Who Owns Ancient Dugout Canoe? -- Angle Lake Relic To Get Preservative Treatment

As ownership of an ancient Native American dugout canoe is debated by two Native America groups and the state, state officials say it likely will be a year before the relic is turned over to anyone.

Michael Saunders, regional archivist for the Puget Sound branch of the Washington State Archives, says the canoe is immersed in a preservative solution of water and polyethylene glycol, a waxy solution that will help stabilize the canoe's deteriorated cellular structure.

``As we understand it right now, it's going to take six months to a year for the solution to do its job, and at that point curators can allow the canoe to dry out and work with it,'' Saunders said. Trained preservationists and archivists also plan to carbon-date it in an attempt to determine its age.

``It will be at least a year before the canoe is turned over to anybody,'' predicted Jake Thomas, Washington state's historic-preservation officer.

Leaders of both the Duwamish and the Muckleshoot tribes acknowledge that the canoe's origin is questionable. But each tribe claims the 14-foot-log canoe, which was fished from the depths of Angle Lake in south King County, appears more similar in design to what their ancestors crafted. The vessel could be several centuries old.

The canoe, recovered two months ago, has raised such a commotion that, says Duwamish tribal chairwoman Cecile Maxwell, ``Sometimes I wish it had never been found.''

While its future remains in question, the canoe is in Thomas' custody and hidden away in an undisclosed warehouse not far from Angle Lake.

Burien resident Bill Walker says he had no idea what he was getting into when, while scuba diving on a Sunday in June 1989, he came upon the canoe partially buried in the muddy bottom of the 52-foot-deep lake, southeast of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Believing it to be a Native American artifact, Walker reported his find to state officials, then set about making plans to raise the vessel.

But before he could, a Burien fisherman, who claimed he accidentally snagged it while fishing on the lake in early July, retrieved it.

King County police got into the act after Walker reported it missing from the lake, and the man who retrieved it reported it missing from his back yard.

However, it was handed over to the state - Thomas declines to say by whom - after legal action was threatened.

The state has the right to be custodian of the canoe, says Thomas, because state laws give the state jurisdiction over archaeological finds and lost items found on state property.

Since he was first to discover the canoe and report it to the state, Walker believed he should have some say. ``I always thought of it as part ownership,'' he said.

``Profit was not my motive. History and the preservation of artifacts was my singular motive,'' said Walker. ``I had hoped to get it into the hands of a nationally recognized museum.''

But Maxwell and Tony Herrera, executive director of the Muckleshoot tribe, believe its rightful place is with descendants of its original owners.

``The ancestors of the Muckleshoot tribe roamed that area, and the area north of Seattle, in Elliott Bay, in Lake Washington, in Lake Sammamish, as well as the river systems of the Cedar, the Green and White rivers,'' said Herrera. ``We feel that it is part of our tribal heritage.''

However, counters the Duwamish's Maxwell, ``The canoe was found in our indigenous area.

``It's a shovel-nose canoe, the kind that the Duwamish made. It was probably built around that lake, and there's no way the Muckleshoots could sail that down from Auburn to Angle Lake.''

While both tribes lay claim to the canoe, Herrera is quick to point out that the Muckleshoot tribe ``is the only federally recognized Indian government in King County.''

However, Maxwell said the Duwamish have been fighting for years for official recognition.

Each tribe says it would like to see the canoe included in a public display of other Native American artifacts.

Thomas says the state is willing to relinquish possession of the canoe to a recognized Native American tribe.

``We have no desire to continue to hold the canoe,'' said Thomas. ``But at the moment we are custodians.

``We're holding it because it's still an issue between the Duwamish tribe and the Muckleshoots. That whole issue has not been decided.''

Meanwhile, Walker is working on recovering from the bottom of Angle Lake a second canoe, found near the one the state is holding.