Tribe Gets Federal Funds For Start-Up

FALL CITY

The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, which won federal recognition in October, has been awarded $160,000 in start-up money to set up programs and a new tribal administration. Allocation of the money was pushed through by U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and signed by President Clinton earlier this week.

Members of the Snoqualmie Tribal Council will meet with Bureau of Indian Affairs officials in Portland on Thursday to find out how the money can be spent and to establish a working relationship with the federal agency.

In addition, the tribe has received a $5,000 advance to pay rent for its office in Fall City until the federal funds come through, probably by next week.

October's announcement was the second time in two years the tribe was notified it had won formal recognition by the federal government. After the first announcement, the Tulalip Tribes in Marysville began filing appeals, claiming in part that they were the true descendants of the Snoqualmie Tribe and that Snoqualmies pushing for recognition were merely a splinter group. Those appeals eventually were rejected by the Department of Interior.

In 1855, the Snoqualmies were principal signers of the Point Elliott Treaty in which Chief Patkanim ceded all tribal lands, from Snoqualmie Pass to Everett, to the whites. At the time, the tribe was 4,000 strong and one of the largest in the Puget Sound area, living in 14 villages in the Snoqualmie Valley.

The tribe never was paid for the land and eventually scattered through the Puget Sound region, though a large number stayed in the area.

Tribal elders had been seeking land for a reservation since after the Civil War, but after the Snoqualmies were listed in the Congressional Record as an unrecognized tribe in 1952, they began an almost 50-year fight to regain their status. ------------------------------- Louis T. Corsaletti's phone message number is 206-515-5626. His e-mail address is lcorsaletti@seattletimes.com