PORT ANGELES — The city and port of Port Angeles, Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and state of Washington are expected to settle the future of the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard on Monday, the Peninsula Daily News has learned.
While details of the agreement remain under cover, Gov. Chris Gregoire is scheduled to visit Port Angeles for a ceremonial signing of the pact Monday afternoon.
The Lower Elwha Tribal Council will meet Monday morning to consider ratifying the settlement.
Port Angeles City Council members plan a closed meeting at 1 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., for the same purpose.
The ceremony involving Gregoire will begin an hour later in the Vern Burton Community Center that is adjacent to City Hall.
Could affect waterfront
If approved, the agreement will settle issues that arose after graving yard excavators dug their way into the ancient Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen and its tribal cemetery in August 2003.
The pact will determine the future of the 22.5-acre site near the crook of Ediz Hook.
It is also expected to frame the outlook for developing the rest of the Port Angeles waterfront, excluding the old Rayonier pulp mill site.
Part of the Rayonier site includes Y’Innis, another Klallam village.
City officials have expressed concern that other Native American burials could stymie waterfront development.
According to sources, the pact is expected to:
* Divide the former graving yard among the tribe and other government entities, probably the state and the port.
* Return the Tse-whit-zen cemetery that follows a 19th century tide line to its pre-industrial condition.
* Provide a site for a possible cultural center, curation facility and museum for artifacts removed from Tse-whit-zen and now stored for the tribe at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
Talks began in December
Gregoire initiated the formal negotiations last December in a personal call to Lower Elwha chairwoman Frances Charles following months of fruitless informal talks.
Throughout most of the discussions that started late in March, mediator John Bickerman of Washington, D.C., kept secrecy tight.
However, word of an agreement began to leak last week from several sources as the port assembled information and the Port Angeles City Council met repeatedly in executive sessions.
Larry G. Williams, deputy mayor of Port Angeles, said Saturday he couldn’t reveal the substance of the agreement.
However, other sources close to the negotiations said settlement was “close to rubber stamping at this point.”
Even the normally tight-lipped Bickerman said:
“It looks promising. I think all the parties worked very hard, and I’m delighted that it is working out.”
Monday’s settlement is expected to arrange disposition for 20,000 cubic yards of earth that was dug up early in construction and trucked to the Fields Shotwell Recycling Facility west of Port Angeles.
The tribe a year ago sued the state for their return. The dirt may contain artifacts and skeletal remains.
The pact also is expected to cancel the state’s counterclaims against the Lower Elwha that allege the tribe was at fault for the graving yard fiasco.
