Suquamish Foundation Announces Date for Time to Gather

Please join us at the beautiful Kiana Lodge on Agate Passage for a springtime evening rich with friendship, fun, great food, music and entertainment and our exciting, signature auction event on Friday, March 30, 2018. Our auction features original traditional and contemporary Native art as well as our unique cultural experience items such as a local archaeology tour, an indigenous food cooking class or a canoe voyage around Agate Passage.

Our inspiration this year is the Blue Jay Saves the Sun. This Suquamish story signifies the audacity, altruism and courage of an individual whose passion is to cultivate and benefit the place and people of his beloved home. To dedicate, with heartfelt determination, and even an element of playfulness, the will to surmount all obstacles to bring light and prosperity to the home and community that you revere and love.

It is in this spirit that we joyfully focus our fund-raising efforts this year on the building of a community playground and cultural park based on Suquamish stories and legends in the Suquamish Shores area. As this land is being returned to Suquamish ownership this Spring, it is our commitment to transform it into a place that reflects the health, beauty, traditions and community spirit of our treasured homeland.  A place for families that can enrich everyone.

Thanks to the generosity of those who participated in our annual event in the past and are involved this year, we are able to continue to strengthen the cultural resurgence of the Suquamish Tribal community as well as the friendships of our fellow non-profits, neighbors, and visitors. We will journey into the future by honoring the past and we guarantee a payback of a brighter future to share.

The Suquamish Foundation is the non-profit arm of the Suquamish Tribe, created in 2005, and dedicated to supporting the culture, education, environment, health and vitality of the Tribal community and its’ neighbors.  We completed the inspiring Building for Cultural Resurgence capital campaign that built our Suquamish Museum, Community House, Early Learning Center, Veteran’s Memorial, Health and Fitness Center, Community Ball Field and Community Dock. And we award over $300,000 annually to schools and non-profit organizations that serve Kitsap County.

To purchase tickets to our annual fundraising event, visit the foundation online by clicking here or contact Margeaux Lewis at mrlewis@suquamish.nsn.us or by phone at (360)394-8453. Tickets go on sale by February 1, 2018.

New Vendor Friendly Area to Replace Aging Building Along Suquamish Waterfront

The building, often referred to as the “Barnacle Building” will be demolished in late January, 2018.

Demolition of the waterfront building located at 18408 Angeline Avenue in Downtown Suquamish will begin later this month. Work to raze the aging structure, formerly home to Scratch Kitchen and Bella Luna restaurants, is scheduled to start on January 22, 2018 and is expected to take a week to complete. Port Madison Enterprises (PME) owns the property, and made the tough decision to remove the building after an assessment last year.

The side of the building faces a steep cliff on the waterfront in Downtown Suquamish. Though the building will be torn down, PME is taking steps to ensure the unique tree near the entrance remains on the property.

“The building’s location on the cliff, its’ age and condition were all factors in the decision. We just aren’t able to salvage the structure,” said PME Board of Directors Member Windy Anderson.

After demolition, PME plans to create a covered, open space area on the property to be used for multiple vendors, including those selling food items.

“Hopefully we will be able to utilize the space to provide the community with multiple food choices by late summer,” added Anderson.

Though the building is slated for demolition, the Suquamish Tribe Archaeology and Historic Preservation Program has been tasked with ensuring the history of the property is recorded. During the last 50 years, it’s been a restaurant, a coffee cantina, a head shop, an art studio, an apartment complex and a private residence. Property records indicate the building was constructed in 1948 and originally used as a hotel for travelers. However, there is some debate about whether the building was built on the property, or ferried over by barge from Seattle, WA.

An aerial photograph of the Suquamish Waterfront cir. 1930, detailing the location of the old Suquamish Ferry Dock and Ticket Booth, shows the undeveloped property where the building would later be located. Courtesy of the Suquamish Museum archives.

A photo of the Downtown Suquamish waterfront estimated to be taken in the 1950s’, where the building can be viewed next to the old Suquamish Ferry Dock.

“Unfortunately, this is an era where we don’t have a lot of information in our archives for those properties. During the early decades of the 1900s the federal government aggressively implemented assimilation policies, including land allotment policies that allowed reservation property to be sold out of Tribal member ownership.  BIA Agents used discriminatory regulations that declared Tribal Members non-competent giving them the access to sell lands, mostly large waterfront parcels like downtown Suquamish,” said Traditional Heritage Specialist Marilyn Jones.

An old advertisement that appeared in the Seattle Star, offering cheap land on the Port Madison Indian Reservation. For more information on the Allotment & Assimilation Era click here. For more information on the early 20th century history of the town of Suquamish click here.

