Post by Okwes on Feb 9, 2006 11:21:32 GMT -5
Tribes, non-Indians clash over control of tidelands
By Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County Bureau
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2002790658_t
idelands08n.html?syndication=rss
Staircases provide access from homes down to Mission Beach on the
Tulalip Reservation.
Tulalip tribal member Bill Shelton remembers beach seining for king
salmon as a boy.
Tribal children were excused from school two weeks early each summer
so they could join family members in the traditional drawing of nets
along the reservation's shoreline.
To protect their culture and the shoreline habitat, the Tulalips say,
they must be able to regulate development on tidelands they claim as
their own.
"The shoreline is a tribal resource, a historic resource and an
important part of tribal identity," said Shelton, the chairman of the
Tulalip Planning Commission.
But non-Indian residents, who own the majority of the waterfront
property on the reservation, say their deeds, dating to before
Washington statehood, give them legal title to the tidelands in front
of their houses. They don't want the Tulalips, whose government they
don't elect, telling them what to do.
"The tribe can't assume that people who've owned private property for
100 years are suddenly under their jurisdiction," said Geoff Simpson,
who owns a waterfront home at Sunny Shores on the western edge of the
reservation.
The tribal Planning Commission will hold a hearing today on proposed
tideland-management policies. The new rules would allow the tribes to
require permits from homeowners who wanted to repair or replace
bulkheads, docks, stairs or other structures extending onto the
beach. The tribes would also require homeowners to pay lease fees for
those structures.
Hearing today
The Tulalip Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on
proposed tidelands- management policies at 5 p.m. today in the tribal
gym, 6700 Totem Beach Road.
A copy of the draft policies can be obtained at www.tulaliptribes.com
(click on "Public Notices") or from the Tulalip Tribes Department of
Community Development at 360-651-3861.
A similar proposal more than two years ago drew 200 people to a
public hearing and sparked an outcry from non-Indian homeowners who
said the tribes had no jurisdiction over their properties.
Since that hearing, the Tulalips have held six community meetings and
modified some proposals. They changed the policies' name
from "shoreline management" to "tidelands management" to reflect the
focus on tribal tidelands, said Joe Sparr, the Tulalips' community-
development manager.
They've also eliminated a controversial provision that would allow
the tribes to regulate development 75 feet upland from the beach.
But Sparr acknowledged that about 90 percent of the provisions are
unchanged, including rules that would prohibit new nontribal
structures on tribal tidelands and would require permits and
environmental studies to repair or replace existing structures.
The policies could require landowners to replace bulkheads with
anchored logs, for example, to create a more natural environment,
Sparr said.
The Tulalips say the many decks and docks along the shoreline degrade
the beach habitat. Most of the houses and docks were built before
modern, environmentally-sensitive planning was required along
shorelines.
But Sparr said the new policies don't envision removal of all
structures along the beaches. Rather, he said, the tribes are looking
for solutions with the least environmental impact that are also
effective.
"We don't want people's houses washing into the sea," he said.
Also unchanged from the 2003 proposal is the underlying claim that
the tribes own the tidelands and have the authority to regulate
development.
A lawyer hired by the homeowners in 2003 concluded that the
tribes "do not, and cannot, provide any legal basis for the broad
exercise of tribal authority" over non-Indian land.
Mitch Mitchell, a California attorney who specializes in Indian law,
also concluded that the tribes had failed to prove that any existing
beach structures harm water quality or fish.
A Tulalip tribal judge in 2004 ordered the tribes to issue a building
permit for repairs to a non-Indian cabin along the waterfront. The
judge, Thomas Weissmuller, said he couldn't determine whether the
tribes had jurisdiction over the tidelands.
Sunny Shores resident Simpson, who is also a member of the Snohomish
County Shoreline Advisory Committee, said the county, not the tribes,
should regulate shoreline development. The county's Web site says
ownership of tidelands on the Tulalip Reservation is in dispute and
that the county should manage development.
But the county has told homeowners it won't process requests for
shoreline improvements. And U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting
tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians contain exceptions for people
who voluntarily enter contracts with tribes.
Simpson said legal descriptions of his property and those of others
specify that they own a portion of the beach. He said that obtaining
a permit from the Tulalips to repair a bulkhead that is within the
legal description of his property would be to acknowledge the tribes'
right to control his land.
"The county and the tribe don't have the right to rewrite the legal
description of my property," he said.
The Tulalips and the homeowners say the only resolution to the
shoreline issue may be in court.
The tidelands policy is one of several continuing issues affecting
non-Indians who live on the reservation. In 2004, more than 300 non-
Indian homeowners were told that they would lose their leases on
Tulalip land.
By Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County Bureau
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snohomishcountynews/2002790658_t
idelands08n.html?syndication=rss
Staircases provide access from homes down to Mission Beach on the
Tulalip Reservation.
Tulalip tribal member Bill Shelton remembers beach seining for king
salmon as a boy.
Tribal children were excused from school two weeks early each summer
so they could join family members in the traditional drawing of nets
along the reservation's shoreline.
To protect their culture and the shoreline habitat, the Tulalips say,
they must be able to regulate development on tidelands they claim as
their own.
"The shoreline is a tribal resource, a historic resource and an
important part of tribal identity," said Shelton, the chairman of the
Tulalip Planning Commission.
But non-Indian residents, who own the majority of the waterfront
property on the reservation, say their deeds, dating to before
Washington statehood, give them legal title to the tidelands in front
of their houses. They don't want the Tulalips, whose government they
don't elect, telling them what to do.
"The tribe can't assume that people who've owned private property for
100 years are suddenly under their jurisdiction," said Geoff Simpson,
who owns a waterfront home at Sunny Shores on the western edge of the
reservation.
The tribal Planning Commission will hold a hearing today on proposed
tideland-management policies. The new rules would allow the tribes to
require permits from homeowners who wanted to repair or replace
bulkheads, docks, stairs or other structures extending onto the
beach. The tribes would also require homeowners to pay lease fees for
those structures.
Hearing today
The Tulalip Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on
proposed tidelands- management policies at 5 p.m. today in the tribal
gym, 6700 Totem Beach Road.
A copy of the draft policies can be obtained at www.tulaliptribes.com
(click on "Public Notices") or from the Tulalip Tribes Department of
Community Development at 360-651-3861.
A similar proposal more than two years ago drew 200 people to a
public hearing and sparked an outcry from non-Indian homeowners who
said the tribes had no jurisdiction over their properties.
Since that hearing, the Tulalips have held six community meetings and
modified some proposals. They changed the policies' name
from "shoreline management" to "tidelands management" to reflect the
focus on tribal tidelands, said Joe Sparr, the Tulalips' community-
development manager.
They've also eliminated a controversial provision that would allow
the tribes to regulate development 75 feet upland from the beach.
But Sparr acknowledged that about 90 percent of the provisions are
unchanged, including rules that would prohibit new nontribal
structures on tribal tidelands and would require permits and
environmental studies to repair or replace existing structures.
The policies could require landowners to replace bulkheads with
anchored logs, for example, to create a more natural environment,
Sparr said.
The Tulalips say the many decks and docks along the shoreline degrade
the beach habitat. Most of the houses and docks were built before
modern, environmentally-sensitive planning was required along
shorelines.
But Sparr said the new policies don't envision removal of all
structures along the beaches. Rather, he said, the tribes are looking
for solutions with the least environmental impact that are also
effective.
"We don't want people's houses washing into the sea," he said.
Also unchanged from the 2003 proposal is the underlying claim that
the tribes own the tidelands and have the authority to regulate
development.
A lawyer hired by the homeowners in 2003 concluded that the
tribes "do not, and cannot, provide any legal basis for the broad
exercise of tribal authority" over non-Indian land.
Mitch Mitchell, a California attorney who specializes in Indian law,
also concluded that the tribes had failed to prove that any existing
beach structures harm water quality or fish.
A Tulalip tribal judge in 2004 ordered the tribes to issue a building
permit for repairs to a non-Indian cabin along the waterfront. The
judge, Thomas Weissmuller, said he couldn't determine whether the
tribes had jurisdiction over the tidelands.
Sunny Shores resident Simpson, who is also a member of the Snohomish
County Shoreline Advisory Committee, said the county, not the tribes,
should regulate shoreline development. The county's Web site says
ownership of tidelands on the Tulalip Reservation is in dispute and
that the county should manage development.
But the county has told homeowners it won't process requests for
shoreline improvements. And U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting
tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians contain exceptions for people
who voluntarily enter contracts with tribes.
Simpson said legal descriptions of his property and those of others
specify that they own a portion of the beach. He said that obtaining
a permit from the Tulalips to repair a bulkhead that is within the
legal description of his property would be to acknowledge the tribes'
right to control his land.
"The county and the tribe don't have the right to rewrite the legal
description of my property," he said.
The Tulalips and the homeowners say the only resolution to the
shoreline issue may be in court.
The tidelands policy is one of several continuing issues affecting
non-Indians who live on the reservation. In 2004, more than 300 non-
Indian homeowners were told that they would lose their leases on
Tulalip land.