The smell of cedar and the buzz of an electric saw can be heard throughout the day — and often into the night — on the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation.
Two men are making cedar burial boxes for human remains that have been uncovered by archeologists and tribal workers after decades, perhaps centuries, in graves alongside Port Angeles Harbor.
The former Klallam village known as Tse-whit-zen is now the state Department of Transportation’s site to build a huge onshore dry dock for manufacturing replacement components for the Hood Canal Bridge.
But for the Lower Elwha Klallam, the discovery of hundreds of remains of Tse-whit-zen’s residents in the past year is sobering.
Lower Elwha tribal member Darrell Charles Jr. and Clark Mundy, a volunteer and close friend of the tribe, have made nearly 300 cedar boxes of varying sizes to hold skeletal remains.
“It is important that the ancestors have a proper burial box to me,” said Charles, 28.
“It has sometimes been difficult to do, but when I think of the alternative — putting the remains in plastic bags or just stacking — I know it is important to continue to work.”
Undisclosed location
When Charles and Mundy, 53, agreed to make cedar boxes about the time human remains were first uncovered at the site in August 2003 they had no idea of the number.
The boxes containing remains are being stored at an undisclosed, secure location until tribal officials can purchase reburial lands.
