The city of Bainbridge Island and the Suquamish Indian Tribe signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2004 outlining a cooperative governmental relationship between the two entities. In recent years, that agreement has been largely forgotten. But at a Bainbridge Island City Council study session on Tuesday, both the city and the tribe expressed interest in dusting off the MOU, updating it for current needs, and reinvigorating the relationship between the two governmental bodies.
The existing MOU states that it aims to “better achieve mutual goals through an improved relationship between sovereign Tribal government and local city government.” The MOU “provides a framework for strengthening the government-to-government relationship that exists today. … This MOU intends to implement a forum in which to discuss, review, and recommend procedures to strengthen the government-to-government relationship … [and] also provides a foundation for subsequent agreements between the governments of a more specific nature which outline specific tasks to address or resolve specific issues.”
Before delving into the matter of the MOU, Leonard Forsman, chair of the Suquamish Tribe, prefaced his comments by reflecting on the tribe's history in the area.
The tribe, he said, lived on the Kitsap Peninsula for thousands of years and made first contact in 1792 with George Vancouver, an officer of the British Royal Navy, at Bainbridge Island's Restoration Point.
“Of course, we were primarily fishermen and clam diggers and hunters and gatherers and basketmakers and house-builders, and relied on salmon for our primary source of food,” Forsman said, noting that the tribe didn’t have access to a major river and so had to travel far via canoe to gather enough food to last through winter, when the tribe would hold “our big winter ceremonials.”
“We had a number of winter houses around the Kitsap Peninsula and Bainbridge Island, including one at Fletcher Bay and other places up on Port Madison and other places on the island,” he said.
Chief Kitsap sighting the ships of the first Europeans in the Northwest, part of the pedestal of the bronze statue of Chief Seattle at Tilikum Place in Seattle. The statue was sculpted by local sculptor James Wehn and unveiled November 13, 1912. (Photo by Joe Mabel and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License).
One important aspect of the tribe’s work, he said, is working with local governments. The treaty forms the basis of the tribe’s government-to-government relationship with the federal government, he said, noting that the U.S. Constitution calls treaties “the supreme Law of the Land.”
“When we work with local governments — the city, county, state — we really try to mirror that government-to-government relationship,” he said. “The MOU is an effort for us to maintain that government-to-government relationship in a more formal manner.”
When the MOU was first created, the tribe and city met fairly regularly on such topics as shorelines, salmon streams, the Growth Management Act’s impacts on local ecosystems, cultural issues, and transportation, he said. The meetings are “an opportunity for us to meet and kind of share some of the issues that we both have,” he said.
Although the MOU may need some updating, Forsman said, “I think the bones of the MOU are still relevant, and we’re ready to re-engage when we need to.”
Council member Kirsten Hytopoulos asked Forsman why the tribe and city stopped meeting despite the MOU. “Were we working together more frequently and did we drift away?” she asked. “What is the feeling of the tribe about it — was it mutual, have we been remiss? I just don’t know if there’s any history about how we got to this situation.”
“I think we’re all super busy,” Forsman said, “and I don’t know anybody here who’s looking for another meeting, so I can understand. I think the ‘drift away’ metaphor is probably most appropriate.” He said he thinks there were intensive issues right after the MOU was signed, and as those issues were resolved, the need for collaboration became less urgent. “But I think it’s important that we try to meet on at least an annual basis, if not more … definitely try to keep that going and also just being supportive to the staff that work on these issues, especially around natural resource protection.”
Council member Joe Deets said he would like to be one of the council's representatives to meet with the tribe. One issue he said the city and tribe both had an interest in is the possible addition of roundabouts on Highway 305; the tribe is looking into adding a roundabout near Suquamish Clearwater Casino, and the city is looking at adding two roundabouts on the north end of the island, he said. “I’ll just say there were some concerns expressed about the environmental degradation caused by those roundabouts,” he said. “On the other hand, we need to find a way to reduce traffic. So I think our issues are your issues on that front.”
Deputy Mayor Michael Pollock said, “What I really appreciate about your tribe, and the tribes in general in the Northwest, is the treaty rights that were ceded, as you said … [were] the ‘supreme law of the land.’ And they really might form the basis for continuing to make this part of the planet habitable, because there’s an argument that we have a treaty obligation to keep the ecosystem intact enough so that the tribes can continue to obtain the natural resources that sustain them.”
For that reason, he said, he’d like future collaborations between the city and the tribe to focus on environmental issues like ocean acidification or climate change. “I think if there is going to be another meeting between busy people, that it at least really tries to focus on those existential issues, and the ones that are really going to affect us for a long time,” he said.
