Members of Chehalis Tribe Protect a Sacred Burial Ground Story-Date: 09:00 p.m. PST Monday , February 9, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ Members of Chehalis Tribe Protect a Sacred Burial Ground By Allen Brewer, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Feb. 9--In 1855, when many Native American tribes ceded their lands to the federal government in return for certain promises and a ridiculous monetary pittance, the Lower Chehalis Tribe, situated primarily in the county of Grays Harbor, refused to sign away the rights to their land, approximately 1500 acres. The government agents, as part of a treaty agreement, wanted the tribe's people to relocate to a different area of the state. Not wanting to move away from their homeland, they refused to do so. The end result of this action, was the refusal of the federal government to recognize their status as a sovereign nation, thereby denying them any further access to government benefits. Somewhere along the way they lost every acre of their grounds. In the ultimate hypocrisy, a family of the Lower Chehalis Tribe, in 1861, homesteaded on 160 acres, in the area of their original land. In other words, they became new American settlers on their own traditional lands. The family expanded over time and the generations that followed buried their family members in a deliberately set aside area on their homestead grounds. In the years that followed, the homestead was reduced to 40 acres and then gradually whittled down from that and eventually, the land became the property of the Port Blakely Tree Farms. In the process of losing all, the tribal burial grounds, overgrown by nature's reclaiming hand, their little picket fence grave surrounds, often pushed over and aside, disappeared to the casual eye. In the process, many members of the tribal family disbursed, not unlike other conquered tribes, some of which ended up thousands of miles from their homelands. But a few remained and 50 of these Lower Chehalis tribal members can now be authenticated. These 50 have found, just in the nick of time, those sacred burial grounds of their ancestors, grounds that were about to be sold by the present landowners in 5 acre lots for homesites. In a further irony, Port Blakely Tree Farms, the title holders of record, have agreed to set aside one tenth of an acre, that part of the graveyard where 12 graves have been definitely identified, as the sole burial grounds, although the Lower Chehalis Tribe is certain there are at least another 200 tribal members buried in the same sacred grounds according to our oral tradition," according to Gilly Gorwin, a tribal spokesman. However, in a typical catch 22 situation, the company stipulates that even that mere one tenth of an acre will only be made available if the Lower Chehalis Tribe is officially recognized by a federal government treaty as a sovereign nation. A request, by letter, for a hearing was made by the tribe to the Secretary of the Interior, in November of 1997. To date, the federal government has not responded, in any way, to their most polite supplication. ----- Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1998, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------