Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe

The Jamestown Klallam Tribe has evolved directly and without a break from several constituent communities of the S’Klallam Tribe. The S’Klallam Tribe (meaning “strong people”), as a Salish cultural and linguistic group, were related to the Sook and other tribes of British Columbia, but also to most of the tribes of the Puget Sound area. The Klallam Tribe was a clearly defined social and cultural unit, whose component villages were closely linked by intermarriage and other cooperative social ties. This tribe, first contacted in 1790, was signatory to the Point No Point Treaty with the US in 1855. Jamestown received services and was dealt with by the Federal government as a distinct community by other Klallam groups and other Washington Indians. In the 1970’s, the mood of the Jamestown Tribal membership changed as it saw that fishing and hunting rights were denied them due to the lack of federal recognition. Because of overall economic conditions, the membership also became aware of the difficulty in providing for health and educational care. The Tribe soon realized that only through Federal recognition would they be able to provide for these basic needs. This effort began around 1974 and was established after a long struggle on February 10, 1981. It also remained distinct from other Klallams as well as from non-Indians despite its character as a “progressive” Indian community whose members sought education and aggressively integrated into the non-Indian community and its economy. A major factor in the stability and continuity of the Tribe was the land base purchased when it was formed in 1874. This land provided the economic foundation for a prosperous Indian community and a geographical center for the group is still owned by the community members today. In 1981, the Tribe began operations with a full-time staff of two individuals and only two grant-funded programs. Since 1988, the Tribe has been involved in a national Self-Governance Demonstration Project which allows the Tribe more autonomy and control over Bureau of Indian Affairs funding. The Project has resulted in the Tribe being able to provide more Tribally-specific programs, services, and activities to better meet the needs of the membership and helps to maintain the government-to-government relation between the Tribe and the United States.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal community is located on the northern Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, approximately 70 miles northwest of the city of Seattle.
The Peninsula is a distinct and somewhat isolated geographic region, as it is separated from the Seattle urban area by two bodies of water, one of which must be crossed by ferry. Two counties comprise the bulk of the Olympic Peninsula land area, Clallam County and Jefferson County. The Peninsula is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north, and on the east by Hood Canal. A large part of the two counties is densely timbered wilderness or undeveloped area, and is characterized by rugged mountains, steep slopes and rain forests.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe was formalized by members of S’Klallam communities along the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1874 when, faced with the threat of forced relocation by white settlers, a group purchased a tract of 210 acres (0.85 km2) and established a community near Dungeness named “Jamestown” in honor of village leader James Balch. This was a notable feat, since at the time Native people were legally barred from buying property. Despite periodic pressures to relocate to reservations, and without the Federal financial assistance that such relocation would have enabled, the Jamestown band maintained its independent community, and developed a viable economic base.

A century later, after a six-year effort to receive official recognition as a tribe, the United States Department of the Interior granted them such recognition on February 10, 1981. The Jamestown S’Klallam Indian Reservation, at 48°01′39″N 122°59′57″W, is very small in area, comprising 0.145 km (13.49 acres) of land area on and near Sequim Bay along U.S. Route 101 in the community of Blyn, in extreme eastern Clallam County at the southwest corner of the Miller Peninsula.

The S’Klallam language (called Clallam or Klallam) belongs to the Salishan family of Native American languages. The word S’Klallam means “the strong people.”

The reservation is the location of the tribal government administration, not a residential area. It includes the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center (location of the tribe’s administration, natural resources, social and community services departments as well as the Tribal Library and Jamestown Family Dental Clinic), the Tribe’s Seven Cedars Casino, and the Longhouse Market, Deli and Fueling Station.

In addition to the small parcel of reservation land, the Tribe also owns more than 1,000 acres of land in Clallam and Jefferson Counties. That land includes Railroad Bridge Park and The Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course in Sequim, and Tamanowas Rock, a sacred S’Klallam site in Chimacum.

The community is governed by a democratically-elected tribal council. The Tribe is governed by the five-member Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Council. Council members are elected on a staggered basis by the registered adult tribal members for two-year terms. The council acts in accordance with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Constitution. As of 2012, the tribe had 594 enrolled citizens, and provided services to almost 640 Indians in the northeast Olympic Peninsula.

City: Sequim, population 3,277. Elevation 290.
County: Clallam, population 53,400; Native American, 2,695, 58% of nonwhite population, 4% of total. 1,752 square miles (Juan de Fuca and Pacific Coast).
Clallam County’s assessed value averages $1,554 per acre.
Rainfall (data for Port Angeles) 24.6 (actual rain probably a few inches less), temperatures 45-72. Annual precipitation varies widely on the Peninsula, with over 100 inches in the west end, and only 17 inches in the Sequim area.
Principal industries: wood products, agriculture, tourism.
Tribal Property: Reservation 13.5 Acres
Trust 103.0 Acres
Fee 933.0 Acres
Total: 1049.5 Acres