HomeMy WebLinkAbout071226 email - Re_ transfer of ownership of national refuges to the Jamestown S'klallam tribeALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
On Sun, Jul 12, 2026 at 4:11 PM Julie Jaman <jjamubi@gmail.com <mailto:jjamubi@gmail.com> > wrote:
7/9/26
RE: BOCC support for transfer of Dungeness Spit and Protection Island ownership
The Jamestown S'klallam Land Trust Act of 2026 to transfer ownership of refuges
is not an altruistic effort to right a wrong. Nor does it further implement that which
is already accomplished in the Boldt Decision securing for tribal members hunting
and gathering in the usual and accustomed places.
Rather, newly elected Representative Randall in declaring her advocacy for “honoring
tribal sovereignty and self-determination”, by proposing this asset transfer, a real estate deal,
will put refuge lands established in perpetuity for all into trust for a group of
people via the untrustworthy and notorious BIA.
Also, the tribe is requesting the DNR transfer 435 acres overlooking Sequim Bay to be put in
trust for their management. And Ron Allen has signed an MOU with Commerce Director Joe Nguyễn
giving the tribe direct access to money allocated by the legislature unlike the process other
local governments must go through.
The refuge transfer fits the Trump agenda. Tribal CEO Allen assures that all the protections
will remain and that visitors will be allowed. Where do usual, accustomed and ancestral traditions
fit into this promise? Should we imagine tribal canoes paddling to Protection Island to gather
feathers, eggs, seaweed and hunt seals?
We know the Trump administration is not agreement capable and the sovereign practices
of one group of people that Randall wants to honor with this deal can ebb and flow with
business cycles although tribes do have special privileges.
This transfer of ownership is a thing of politics and ideologies and it is divisive. It refutes
the result of years of committed stewardship and data collection by numerous volunteers
and non-profit organizations - people with ancestors. In fact their presence ground truthing
data led the federal government to designate these lands as refuges with protocols to
protect their unique and irreplaceable habitats. They form a complex, WA Maritime
National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and have been established in perpetuity
for all - the animals, the people, the place.
Why risk opening a Pandora's box of outcomes; the privatization and commercialization
of lands that we have agreed to protect going forward to the seventh generation? A
successful co-management system is in place that includes ongoing stewarding by
volunteer groups. What is broken? Or, que bono, who benefits?
We must cease our behavior as newcomers or invaders. We all have become natives
of this place, the home of Noquiklos who symbolizes humans’ relationship to nature,
this Salish Sea on Turtle Island. We all have spiritual and cultural roots to help inform
our actions; to use our growing knowledge to act intelligently for a liveable future.
Julie Jaman
Quimper Peninsula
Home of Noquiklos