PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

A NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE REGAINS PART OF ITS ANCESTRAL HOME THROUGH THE COOPERATIVE EFFORTS OF THE NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE COMMUNITY.

On August 12, 2004, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to return one acre of land called Old Man House Park in the Port Madison Reservation—located across Puget Sound from Seattle—to descendants of the land’s original inhabitants, members of the Suquamish tribe. Among the hundreds of witnesses to this historic event were tribal and non-native residents of the town of Suquamish who banded together in a group called Suquamish Olalla Neighbors (SON). (Olalla means “where fresh and salt water meet and blend.”) The organization’s purpose is to help people from two cultures overcome prejudices and improve community relations.

“This is the first time the state of Washington has given a park to a tribe,” says Rob Purser, former Suquamish Tribal Council treasurer and current director of fisheries.

Native peoples have lived along Puget Sound for thousands of years. The park, named for Old Man House—the region’s largest native longhouse—lies in the center of what was the Suquamish people’s mother village. An 1855 treaty gave the Suquamish the right to 8,000 acres including Old Man House, but a government Indian agent burned the longhouse in 1870. Then in 1904, the U.S. military took 70 acres, including Old Man House village, to build strategic fortifications. The fort never materialized, however, and the land was sold to developers in 1937. Interested in preserving a bit of history, the Washington Parks and Recreation Department bought one acre in 1950; that small parcel became Old Man House Park.

“This place has special meaning and tribal and historical significance to the Suquamish people,” says Ted George, a Suquamish and S’Klallam tribal elder and honorary co-chair of SON. Adds Purser, “When you place this back historically, it was our capital that was taken.”