Blake Island In Ceremonial Spotlight As It Awaits Pacific Trade Conference

BLAKE ISLAND, Kitsap County - This peaceful little island has plenty of "Northwest essence" - big trees and sandy beaches, boats and campgrounds, Native American history and even a view of Mount Rainier.

Now picture this . . . helicopters clattering, Secret Service men prowling, the Coast Guard warning away curious pleasure boaters as President Clinton and various world leaders gather at an Indian-style cedar longhouse on the island.

Blake Island, a 475-acre marine state park long beloved by Puget Sounders, will vault onto the world stage if the politicians' scheduled Nov. 20 summit meeting goes ahead here. Their private half-day of talks on international trade is planned to follow the 15-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Seattle.

An island retreat

I came to visit Blake Island before the tidal wave of world leaders and world press sweeps over it. The only way to get here is by boat (or helicopter if you're a real VIP).

There are no roads and no cars on this island about eight miles southwest of downtown Seattle - just deer, seabirds and 12 miles of hiking trails winding through the Douglas firs and cedars. Blake Island was the ancestral camping grounds of the tribe (and some say the birthplace of Chief Seattle in 1786). In 1900, the island became the private home/retreat of a Seattle family (little remains of their 12-room, five-fireplace house) and eventually, after protracted battles over development, a state park.

Visitors come by kayak and canoe, sailboat and motorboat; or on Seattle Harbor Tours boats, bound for Tillicum Village, the island's only development.

For more than 30 years, tourists and locals have taken the boat from downtown Seattle to Tillicum, a concession within the park that's done with a Native American theme.

About 100,000 people a year visit, says Tillicum spokeswoman Jeri McDonald. But somehow, in a decade in Seattle, I'd never made it to Tillicum. I suspected it would be relentlessly commercial and somewhat corny. And it's not cheap: $39.95 per adult.

But Tillicum is more tasteful and appealing than I expected - and a good value since the price includes the boat, all-you-can-eat salmon lunch or dinner, and a compelling half-hour display of Native American dances.

There's no hype and no hard sell at Tillicum, which means "friendly" in the Chinook trading jargon. And the place and the staff (from more than a half-dozen tribes) are low-key and friendly.

The boatload of visitors I joined - more than a hundred senior citizens from the Seattle area and a sprinkling of out-of-town families - were enthusiastic about our half-day excursion.

"I hadn't been to Tillicum in years," said Mildred Bronner, a retired schoolteacher from West Seattle. "I told my husband we better go check it out before the president comes. And the show, it was exceptional - it was all great."

We had all piled aboard the "Goodtime" tour boat at Seattle's Pier 56. The boat was short on nautical charm - a boxy and plain two-deck vessel, with bare white walls and straight-back chairs.

Coffee, and stronger drinks, were on sale at the top-deck bar, and the captain kept up a sprightly narration on Seattle's history and waterfront as he steered us past container docks and freighters, cranes and dry-docks.

It took about an hour to reach the dock at Tillicum on the northeast side of Blake - the only dock on the island. In summer, the marina is jammed with pleasure boats; on this gloomy, late-fall day, there was only a handful. And the adjacent state campground was empty. (Do the APEC meeting planners realize, I wondered, that in late November it likely will be dank and rainy on Blake? Perhaps Clinton and the other world leaders should be issued standard Seattle gear - rain jackets and flannel shirts.)

Tillicum's cedar longhouse nestles in a waterfront clearing in the thick forest; Indian murals decorate its cedar planks and totem poles dot the grassy lawn in front. (The place already is being spruced up for Clinton's visit; new steps into the longhouse and a general spring-cleaning outside and inside. And for security, the entire island will be shut tight to all visitors Nov. 17-22.)

In front of the longhouse, the Native American staff awaited us with a warm welcome - steamed clams. "Just drop the shells on the path when you're done," they instructed. We did, and the white-shell paths in front of the longhouse gained another layer, the clam shells quickly crushed underfoot.

Inside the longhouse, salmon was being cooked in a traditional native way, skewered on upright cedar stakes around an open alder fire. Buffet tables were loaded with salmon, potatoes, salad, bread.

In one corner, Edward Curtis' 1914 film "In the Land of the War Canoes" played on a TV. Native wood-carvers worked in another corner; traditional woven baskets and other crafts were on display.

With plates piled high, we filed into the longhouse's dining area, a cavernous, log-beamed, room (modeled after a Kwakiutl-style longhouse of coastal British Columbia) that can seat up to 1,000 people.

`Dance on the Wind'

Toward the end of the meal the lights dimmed and at a stage in front "Dance on the Wind" began. A half-dozen young native men and women presented myths, rituals and dances from Northwest Coast tribes. (Tillicum doesn't concentrate on any one area or tribe but gives an overview.)

"Dance on the Wind" was introduced last year; the sets and staging are more elaborate than the previous Tillicum production.

A curtain of rain falls in the old-growth forest; a carved wooden canoe, with dancers clad in the traditional button-adorned robes, glides across the stage; in the "Terrible Beast" dance, the bearskin-clad dancer crouches, leaps and disappears in a puff of smoke. Another dancer wears a 6-foot-long bird mask; its wooden beak snaps angrily and echoes eerily through the candle-lit longhouse.

After the show, there was time for a half-hour stroll along the beach or on a signposted two-thirds-mile nature trail amid ferns, salal and firs.

Rain or not, I wanted to stay for the whole day on Blake, to explore the trails and beaches. And scout out the best campsite for next summer.

But the "Goodtime" sounded its whistle; it was time to board the boat and return to the city. ------------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU GO Some tips for planning a visit to Blake Island and Tillicum Village

-- For information on tours to Tillicum Village on Blake Island, phone 443-1244. The season is winding up; tours are scheduled for some weekends in November, including this weekend and next, but service stops in winter (although charters and conferences can be arranged). Most tours take about four hours total and depart from Piers 55/56 south of the Seattle Aquarium. Rate (for the boat, meal and dance presentation) is $39.95 for adults (plus tax); there are discounts for children, seniors and groups of 15 or more. There's a well-stocked gift shop at Tillicum Village. The tour boat and longhouse are wheelchair accessible.

-- If the post-APEC meeting of President Clinton and other world leaders goes ahead as expected on Nov. 20, Tillicum Village and Blake Island State Park will be closed to all visitors from the evening of Nov. 17 to the morning of Nov. 22.

-- The Tillicum tour boat can be used just for transport by those interested in camping or hiking on Blake ($20.50 adult round-trip fare, plus tax, with discounts for children). There are three campgrounds on the island with a total of 54 sites; the largest is a 100-yard walk from the Tillicum dock and has several dozen sites (there also are picnic tables and a children's playground). Campers and boaters are welcome to visit the Tillicum Village longhouse and arrange to have a meal and see the show. Camp sites cost $10 per night. Two smaller campgrounds on Blake are reached by hiking trials or by boat (there are mooring buoys at each).

-- For more information on Blake Island State Park, phone Washington State Parks, 1-206-586-6120. For general information on Washington state parks, phone 1-206-753-2027. Also, the guidebook "Washington State Parks," by Marge and Ted Mueller (Mountaineers, $14.95), has several pages describing Blake Island plus a map.

-- Kristin Jackson