- Details
- By Native News Online Staff
The Squaxin Island Tribe of western Washington state, along the southernmost inlets of the Salish Sea, have received lands back from private owners, a forestry company called Port Blakely Companies.
The company returned 2 miles of waterfront and 125 acres of the tribe’s ancestral tidelands on Little Skookum Inlet at no cost. Separately, Port Blakely Companies also sold 875 acres of upland forest back to its original stewards for an undisclosed amount.
Want more Native News? Get the free daily newsletter today.
At the time of publication, Chairman Kris Peters had not responded to Native News Online’s request for comment, but told The Seattle Times that the tribe has no plans to develop the waterfront property.
Squaxin tribal members are descendants of the maritime people who lived along the shores and watersheds of the seven southernmost inlets of Puget Sound for many thousands of years, their website reads. “Our culture is still very much connected to this aquatic environment.”
The forested property the tribe re-acquired this week was part of the land they stewarde before the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854, when they ceded 4,000 square miles, or 2,560,000 acres, to the United States government.
Help us tell Native stories that get overlooked by other media.
“It is hard to put into words what it feels like to have back land that the tribe never regarded as theirs, or anyone’s, but rather a gift to steward on behalf of future generations,” Peters told The Seattle Times. “I can’t wait to drum, and sing, and dance out on those beaches, just like our people did hundreds, and thousands of years ago.”
More Stories Like This
Boarding School Experience Caused One Woman to Question GodOhio History Organization Seeks to Establish Intertribal Cemetery to Bury Thousands of Native Ancestors
Photos from "The Road to Healing" Tour in Minnesota
US Army to Return 5 Native Ancestors to Their Descendants This Fall
‘Road to Healing’ Will Visit Boarding School Survivors in Minnesota on June 3
Native News is free to read.
We hope you enjoyed the story you've just read. For the past dozen years, we’ve covered the most important news stories that are usually overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools.
Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. That’s why we’re asking you to make a donation to help support our efforts. Any contribution — big or small — helps. Most readers donate between $10 and $25 to help us cover the costs of salaries, travel and maintaining our digital platforms. If you’re in a position to do so, we ask you to consider making a recurring donation of $12 per month to join the Founder's Circle. All donations help us remain a force for change in Indian Country and tell the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked.
Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.
