The Lummi Nation has again threatened a blockade of Lummi Island in a bid to force Whatcom County into onerous tribute for the passage of the Lummi Island ferry. It has historically been considered an Act of War for a sovereign authority to impose such strategies.

Where are federal representatives, Larsen, Cantwell and Murray? Are they soft on national security? Are the Islanders not making sufficient campaign contributions? Why do these representatives sit on their hands, refuse to address the issue and leave their constituency to swing in the wind at the mercy of such arbitrary demands? Why do they refuse to acknowledge federal policy that says local jurisdictions should not be left to settle historic disputes with tribes, that federally negotiated settlements are needed?

An Act of War deserves an Act of Congress. Congress is the only authority empowered to correct this problem. I have extensively researched and written about this issue, including direct correspondence with the relevant representatives. There has been no response. You can access the previous articles from the related issue box on the home page or the link at the bottom of this page.  It is convoluted enough to deserve a read.

Now, after months of secret negotiations, the Lummi Nation has presented the county with an ultimatum. Pay up or shove off. You can read their letter to the County here. The Lummi demand includes payments of $310,000 per year and a $4,000,000 one time payment for a 35 year lease. Lumping it all together with an annual escalator of 3% produces an effective monthy rate in excess of $57,000. The Nation charges a similar, adjacent pier only $150 per month.

It is important to keep things in perspective. The Point Elliot treaty authorizes roads through the reservation for the public’s convenience. A road was long ago approved to the shore of Hales Pass expressly for a ferry to Lummi Island. Later, courts interpreted the reservation boundary to extend beyond the earlier description of the road. The Department of the Interior should have provided an extension to the road’s description when the courts reinterpreted the boundary. That was an administrative oversight outside the control of Whatcom County and Lummi Island residents – Force Majeur. Meanwhile, changes in law prevent the Secretary of the Interior from granting right-of-ways over tribal land without tribal permission. The Lummi refuse that permission, leaving Congress the sole authority empowered to correct the problem.  But Congress is far away in the other Washington.

The Lummi Nation now exploits the sloth of Congress, the knowledge they cannot be sued and this historical administrative quirk to threaten a blockade and impose discriminatory, injurious and probably impossible charges. That is technically, by definition, an “Act of War,” and should be treated as such. Lummi Islanders are not belligerent toward the Nation, hence the Nation is aggressing by threatening them with a belligerent act.

Federal authority over navigable waters extends to the high water mark. The Rivers and Harbors Act prohibits any obstruction of navigable capacity. It is unclear that the Lummi have any authority to subvert nearly a century of government approvals for the road, to assert any control over navigation on federal waters, to violate the Rivers and Harbors Act, impose a blockade or demand patently discriminatory rates.

This issue has been festering for decades and simmering dangerously for years. Leasing from the Lummi Nation has proved unreliable. Earlier this year, they unilaterally abrogated the prior lease based on another administrative technicality. Monthy payments under the terms of that lease would have been under $6,000.  It is time to affirm, attest and perfect the right-of-way to Lummi Island and compensate the Nation for the land.  It is unfair for the Lummi Nation to hold the County and Islanders perpetually over a barrel.  What rates might be demanded in 35 years?

I recommend that Islanders and their friends mount an aggressive, election season campaign for relief from their federal representatives, and that the County ignore the Lummi demands, continue the traditional ferry service unabated and demand a federally negotiated settlement that can adequately and fairly address both parties' concerns in the open daylight of public participation.

No community should suffer under the threat of physical isolation and exhorbitant fees based on the flimsiest bureaucratic technicalities.  No community should be excluded from the discussion of their fate.  No elected representative should sit idle and watch it happen.