Elwha Watershed Information Resource

The ancient village of Tse-whit-zen was home to the Klallam people for over 2,700 years, but it lay buried for the last 100 years on the shores of Port Angeles Harbor until it was rediscovered during a Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) project to reconstruct the Hood Canal Bridge. 

Repairing the Hood Canal Bridge

The east half of the Hood Canal Bridge (a floating, pontoon bridge) was deteriorating and needed to be repaired to avoid catastrophic sinking during a severe storm or earthquake. WSDOT decided to reconstruct that portion of the bridge by 2007 and began to consider construction options (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee 2006). The pontoons would need to be repaired and improved and transported to and from the bridge site. After some initial investigations, WSDOT decided to build a dry dock site in Port Angeles (near the bridge) rather than use an existing dry-dock facility to work on the pontoons.

[A dry-dock is a large basin filled with water. A vessel, or in this case a bridge pontoon, can be floated into the dry-dock and the gate is closed, sealing off the basin. Water is then pumped out so that the pontoon can be worked on. The type of dry-dock chosen for the WSDOT project is called a graving dock.] 

When construction began at the Port Angeles site in August 2003, WSDOT did not expect to unearth Tse-whit-zen. Local knowledge and references pointed to an Indian village in the area, but the archeological consultant hired to review the site for potential effects stated that there was a low probability of finding buried archeological resources after breaking ground at the site. However, almost immediately after beginning construction at the site, human bone fragments were uncovered (JLARC 2006). In retrospection, the planning process for the project has been widely criticized, in part due to communication problems between interested parties. 

Communication was a problem within the local Tribe as well. After the site was rediscovered, it came to light that two tribal elders knew of the location of the burial grounds. Unfortunately, neither the archeological consultant nor the state officials consulted with tribal elders, and the tribal council only consulted with a few, so none of them knew what the construction project was going to unveil. In fact, the local Tribe was contacted late in the site planning and selection process. The Tribe urged officials to exercise caution during the construction in the area that appeared to be close to Klallam village sites (Mapes 2005). 

In the Past...

Downtown Port Angeles was home to a huge Klallam village, known as č̕ixʷícən, for thousands of years. The main cemetery was located at the base of Ediz Hook. Many Klallam families still lived on and around Ediz Hook in the 1930s, even after being forcibly relocated to a reservation eight miles west of town.

This village, where the Klallam once lived, is right inside the protective arm of the spit. Many businesses have chosen this location to start commercial and industrial entities, disturbing the former village site and cemetery many times since the early 1900s.  At the time when these entities chose to build on this land, there were no laws protecting Native American cemeteries or sacred sites, so the businesses paid no regard to the artifacts or bones they were disturbing and destroying with their construction.  The U.S. government has since passed many laws requiring agencies to notify local tribes if any graves are being disturbed during construction (Sampson 2006). 

Unearthing Tse-whit-zen

After the initial bone fragments were found, the construction project began to unravel. Construction repeatedly stopped and started as further excavation uncovered parts of the village of Tse-whit-zen and a large cemetery. The site became part construction site, part archeological dig, until one day it became too much to bear--335 individuals exhumed and still counting. 

Finding Tse-whit-zen has brought up many conflicting emotions for tribal members, many of whom worked at the archeological site. On one hand, the tribal members were greatly disturbed and saddened by the desecration of their ancestors’ graves. Many of the tribal members worked on the dig to ensure that their ancestors were treated respectfully. (In the early stages of the project, it was believed that the remains were likely graves that had been disturbed during previous construction projects and that unearthing them would allow the tribe to rebury them properly. However, as more and more intact graves were uncovered it became clear that they were dealing with a cemetery.) On the other hand, the discoveries at the site have led to a cultural reawakening for the Tribe. For instance, enrollment in the Tribe’s Lower Elwha Language class doubled in the wake of the discovery (Mapes 2005). Many tribal members have been surprised and awed by what the archeological dig has uncovered about their ancestors. Yet this new knowledge is bittersweet as their ancestors remain unburied.

Future of Tse-whit-zen and the Construction Project

Upset by the growing numbers of disturbed graves (more than 300 intact remains were unearthed), the Lower Elwha Tribe requested that WSDOT cease construction. Up to that point, WSDOT had spent roughly $60 million dollars on the troubled project; however, transportation officials agreed that it was time to find a new site (Mapes 2005). The construction project at the Port Angeles site was finally abandoned in December 2004 (JLARC 2006). Many people in Port Angeles protested this decision since it would eliminate current and future jobs at the struggling port, but WSDOT began to look for another dry dock site (Mapes 2005). 

Ultimately, WSDOT settled on the Concrete Tech facility in Tacoma, Washington. Rather than building a new site, the bridge pontoons would be built at an existing facility. Ironically, this site had been considered early on in the bridge project planning, but it was removed from the running when it appeared that building a new site would have fewer environmental impacts on salmon (WSDOT 2006). The bridge project is now expected to be completed in 2009. Updates on the project can be found at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr104hoodcanalbridgeeast/. 

Although the dry dock construction has stopped at Tse-whit-zen, its story is far from over and much has been left unresolved for the tribe whose ancestors were desecrated. Tribe members continue to mourn as their ancestors remain stored in a warehouse awaiting reburial--hundreds of individual, handmade cedar boxes lining the shelves. A recent settlement with the state holds promise for beginning the healing process. The tribe will receive 11 acres of ancestral land, $5.5 million to rebury their ancestors and restore the site, and the state will remove the dry dock remnants (Walker 2006). Many Tribe members feel that they can only be at peace once their ancestors are reburied (Mapes 2005). After several years, their wait may be nearing an end: reburials might begin as early as summer 2008 (Walker 2006).

"Enough is enough." 
               --Frances G. Charles, Chairwoman

The village itself represents a major archeological find and source of knowledge about how the Klallam ancestors lived. The tribe plans to build a museum and interpretive center adjacent to the site to share Tse-whit-zen with the world (Walker 2006). Additionally, lessons learned from Tse-whit-zen and the failed construction project have already led to new procedures at WSDOT (WSDOT 2006) and may help establish a precedent for similar cases throughout the United States (Walker 2006).

The Spindle Whorl and the Needle above were found in separate locations at the unearthing of the ancient Tse-whit-zen village. The Needle is about a foot long. It is was of the few found. The Spindle Whorl was found by a Tribal Member who only saw the tip of it sticking out of the ground. As he explored more, he became the savior of this magnificant artifact - with the next swipe of the excavator, it would have been broken into many pieces. Photograph: Courtesy of the Calendar of Artifacts "Belongings of Our Ancestors" photographed by Carmen Watson-Charles

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