News Info

LUMMI ISLAND —

In the western corner of Whatcom County lies a small island accessible only by a six-minute ferry that crosses Hale’s Passage.

About 900 people who live on Lummi Island depend on the ferry to get to school, work and medical appointments. Without the ferry, many say they would be forced to move off the island.

The ferry service could be history sometime in April.

The problem is that the Lummi Island ferry — the 20-car Whatcom Chief — lands at Gooseberry Point and crosses tidelands and other land owned by the Lummi Tribal Nation.

For 25 years, Whatcom County has had an agreement with the tribe to allow it to use Gooseberry Point, which is on tribal land. In exchange, the county gave the tribe other nearby land. Then, when the 25-year lease expired last year, the county started paying the tribe about $17,000 a month.

But the agreement has expired, and the tribe is demanding not only $200,000 a year from the county but another $10 million for transportation improvements along the 7-mile road that those who ride the ferry must pass through the Lummi reservation.

The county says it can’t afford it and the Lummis have given the county until April 11, or ferry service might end.

For those who live on the 9-square-mile island — mostly all nontribal members — the thought of losing their ferry is very troubling.

“It’s a disaster,” said resident Robert Brownlee, a retired physician who moved to Lummi to be closer to his sister who lives in British Columbia. “What will we do for food, fuel, and medical services? We’re completely dependent on the ferry.”

Brownlee, 76, said he’ll probably have to move off the island if it loses its ferry.

Without Gooseberry Point, the ferry would have to travel to Bellingham, about an hourlong trip through rough seas that could be impassible some winter days.

Duncan McLane, the Lummi Island fire chief, said he, too, is worried if the ferry service to Gooseberry Point is dropped. The island has mutual-aid agreements with towns on the mainland. Without the ferry, it could take two to three hours for help to arrive.

“I’m trying not to be nervous,” McLane said. “This is the third time we’ve had a deadline thrown at us. We’re going to do the best we can, but this does seem the most serious.”

Complicating matters, the agreement signed in 1988 by the county and the tribe didn’t have the signature of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as was required. Without that signature, the tribe claims the agreement was invalid.

Stanley Speaks, the regional director of the BIA in Portland, can’t explain why the BIA didn’t sign the agreement, but he said it’s up to the Lummis to work with Whatcom County on the ferry issue.

“This is the tribe’s responsibility,” he said. “We don’t negotiate these agreements for the tribe, although we can encourage them. I hope there’s some way to get it worked out.”

Last week, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen sent a letter to Speaks urging him to help resolve the issue.

“Termination of ferry operations would mean a major disruption for close to 900 Lummi Island residents who rely on the ferry to commute to the mainland for school, work and essential services,” the elected officials said in the letter.

“The bottom line is, we cannot cut off access to the island for residents who depend on the ferry to go to school, shop for groceries or commute to work,” the letter said.

Diana Bob, attorney for the Lummi Nation, said in a statement that the county has not seriously addressed safety concerns.

“There is little Lummi community support to continue serving as the drive-through community for Island residents,” she wrote.

The tribe wants sidewalks, streetlights and other safety improvements.

“We’re at an impasse, but the conversation hasn’t stopped,” she said Friday. “We understand the island residents’ concerns. They are our neighbors.”

She reiterated the tribe’s offer of $200,000 a year, with an inflation adjustment, and $10 million over 10 years for traffic-safety projects. She noted that the $10 million is negotiable.

Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen noted that there have been deadlines since 1978 “and this is the second or third ultimatum in this round. We’re … taking it seriously and we’ll try to resolve the issue.”

County Council Chairman Sam Crawford, who worries the whole issue may end up in court, said the county is offering the tribe three times the amount of money a Lummi appraisal said the land was worth.

“It’s not clear what legal action they can do to stop the ferry,” Crawford said, adding that he is frustrated by the inaction of the BIA on the ferry issue. “We can’t see the federal officials sitting by and allowing the closure of a ferry that endangers public health and safety.”

Deborah O’Malley, who owns a small island store called the Islander, doesn’t know if her store could survive a ferry shut down.

“For us it could be the nail in the coffin,” she said. “The ferry is our road. They (the tribe) have nailed us to the wall.”

Dan Gibson, a Whatcom County prosecutor who has been working on the ferry issue, said the arrangements for transportation to Lummi Island date back to the 1920s when the county applied for right of way across the Lummi reservation.

He said the county has fulfilled its obligations to the tribe under the now-expired lease signed in 1988. The county gave the tribe property in exchange for access to tidelands and the road through Lummi reservation land.

The lease called for a 25-year renewal, with another 25-year extension, but the tribe claims the lease wasn’t enforceable because it wasn’t signed by the BIA.

Since the lease expired a year ago February, the county is paying the tribe $16,667 a month. The tribe turned the latest payment back.

“In no way do we want to convey an attitude of hostility,” Gibson said. “I understand the tribe has carved out its position. Hopefully this is a small bump in the road.”

In a letter from Clifford Cultee, chairman of the Lummi Indian Business Council to Crawford, he said in returning the February payment from the county that efforts to reach a settlement have reached a stalemate. “It is the expectation of the Nation that the county will terminate its ferry operations from Gooseberry Point within sixty days,” he wrote.

Cultee said he met last week with Cantwell, Murray and Larsen and is hopeful a resolution can be reached.

“We think it is up to the county to come to the table with a plan that works for both sides,” Cultee said.”We know how dangerous the traffic can be when people are rushing to and from a ferry.”

Stuart Rich, president of the Protect Lummi Island Community, contends the BIA has the authority and duty to review the lease and approve it because it was accepted by the Lummis 25 years ago.

“Our community would be endangered. There’s a lot of frustration and anxiety between the Lummi Nation and the county and we, the people of Lummi Island, are caught in the middle. We are being put in jeopardy through no fault of our own.”

John May, who moved to the island full time in 1991 and is self-employed, said he has it better than most because both he and his wife work on Lummi.

“But if people I care about leave, then I’m out off here,” he said. “This is what makes a community.”