SUQUAMISH — The Suquamish Tribe and the U.S. Navy on Saturday signed an agreement intended to honor the tribe’s treaty rights during the construction of a new drydock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
The agreement is unique in that the tribe and the Navy came together to hammer out an understanding before the military embarks on a multibillion-dollar project to modernize the shipyard and build a drydock that can service the Navy’s newest aircraft carriers.
The government-to-government signing ceremony took place on the lawn of the Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort, with flitting boats and birds in the backdrop of Puget Sound’s Agate Passage.
“The Navy and tribe have finally come together, and we’ve approached Congress together,” said Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman in remarks before the signing, adding: “It’s taken about 20 years to get to this point.”
Forsman said that while the tribe recognized the project’s importance to both the local economy and the Navy’s mission, they made it clear that “Our sovereignty and our treaty rights would have to be protected and not denied, and that we would fight the permit if we had to.”
But instead of acrimony, something else happened along the way: The tribe and the Navy started talking it out. That included the tribe making rare trips to the Pentagon to talk with top leaders, he said.
Previously, the Navy would seek a permit for a project that it had already planned and funded, Forsman said, and then would ask the tribe to accept the impacts to the land and the tribe’s treaty rights.
Forsman described the tribe as marine-based, with a presence in the region for 15,000 years that has always relied on “shellfish and salmon for food and living and also cultural and spiritual” use.
In remarks before the signing, Brendan Rogers, assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, said the agreement came after three years of talks, and is notable not just for what it accomplishes, but how it came together.
“Government to government, built on trust, guided by respect, listening before deciding, respecting before acting, and recognizing one another as sovereign governments,” said Rogers.
The project in question is a new, multi-mission drydock at the Bremerton shipyard that will be big enough to fit the Navy’s newest Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, according to Admiral James Kilby, vice chief of Naval Operations.
“It is not lost on me … the disruption this project will cost to local fisheries, wildlife transportation and frankly the aesthetics of this region,” he said.
For the tribe, the agreement will fund an existing salmon-rearing facility and pay for the construction of a new shellfish hatchery, as well as put money toward land protection and income supplements for fishers, according to Kilby.
That admiral added that he was proud to serve with more than 5,000 Native Americans in active Navy service.
A 2017 report by the General Accountability Office highlighted the problems with the Navy’s aging and outdated shipyards. That GAO analysis found the shipyards in poor physical condition and unable to meet the Navy’s needs, with a growing backlog of maintenance and restoration projects.
Between 2000 and 2016, maintenance delays played a role in 1,300 lost operational days for aircraft carriers and 12,500 lost days for submarines, according to the report.
