HomeMy WebLinkAbout062526 email - Protection Island and the Dungeness National Wildlife RefugeALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Dear Commissioners,
As a semi-retired physician in Port Townsend, I write in support of the proposed transfer of Protection Island and the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge into federal trust for the Jamestown
S’Klallam Tribe — making permanent the stewardship the Tribe has already provided under its 2024 co-management agreement, while preserving the conservation purpose of these lands, continuing
public access, and prohibiting any gaming or commercial development.
Most of the objections seem to hinge upon the character of the Tribe. Can they be trusted?
In my experience, Salish tribes in general, and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in particular, are uncommonly generous members of our community.
Here are examples:
Suquamish Tribe
A friend taught at Suquamish Elementary in the 1990s. The school differed from most in one major respect. If a child was not doing well, support personnel worked with the child and family
to get them back on track — beginning with counseling and, if needed, extending to broader support for the family.
Pretty normal, you might say? Indians taking care of their own? Well, what do you say when you find out that the school provided these services to all the children and families it served,
no matter what color they were?
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
That’s secondhand information, but here’s firsthand appreciation we owe to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. They open the Jamestown Family Health Clinic in Sequim to tribal members and
non-tribal community members alike.
Having run my own clinic in Port Townsend for nearly 40 years — which was neither easy nor inexpensive — I appreciate good care when I see it. My patients who used the Jamestown Family
Health Clinic uniformly described caregivers as kind and competent, and physician colleagues who worked there attested to its high standards. The clinic is a gift to the North Olympic
Peninsula — as is the Jamestown Healing Clinic, dedicated to family-oriented substance abuse treatment. As is their way, both clinics care for all, regardless of ethnicity or skin color.
Public Lands and Recreation
The Tribe also shares its land and amenities with the general public, including:
• Railroad Bridge Park — a trail-and-wildlife corridor along the Dungeness River, open to all
• The Cedars at Dungeness — a public 18-hole golf course
The point I want to put on public record is that the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe sets an example we should follow rather than obstruct.
It does not take much time on the internet to discover the surprising degree to which the Salish peoples contribute to our greater community.
Please, let us welcome their help with our common work as stewards of this precious land.
Douwe Rienstra, M.D.