EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series on the end of the Tse-whit-zen archaeological excavation on the Port Angeles waterfront. The first part, which appeared in Sunday’s editions, appears today at the bottom of this home page.
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PORT ANGELES — Surrounded by the bustling industrial activity of Port Angeles’ western waterfront, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members — usually about six at a time — spent more three months as archaeologists searching for the remnants of their past within the soil unearthed by construction of the graving yard six years ago.
In total, they sifted through the 12,000 cubic yards of dirt and rock from the beginning of July through last Friday in search of artifacts that were once part of the Klallam village known as Tse-whit-zen.
While that work has ended, some of those tribal members will remain on the site over the next few weeks cataloging the last of their finds.
The hills of soil and stone were left after the state Department of Transportation ended its plans about five years ago to use the 18-acre site on Marine Drive for a huge onshore dry dock to build replacement components for its floating bridges, particularly the one that spans Hood Canal.
More than a job
For the tribal workers, whether young or old, it was more than just a job.
It was an opportunity to reconnect with their own culture and history.
On the southeastern edge of the property on Thursday, three women sat at two tables in a small trailer, much like one that would be used as an office at a construction site.
Their job: Catalog the artifacts found that day, which they place in large zip-lock plastic bags.
With several of the recent finds laid out on the table in front of her — a bear tooth, a tooth from a sea lion and several stone wedges used to cut meat and cedar — Linda Wiechman marveled at the way her ancestors used the natural bounty that surrounded them for their own benefit.
“To me it’s astonishing,” she said.
“They just had a lot of tools that they used.”
But what impressed her the most was the “etched stones,” which make up a third of the artifacts found at the site.
2,000 artifacts
About 2,000 artifacts were found during the past three months.
A total of 64,793 artifacts — and 335 burials — were found during construction of the graving yard in 2003 and 2004.
Only found elsewhere on Vancouver Island and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, the palm-sized etched stones each tell a story through the various lines and symbols carved into them.
“To me I feel that our tribe had a written language,” Wiechman said.
When asked why she came to work at the site, the 51-year-old Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member responded by saying she was simply asked to help, not by her fellow tribal members but by her ancestors who are buried there.
“Our ancestors called us,” she said, referring to herself and the other tribal workers, adding that she can hear them sing to her while she is at the site.
“I’m their direct descendant. Why would they not want me here?”
Reports of tribal members hearing singing or drumming on the property also occurred when they were trying to move their ancestors’ burials out of the path of excavators when the graving yard was being built.
Delicate job
Laz Tinoco was one of the tribal members tasked with that delicate job.
“The burials were hard for me,” he said on Thursday as he recalled uncovering the skeleton of an infant in 2004.
“I spent 1 ½ weeks slowly uncovering the infant,” said Tinoco, 24.
“I started tearing up; it was too hard.
“It just got too hard for me, too emotional. They moved me elsewhere on the site.”
Tinoco’s last job at the site was to carefully watch an excavator load large rocks and industrial debris into a dump truck in case he found any artifacts that might have been missed. The dump truck took the rocks to a quarry near Deer Park Road, east of Port Angeles.
Like Wiechman, he also said that he thinks his ancestors wanted him to be there.
“My ancestors want me to learn [about my culture],” he said.
“We’re doing all that we can to help them out,” he later added.
“I think they feel good about everything.”
Other tribes
But its not only Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members who feel drawn to the site.
About 100 yards west of the trailer on Thursday, Norman Greene stood on the edge of a large pile of mostly palm-sized rocks, about 12 feet tall.
With a rake in hand, he pulled at the side of the mound.
As dozens of small rocks tumbled toward his feet, mimicking the sound of stones being pulled over one another into the ocean by a receding wave, the 51-year-old Makah tribal member searched for artifacts not caught by the mechanical sifter.
Sometimes he found stone tools or harpoon points, but that morning a couple handfuls of animal bones, discarded from a meal centuries ago, were all that would be recovered.
“Anything that drops, you’ll see it,” he said a moment before picking up a partial deer vertebrae.
He rolled it around in his palm, covered by a glove, several times before explaining why he took the job.
Greene said he came to work at Tse-whit-zen because he knows from his own personal experience as a teenager why recovering the Lower Elwha Klallam’s past is important for all Native Americans.
In the mid-1970s, he worked to recover artifacts from the Makah village, Ozette, when its ruins were discovered.
“It’s a good feeling inside [to be a part of this],” he said.
“It’s a great feeling inside your soul.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
