Timber company returns waterfront property to tribe

By LYNDA V. MAPES
The Seattle Times

SEATTLE (AP) — A family-owned company with timber operations in the U.S. and New Zealand called Port Blakely Companies has returned waterfront property and tidelands on Little Skookum Inlet in Washington’s Mason County to the Squaxin Island Tribe, at no cost. The Seattle Times reports the return of the tideland property is part of a growing “Land Back” movement, in which landowners are returning property lost by tribes when white settlers began colonizing. The return of the shoreline restores the tribe’s direct access to Puget Sound and productive shellfish beds. The tribe also reached agreement with Port Blakely to acquire about 875 acres of upland forest in its ancestral lands for an undisclosed sum.