OLYMPIA — North Olympic Peninsula legislators discussed offering 300 acres of state-owned land to the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe on March 28 if the tribe agreed to reopen the former Hood Canal Bridge graving yard in Port Angeles.
The tribe rejected the idea and declined to allow restarting the project on 22.5 acres that overlie the ancestral Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen.
A source close to participants at the meeting more than a week ago said it was not a formal offer but a point for discussion.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the tribe considered the informal offer to be an “insult” and an attempt at “bribery.”
The 300 acres of second-growth timber on Department of Natural Resources land lie southwest of the Lower Elwha Reservation on both sides of Place Road.
That they were a bargaining chip in the March 28 discussion was supposed to remain secret but was leaked to Kiewit General Construction Co., the Poulsbo-based contractor for the Hood Canal Bridge improvement project — including the graving yard.
Secret meeting
The meeting itself was to be kept confidential.
It included state Sen. Jim Hargrove and state Reps. Lynn Kessler of Hoquiam, Jim Buck of Joyce and John McCoy of Marysville, who also serves as a liaison between the Legislature and Washington tribes.
McCoy declined to discuss the meeting.
Buck said, “The agreement was that we weren’t going to talk about it.”
Hargrove said Tuesday he learned of the land offer only after the meeting had been called.
He defended the secrecy of the meeting, saying: “If we can’t have some discussions in confidence, we’re never going to get off the dime on this.”
Hargrove added that the 24th District lawmakers — who represent Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County — were doing their best to resolve issues involving the Port Angeles waterfront.
Kessler did not return phone calls to PDN, although she said last week that Buck had broached the land offer in a letter to the tribe.
Tribal Chairwoman Frances G. Charles declined to discuss it beyond affirming that the Lower Elwha remain opposed to excavating a site where hundreds of burials have been found and perhaps thousands more remain.
The sanctity of Tse-whit-zen, she said, was not negotiable.
Resources land
Left unanswered was how the legislators could leverage land owned by the Department of Natural Resources.
Mike Cronin, North Olympic Peninsula land manager for DNR, was on leave and unavailable to comment. An assistant said he knew nothing about the issue.
Tribal leaders have been steadfast in their opposition to continued excavation on the site. It was closed Dec. 23 after excavators continued to find burials and artifacts, some of which date back 2,700 years.
The remains of 300 people await reburial on consecrated land that the tribe still seeks. They currently repose in handcrafted cedar boxes.
In addition, 700 “isolates,” or partial remains, were found, and archaeologists have yet to sift through 30,000 cubic yards of earth that were excavated and piled at the former graving yard site on Marine Drive.
$58.8 million spent
The state Department of Transportation spent $58.8 million on the former graving yard, where Kiewit General was to build giant concrete pontoons and anchors for the east end of the floating bridge.
The state now is studying alternate sites in Everett, on Mats Mats Bay in Jefferson County, and in Tacoma and Seattle.
Port Angeles city and civic leaders have called on the tribe to reverse its stand. However, Transportation officials, Gov. Christine Gregoire, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, and U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, and Patty Murray, D-Shoreline, say they have accepted the Lower Elwha decision.
Originally a partner in the archaeological exploration, the tribe in December urged that the project cease.
The Lower Elwha said unearthing the burials distressed both young tribal members who helped recover them and tribal elders who recalled repeated desecrations of the site by industrial developments.
Meanwhile, the Port of Port Angeles awaits word on its 17-acre site east of Tse-whit-zen. Transportation officials have said they would like to build the concrete anchors there, then barge them to Hood Canal.
Future of graving site
The question of what will be done with the original site remains open.
Tim Thompson, the negotiator the Transportation Department hired to try to resolve what will happen to the abandoned graving yard, continues to discuss its fate with other state and federal agencies.
Earlier this year, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians passed a resolution proposed by the Lower Elwha for the future of the Tse-whit-zen site.
The resolution urged the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service and the Advisory Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help the Lower Elwha develop the site and curate the artifacts.