PORT ANGELES — About 200 people celebrated the 101st birthday of the Lower Elwha Kallam tribe’s oldest elder over the weekend.
Hazel Sampson’s birthday won’t be until Thursday, but Lola Moses and Samson’s great-grandson, Steve Robideau, put together a party for her at the tribal center west of Port Angeles on Saturday.
“You all come back next year, I’ll be here,” Sampson told the crowd, who gathered for a feast including three cakes to honor her.
Sampson is not only the oldest Lower Elwha elder but also the oldest member of the other two Klallam tribal bands on the Peninsula — Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam — and the one Klallam tribe in Beecher Bay, B.C.
“She had a wonderful time,” Moses said, adding that Sampson stayed for three hours of the party.
“She stayed longer than we had anticipated she would be able to stay.”
Sampson’s great-great-great granddaughter, Kelly Robideau, read a statement Sampson had given her telling the story of the elder’s life, Moses said.
Sampson is the daughter of the man who started the first Shaker Church on the North Olympic Peninsula, Sampson’s granddaughter, Diane Turrey, said last year when Sampson celebrated her 100th birthday.
William Hall opened the first Shaker Church on the Peninsula about 1910 in the Dungeness-Jamestown area, Turrey said.
Sampson, who was born in Jamestown, also is the granddaughter of the founder of Jamestown, who was known as Lord James Balch, for whom Jamestown was named.
Sampson and her husband, Edward C. Sampson Sr., moved west of Port Angeles in 1934 and were one of the original 13 families to own land dedicated to the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, Turrey said.
Sampson continues to live alone in her own home on the Lower Elwha reservation, Moses said.
“She’s very independent,” Moses said.
“She’s an amazing woman. Very strong.”
