It may be July before the second 64-car ferry planned for the Port Townsend-Keystone route is named.
The naming has been delayed while the state Transportation Commission develops a process for naming future vessels for Washington State Ferries and the Department of Transportation.
“I think they’re shooting to have a name no later than in July,” said Reema Griffiths, Transportation Commission administrator.
The Transportation Commission will discuss the ferry-naming process on Wednesday in Olympia, Griffiths said.
That puts a damper on hopes on the Coupeville side of the Port Townsend-Keystone route that the second ferry would be named to honor a key figure in Swinomish tribal history – Squi qui.
“Nobody knows how many names there are in the name competition, and where they are and who submitted them,” said Gordon Grant, education and program director at Island County Historical Society, which along with Swinomish tribal leaders in LaConner came up with the name, pronounced Sk-why k-why.
Naming the ferry Squi qui would be a true honor to the LaConner-based tribe, its culture and history, said Theresa Trebon, records manager and tribal archivist for the Swinomish tribe.
The Swinomish tribal Senate passed a resolution Nov. 10 to submit Squi qui’s name to the Transportation Commission.
The first 64-car ferry — which is expected to be launched this summer — was named Chetzemoka for a Klallam chief. The transportation commission’s approval in October was supported by the Jefferson County Historical Society and others.
That ferry is now under construction at Todd Pacific Shipyard in Seattle.
Chetzemoka was buried in 1888 at Laurel Grove Cemetery in Port Townsend.
Port Townsend’s Chetzemoka Park overlooking Admiralty Inlet and the ferry route to Whidbey Island, was dedicated in his name in 1904.
The second 64-car ferry is expected to be launched on the Port Townsend-Keystone route in late 2011.
The two ferries will replace the 50-car Steilacoom II, which the state leased from Pierce County for the Port Townsend-Keystone route.
Squi qui lived from about 1816 to1874, a time of tremendous upheaval in the Indian world. His village, a frequent site for Indian gatherings in the Salish Sea region, was on the north shore of Penn Cove, just across from present-day Coupeville and not far from Keystone Landing.
Squi qui frequently crossed Admiralty Inlet by canoe, the same route the new ferries will travel.
Considered one of the most influential leaders of his people, he joined others in signing the Point Elliott Treaty on Jan. 22, 1855, where his name was recorded as S’kwai-kwi. The treaty took vast amounts of the Lower Skagit tribe’s territory.
Squi qui was buried on Whidbey Island, outside of Coupeville.
Along with the Swinomish tribe, the Coupeville Town Council, Coupeville Chamber of Commerce and the historical society all support naming the second ferry for Squi qui.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
