shares his view of the future.
The book documents the tribe’s progress, starting with an annual budget of $25,000 in 1981 to a 2010 budget of $24.5 million.
As Clallam County’s second-largest employer, the tribe today owns the casino, the Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course, the Longhouse Market and Deli/Chevron Fueling Station, Jamestown Family Health Clinic, Jamestown Family Dental Clinic, Jamestown Construction, Jamestown Excavating, Jamestown Health and Medical Supply, and Northwest Expressions Gallery and its commercial fishing operations.
The tribe owns Railroad Bridge Park on the Dungeness River and has a higher education fund that supports 36 tribal students seeking higher education at colleges across the country, providing more than $500,000 for tuition, room, board, transportation and books.
The tribe also gave more than $250,000 in cash contributions in 2009 to the community, tribal leaders said, and the tribe offers space at its Blyn campus for civic events.
The tribe purchased about two acres in Blyn where its first community center was located overlooking Sequim Bay.
Today, it owns about 1,000 acres from the Miller Peninsula to Blyn to Sequim and Dungeness.
“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.
Speaks 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,” he said.
The Northwest today has 47 tribes.
“I remember it being a lot of work reaching out to our various leaders and searching through their attics, garages and closets looking for documents, pictures and evidence that showed we were always organized and functioned as a cohesive political unit and even had relations with our sister tribes, including the Lower Elwha Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Makah, Suquamish and others,” Allen said in the book’s forward.
Allen cites the tribe’s main reasons for re-establishing its relationship with the U.S. government: to reaffirm the tribe’s treaty rights “so our fishers could fish commercial again to sustain their family needs consistent with our sister tribes” in the region and “to access the health care, education and housing assistance dearly needed by our community.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
