NEAH BAY — Makah tribal members Wednesday blessed ground where they had fought Spanish explorers more than 300 years ago.
The ceremony took place on the site of the fort of Nu^pbez Gaona, which is soon to become the tribe’s Veterans Park.
Honorary Spanish Consul Luiz Fernando Esteban, Washington Lt. Gov. Brad Owen and Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson represented their governments.
At the end of Bay View Road, just as it turns toward the Makah Tribal Center, another road swings along the beach.
In the triangle formed by the juncture, a three-century-old struggle over territory had left bitterness between two peoples.
On May 29, 1792, Lt. Salvador Fidalgo (for whom Fidalgo Island is named) arrived on the frigate Princess.
He and his crew and soldiers built Fort Nu^pbez Gaona as a log stockade near the Makah village of Deah, later Neah Bay.
After four months of attacks led by Makah Chief Tetaku — and four Spanish ships sunk — the Europeans abandoned the settlement.
Healing ceremony
“That’s why we have to have a healing ceremony,” said Edward Claplanhoo, who donated the land for the park.
“It’s a dream of mine. I’ve been working hard on it for three or four years.
“It’s finally come to fruition. But good things always take longer.”
“It’s not a memorial,” he added. “That says somebody died. Everybody came home.”
Veterans Park will honor Makah who have served in all the military branches in all the wars of the United States.
Others attending Wednesday’s ceremony included Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles; Bob Buckingham and Garry Schalliol of the State Historical Society; Jerry Farmer, Coast Guard Station Commander; and the crew of the rescue tug Barbara Foss.
A ceremony of reconciliation followed in the Neah Bay Marina.
Antonio Sanchez, director of the Legislative Committee on Economic Development and of Owen’s International Relations Office, said that the importance of the settlement and the Makah role in it was not well understood.
Key Spanish outpost
The Spanish fort was a key non-native settlement.
Europeans — mistaking the Strait of Juan de Fuca for a Northwest Passage — believed the nation that held a foothold at Deah could control all shipping to the Atlantic.
Esteban said cultural and educational events at the Seattle Museum of Art and the Institute of Cervantes for Spanish Studies at the University of Washington had focused his interest upon the history of the Spanish in the Northwest.
The fort was occupied until it was discovered that there was no Northwest Passage.
Fidalgo received orders to abandon the settlement and return to the Spanish base at Nootka on Vancouver Island.
“This affected where the borders would be between the British and Spanish territories,” Esteban said.
“If we had moved to a base on the Columbia River instead, you might be in Canada.”
