PORT ANGELES — Services for Lower Elwha Klallam elder Adeline E. Smith will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Neah Bay Cemetery.
Smith, 95, died of heart failure Tuesday morning in Puyallup.
She was born March 13, 1918, in Port Angeles, a member of the Lower Elwah Klallam tribe, and lived in Port Angeles for most of her life.
She will be buried next to her husband, Roy, in the Neah Bay Cemetery on state Highway 112 in Neah Bay.
She was one of the last two tribal members who spoke the Klallam language as their first language and was instrumental in the development of a Klallam language dictionary.
Smith grew up watching the decline in salmon runs on the Elwha River and the disappearance of the historic Tse-whit-zen village and burial site on the Port Angeles Harbor waterfront, and its preservation after a state dry-dock construction project to build floating-bridge pontoons was halted.
She celebrated the removal of the two dams on the Elwha River with tribal members and witnessed the reemergence of the tribe’s ceremonial creation site that had been hidden under Lake Aldwell.
Drennan-Ford Funeral Home in Port Angeles is in charge of arrangements.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
