EDITOR’S NOTE — See related stories
June 1, 2014: “Tse-whit-zen artifacts to be displayed on Peninsula (with photo gallery)” https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20140601/news/306019915
and
JULY 12, 2014: “Coming home: Return of Tse-whit-zen artifacts ‘great day for everyone'” — https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20140713/NEWS/307139940
PORT ANGELES — Elk teeth pendants, tools, a stone bowl: These artifacts, the mute evidence of an ancient culture, will lend eloquence to the telling of two Klallam tales in a new exhibit of Tse-whit-zen treasures opening this week.
Fifteen more artifacts unearthed at the ancient Klallam village discovered in 2003 on what is now Marine Drive in Port Angeles will be revealed in an exhibit opening at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Lower Elwha Heritage Center, 401 E. First St.
They will share the stage with artists who will attend a reception as a new exhibit, “Spirit Unleashed,” opens at the center.
The artifacts will join the 13 Tse-whit-zen objects that were returned home in July — the first to be brought back to Port Angeles from storage at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in Seattle — and which are now on permanent display at the heritage center.
Among the newly returned artifacts are four pendants, some made of elk teeth; a maul, or hammer, with a design that looks much like a flower; an arrowhead; tools; and a “really beautiful bowl” made of stone, said Suzie Bennett, heritage center manager.
Some 80,000 artifacts from Tse-whit-zen are stored at the Burke.
Of the hundreds of boxes of artifacts in storage at the Burke, the archaeology department had pulled about 30 for Bennett to examine, she said.
She chose the artifacts with an eye toward presenting them in concert with two Klallam stories: “Nahkeeta,” which tells of the creation of Lake Sutherland west of Port Angeles, and “The Strong People,” which tells how the Klallam tribe got its name.
“I was looking for objects to complement traditional Klallam stories,” Bennett said.
The stories aren’t only the Lower Elwha’s tales, Bennett said, but apply to all Klallam people, who include the Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam.
The Klallam were all originally one tribe, she said. Groups were broken up through treaties.
The exhibit installed in July includes a bone comb carved with two cormorants, a ring, engraved rocks, blanket pins carved to resemble a fawn and a halibut, stone fishing net weights, bone hooks, harpoon points and a spindle whorl carved from a whale vertebra.
The items are in six display cases in the heritage center’s Great Hall, displayed on pieces of the longhouse built by tribal members in the 1970s that once stood in Port Angeles’ Lincoln Park.
The new exhibit, which also will be permanent, will be arranged a little differently.
The 15 artifacts will be in two display cases at the far end of the Great Hall, behind the fountain that is decorated with a spiral of copper salmon made by Clark Mundy and designed by Al Charles Jr.
They will share the wall with renditions of the two Klallam tales, Bennett said.
She selected those two stories because “they provide a little bit of history about the area that we live in.
“I thought it would be a good way to provide more information about area and the tribe,” Bennett said.
On Thursday, visitors also can meet some of the 10 to 15 artists represented in the heritage center’s new annual show.
The show of paintings, carvings, basketry and woven dolls is open to artists from all over the Olympic Peninsula; non-Natives are welcome as well as Natives.
The art, most of which is for sale, will be displayed for at least three months, Bennett said, adding that most artists leave their work at the center for a year.
The newest batch of artifacts were brought back to Port Angeles last week.
All the others from the Tse-whit-zen site remain in storage at the Burke and have yet to be analyzed.
Pronounced “chwheet-son” and meaning “inner harbor” in Klallam, the village was occupied for at least 2,700 years.
It was rediscovered during work to build a dry dock for construction of concrete pontoons to repair the Hood Canal Bridge.
The discoveries of the remains of some 335 people ultimately led to the construction project being shut down at the request of the tribe in December 2004.
Tse-whit-zen has been called one of the largest and most significant archaeological sites in Washington state.
The Lower Elwha plan to bring in more artifacts occasionally, Bennett said.
Viewing the artifacts and artwork is free.
Artifacts can be viewed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. The Great Hall is closed on weekends.
The heritage center’s gift shop is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. It is closed Sundays.
For more information about the Lower Elwha and the heritage center, visit www.elwha.org or phone 360-417-8545.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
