(WSB photo from May 2022, drumming/singing at event announcing lawsuit)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“We look at this as a victory.”
That’s how the Duwamish Tribal Council sees a federal court ruling giving them a new start in their decades-old fight for federal recognition. We talked this afternoon with Tribal Councilmember Yvonne Griffin to get context on the new ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Jamal Whitehead.
The ruling (first reported earlier today by The Seattle Times) is related to the lawsuit the Duwamish Tribe announced with an event at their West Seattle longhouse in May 2022 (WSB coverage here). In short, it orders the federal government to reconsider the tribe’s petition for recognition, and cancels the previous denial, Griffin explains.
The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs must re-evaluate the petition, and the tribe is allowed to submit new evidence. A key contention remains that the modern-day Duwamish Tribe is indeed the rightful successor to the historic Duwamish Tribe that signed the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855, despite other regional tribes including some descendants of Duwamish people. “New evidence will help us demonstrate (that),” Griffin says.
She also says it’s highly unusual for a tribe to be granted two “remand” orders – remanding their case to the department for reconsideration, which was ordered, then denied, in a previous case.
Recognition is vital because the Duwamish Tribe needs a government-to-government relationship with the federal government, Griffin says, and access to programs its members “deserve.” She adds that the fight isn’t over “treaty fishing rights” (though they are mentioned in the case, and two recognized tribes, the Muckleshoot and Tulalip, have taken the anti-recognition side) – they just want that recognition, which they briefly had a quarter century ago: This round of their fight dates back to recognition granted by the outgoing Clinton Administration at the turn of the millennium, then pulled back by the incoming Bush Administration. Another change in federal administrations could complicate things, since this case was filed against the Biden Administration, and will now require a review by the Trump Administration. Griffin says they haven’t spoke to anyone in the new federal government yet, so they’ll have to wait and see how it goes – and who does it. The court order says it must be “impartial.”
But this is only a “step in their journey” toward recognition – or, re-recognition, if you will. The ruling wasn’t “everything we asked for,” but: “We remain hopeful,” says Griffin, as they and their lawyers wait to see what happens next.
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