PORT ANGELES –Numerous graves belonging to Klallam tribal members were desecrated in the early 1900s at the site of the graving yard, state and city officials revealed Wednesday.
“It appears that many human remains were consequently used as backfill in excavations and pipe trenches” when a mill was constructed on the site in about 1915, the officials said.
The revelation came as the local officials said again that they want to help on negotiations to resume construction work at the graving yard, a huge on-shore dry dock where components for refurbishing the Hood Canal Bridge will be built.
State, federal and tribal officials have been negotiating — so far unsuccessfully — on how to handle recovery, and subsequent reburial, of Klallam remains and artifacts found at the site so that construction can resume.
The shutdown is costing the state $30,000 a day.
The officials also asked the community for understanding, patience and respect for Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials who are trying to protect the ancestral remains and relics that have been found at the site, once the site of a Klallam village called Tse-whit-zen.
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The rest of the story appears in the Thursday Peninsula Daily News.
