Congress adds 17 waterfront acres in Tacoma to Puyallup Reservation
The Puyallup Tribe has 17 more acres to call home on the Tacoma waterfront.
Under legislation passed through Congress on Thursday, land along the Ruston Way waterfront, near the Ram Restaurant and Brewery, and along East Alexander Avenue on the east side of Blair Waterway will be added to the tribe’s reservation.
The bill includes a ban on gambling on the land and deeds it to the U.S. Department of the Interior, to be held in trust for the Puyallup tribal government for its governance on behalf of tribal members. The bill was introduced in 2022, reintroduced in 2023 and passed unanimously by the Senate in December. This week, the bill passed the House 400-15 and now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature.
“This Act will restore the Tribe’s place along Commencement Bay and will expand the Tribe’s presence along the Blair Waterway. It is truly historic for the Tribe,” said Bill Sterud, Puyallup tribal chairman, in a prepared statement.
The legislation was the product of years of work by U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Reps. Marilyn Strickland, D-Tacoma, and Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, whom Sterud thanked in his remarks, along with congressional committee staff who labored over the legislation.
“This legislation is truly bipartisan and represents the best of our Nation,” Sterud said. “The Puyallup Tribe looks forward to working with our partners to continue contributing to the region’s economy in exciting ways, and this legislation is a key part of these plans.”
The trust acquisition comes as the tribe is diversifying its economy, and it corrects a profound injustice. The tribe was burdened with cleaning up decades of pollution before the land could be deeded into trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The other option, and the most viable, was instead for the transfer to be approved by Congress. Under the bill, the U.S. also takes no responsibility for environmental cleanup at the property before or on the date of the property transfer.
Deeding the land into a trust means the tribe can take advantage of a number of federal programs and services to develop it, including tax credits, tax-exempt financing, discounted leasing rates and foreign trade zone, customs and duty deferrals. The Puyallup are working to develop the only tribally run deep-water port in the country. The tribe signed a development deal in 2008 with SSA Marine and the Port of Tacoma to cooperate in the development of a 180-acre container terminal at the port.
The tribe is already an economic powerhouse. It is one of the largest employers in Pierce County and shares its casino revenues with the local community in charitable contributions.
“The Puyallup Tribe is an economic force and taking this land into trust allows the Tribe to continue to diversify its economy within its traditional lands on Commencement Bay,” Cantwell said in a prepared statement.
The bill also restores part of the tribe’s ancestral homeland to the Puyallup, “which matters a great deal,” Murray noted.
This boost not only restores a bit more wholeness to the tribe but is a benefit to the whole community, Kilmer said in prepared remarks.
“It’s about enabling the Puyallup Tribe to further diversify and expand economic opportunities and to spur job creation at the Port of Tacoma and along the Tacoma waterfront — a vision of prosperity that benefits not only the Tribe but the entire South Puget Sound region,” Kilmer said in a prepared statement.
By: Lynda V. Mapes
Source: Seattle Times