PORT ANGELES — Gov. Christine Gregoire and Lower Elwha Klallam Chairwoman Frances Charles agreed Thursday on formal negotiations of all issues that separate the state and tribe over Tse-whit-zen and the former Hood Canal Bridge graving yard.
The talks will begin early in 2006.
In the meantime, the Lower Elwha agreed to support the state’s building of huge concrete anchors on the shoreward edge of the former graving yard site on the Port Angeles waterfront.
The state also will reimburse the tribe for more than $600,000 in wages paid to 108 of its members for archaeological work performed at Tse-whit-zen.
“The governor committed to Frances Charles to move forward as quickly as possible to clear up a past reimbursement issue,” said Tom Fitzsimmons, Gregoire’s chief of staff.
“Frances Charles committed to the governor to publicly support and allow the anchor construction on the site to move forward through the permitting process.”
Issues of the permitting process — such as preservation of historical items — will be among the first topics of the upcoming negotiations.
Also on the table in the discussions will be what will happen to 20,000 cubic yards of earth removed from Tse-whit-zen and trucked to the Shotwell Recycling Facility west of Port Angeles.
The tribe wants the earth returned to Tse-whit-zen and sifted for ancestral remains and funerary artifacts from the 2,700-year-old site.
