PORT ANGELES – Washington state will pay more than $17 million to tribal and local officials to settle lingering disputes over the state’s accidental disturbance of an ancient American Indian village and burial ground.
The settlement, announced Monday by Gov. Chris Gregoire, ends litigation surrounding the state Department of Transportation’s abandoned bridge project and gives the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe control over most of the site.
Work on concrete pontoons for a Hood Canal bridge project stopped in 2003 after officials discovered human remains in the area. Construction resumed less than a year later, but was halted for good in December 2004.
More than 350 skeletal remains and numerous Indian artifacts eventually were found at the site. The error cost the state an estimated $87 million. Work on the pontoons was later transferred to a Tacoma site.
Under the settlement, the state will pay the tribe $2.5 million and remove leftover materials from partial construction at the building site.
The state also will give the tribe 11 acres at the site, and will lease about six acres to the tribe for a possible site promoting the area’s cultural heritage.
The ancient village itself will be preserved, partly as a cemetery, Gregoire said.
Port Angeles and the city’s port each will collect $7.5 million from the state, meant to offset the economic activity lost when the bridge project was moved from the area.
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