SEATTLE — The Upper Skagit Tribe is one step closer to taking back ownership of artifacts that belonged to its ancestors centuries ago.
An ordinance allowing Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and City Light CEO and General Manager Debra Smith to give the roughly 270 objects back to the tribe was passed unanimously through the Economic Development, Technology and City Light Committee on Wednesday.
In a presentation before the committee, City Light Natural Resources Director Chris Townsend explained the artifacts were uncovered in 2013 when the city was renovating the Gorge Inn in Newhalem.
The inn served as a dining hall for those that built the hydroelectric complex on the Skagit River and continues to serve those that live there working in City Light facilities and any researchers visiting the complex.
Townsend said that the artifacts were identified as belonging to Upper Skagit Tribe members, who were living in a permanent settlement where the town of Newhalem sits now, through extensive ethnological research.
Townsend described most of the artifacts that were found as “rock chips” and “material that’s been worked” but added that there were substantial pieces like a large stone club.
“That is the artifact that would be most associated with a permanent village rather than a camp or other historical activity,” Townsend said.
The artifacts are being held in a curation facility in Marblemount that is run by the National Park Service, which is where Townsend expects them to stay even after the Upper Skagit Tribe takes ownership.
Townsend said City Light pays up to $25,000 a year for the curation of artifacts at the Marblemount facility, and these pieces will now be a part of that arrangement. If the Upper Skagit Tribe chooses to do so in the future, it will be able to move the artifacts to another approved curation facility, its headquarters or another location.
The ordinance will now move to the City Council for a final vote on Tuesday, March 15, with the committee’s recommendation that it pass.