Billboards Near I-5 May Not Be Legal

TACOMA - Billboards that have been popping up on Indian-owned land next to Interstate 5 bother Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg, and he's thinking of taking the matter to federal court.

Members of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians say the billboards are legal and that new federal and tribal regulations govern where and when the signs can be built. About a dozen billboards already are up and tribal members have another 20 in the works.

Ladenburg said he thinks the signs go against the 1988 land-claims settlement agreement between the tribe and the federal, state and local governments. If the Bureau of Indian Affairs approves the billboard applications, he said, "we should appeal it and we should go to federal court to stop it."

Non-Indians can't build billboards next to the freeway. But members of the tribe can put them up on land they have bought and put into federal trust. Indian-owned trust land isn't subject to state or local laws.