Whose Sacred Rock?
A Facebook post making the rounds celebrates Tamanowas Rock near Chimacum, a 150-foot volcanic monolith that has been a sacred site for more than 10,000 years and is now owned by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
There’s one part of the story the post skips. The rock is also called Chimacum Rock, after the Chemakum people, whose land this was. In 1847, Suquamish warriors led by Chief Seattle, joined by about 150 Klallam warriors, attacked the last Chemakum village near Port Townsend. The men were killed, and the women and children were taken as slaves. Survivors fled to the Skokomish on Hood Canal, and the Klallam moved into the former Chemakum territory.
In December 2012, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe bought the rock and 62 surrounding acres for $600,000 and closed it to climbing. Today it’s promoted under the name Tamanowas, and the Tribe calls it “sacred to the S’Klallam people.”
Conquer a neighbor, take their land, rename its landmark, and claim it as your heritage. When people of European ancestry did it, it was called colonization. What do we call it here?
“We Have Said This Since Day One”
In October 2020, Brent Simcosky, the Jamestown Tribe’s health services director, assured the Sequim City Council in an email: “We will NOT be ‘busing’ or providing transportation to any patient outside of this area. We have said this since day one.”
Now read this recent Facebook post from a Sequim local:
And remember what Commissioner Mike French told Sequim Rotary:
“So, the first thing is, yes, Clallam County had an expansion of harm reduction a few years ago. A lot of that was response to, again, the Jamestown Healing Center opening, and harm reduction being a way to create a connection with active drug users so that you can leverage that connection to get them to go to treatment. So that’s the desire behind that expansion.”
Put it together. The county expanded harm reduction to steer drug users toward the clinic. People are coming to Sequim for treatment and ending up stranded here. The neighbors who warned about this in 2020 were brushed off. It turns out they were right.
“Please Stop”
Relatable
Alex, a Manhattan man who posts on X, calls himself “pro-gay, anti-woke.” He’s tired of woke activists co-opting the marriage equality movement and twisting it into causes “we never signed up for.”
He’s not alone. The League of Women Voters of Washington is fighting to let boys take trophies and scholarships from girls in school sports. Every June, Ozias, Stoffer and Fisch wave their Pride flags and preach acceptance and inclusion. The rest of the year, they tell you your views don’t matter.
I know at least one gay man in Clallam County who feels exactly the way Alex does.
I remember well, a conversation I had with an acquaintance after Obama was first elected.
The man was upset about the kind of happiness that he was EXPECTED to have, simply BECAUSE of his similar racial color, AND that he's gay. He shared with me some of the reasons that he did NOT vote for Obama, but dared not say to those who celebrated him.
I think about his plight whenever I see the kind of pressure to conform to the expectations of others that happens every election season. Independent voters are the coveted prize by both parties, but how they go after them tells more about themselves than some want known.
Jake Seegers brought a common appeal that both Independent and Republican voters found vote-worthy.
Mike French brought the kind of appeal that only Blue-NO-Matter-Who voters could agree with.
The results were somewhat easy to see in our election tally.
Jake came well within range of making Mike worry about this first-timer taking the Commissioner seat he had held for time unmemorable.
Dems did their damnedous to turn opinions their way. They HAD to make Jake out to be villainous, because they could NOT make Mike look and sound virtuous.
Plague of Indivisible (nonpartisan, lol) activists, NEVER recognized ANYTHING that Seegers said, or did, as worth respecting AT ALL!!!
Great work by the Watchdog and Cat Club communities helped Jake be heard beyond what the controlled media could restrain!
The LWV have gone against the will of the voters. We voted to exclude trans athletes from girls sports. Now they are suing the state to overturn the outcome of the initiative. It is amazing how they preach about democracy then CANT stand it when they lose. They should be sued for their lies about being non partisan. A bunch of old women that have gone WOKE!