Jones is seeking additional information about the building from the community and encourages the public to submit any photos or stories about the property to her office by contacting her at mjones@suquamish.nsn.us

PME’s purchase of the property, and several others in the downtown Suquamish area over the last decade, is part of the Suquamish Tribe’s “Buy Back the Reservation” initiative. With help from a combination of funds, including profits from Tribally-owned businesses, the Suquamish Tribe has been able to purchase individual properties back from private owners.

In 2015, the Reservation Buy Back Initiative reached a new milestone when the Tribe negotiated the purchase of a 220-acre parcel of land at the headwaters of Cowling Creek. The acquisition, coupled with properties owned by the Tribal Government and those owned by individual Tribal members, meant that the Suquamish owned more than half the properties within reservation boundaries for the first time in more than half a century. The Suquamish Tribal Government continues to make the initiative a priority and sets aside funds for purchases when available each year.

Holiday Tree Lighting

What brings us together as a community?  Sharing the fun and festivities of the holidays?  Sharing our love of children and family?  Sharing our love of traditions? Sharing a reason to celebrate hope and joy with music?

All these things merged and created a beautiful sense of community in the first Suquamish Community Holiday Tree Lighting on December 7th at the House of Awakened Culture as over 400 community attendees celebrated the start of the Christmas season together.  The Suquamish Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Suquamish Tribe, hosted the event as a way to thank the community for its generosity and build a new tradition we can share as a community. The beautifully decorated House had over 1,000 sparkling lights that joined with the clear winter night’s sky full of stars.  Indoors, there was a hot coffee bar with cookies, candy canes and marshmallows for everyone.  A Christmas concert was presented by the Kids in Concert, an organization that includes and trains children of all ages that want to learn to play an instrument in a performing orchestra.  Outdoors, the brightly lit Argosy Cruise Christmas Ship kept a date to come close to the shore to serenade us with carols from the water.  At the same time, Suquamish Tribal Chairman, Leonard Forsman, led the countdown to lighting up the tall cedar trees outside the House of Awakened Culture.  A wonderful cheer rose up from the delighted crowd surrounding the luminous trees and viewing the waterfront reflections. 

One of the community attendees made a most memorable remark.  She said when the tree was lit and the cheer went up, she turned around and looked at the shining, laughing faces of all the children there with their families and she realized that this was the beginning of a new tradition that these children would remember all their lives and return to with their own children year after year.

In the faces of these children, we could see that they did believe, unwaveringly, in hope and joy.  And beyond that, that they also believe in us, their families, their community, to continue to share our commitment to each other to help, protect and celebrate the health and vibrancy of this precious place we call home.

Suquamish Tribe Responds to DOJ’s Memorandum Regarding Marijuana Enforcement

SUQUAMISH, WA, January 4, 2018- The Suquamish Tribe has enjoyed a productive working relationship with the State of Washington and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in our efforts to address the unique challenges faced by Indian Tribes in states that have legalized marijuana for medical, recreational or agricultural uses. After Washington State legalized recreational marijuana, the Suquamish Tribe was forced to address the issue of marijuana regulation in its Indian Country. The tribal-state system we use today was developed over years of cooperative government-to-government work with DOJ, state initiative and legislation, carefully negotiated State-Tribal Compacts and six DOJ guidance memoranda. Despite the existence of this effective and well regulated system, DOJ today elected to rescind all six guidance memoranda without consultation.

“State and Tribal laws were created and crafted in response to the challenges marijuana presented to our communities. We agree with Governor Inslee that the Washington State system addresses these problems in a manner that is well regulated, keeps out criminals, protects it from falling into the hands of children, cracks down on driving under the influence, and carefully tracks production to prevent cross-border transfer,” said Suquamish Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman.  “The Suquamish Tribe will continue to work closely with Washington State to best protect our people far into the future,” added Forsman.

“This is not only about the marijuana industry, it is about sovereignty, voters rights and access to safe marijuana that since becoming legal has resulted in the creation of good paying jobs and much-needed Tribal tax revenue that allows us to buy our lands back and invest in community development,” said Suquamish Tribal Treasurer Robin Sigo.

About Suquamish Tribe
Suquamish is a federally recognized sovereign Tribe. The village of Suquamish and seat of the Suquamish Tribal Government are located on the Port Madison Indian Reservation, along the shores of the Puget Sound near Seattle, WA. The Suquamish Tribe provides comprehensive government, economic and social programs to approximately 1,100 tribal members. In the last two decades, the Suquamish Tribe has become a key economic partner in the region, operating several Port Madison Enterprises business ventures, a growing seafood company and performing property management duties for lease land on the reservation.