Snoqualmie Tribe in talks with Weyerhaeuser about land buy

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:06 a.m.

"We're just pursuing our elders' dreams and making them a reality," said Joseph Mullen, chairman of the Snoqualmie Tribal Council.

"The issue now is, if Weyerhaeuser sells us a chunk of the forest, what can we do with it?"

Plans could include a hotel and tribal casino off the freeway, and tribal leaders say they already have the backing of an Indian investor from Arizona.

The 1,000-member tribe received official recognition from the federal government in October. The tribe had been without the rights and privileges of recognition since 1855, when the Point Elliott Treaty ceded to the U.S. government all of the Snoqualmies' land between Snoqualmie Pass and Marysville.

Since recognition, tribal leaders have been working to find money and a location for a reservation.

The tribe does not want to be dependent on federal grants, tribal economic development manager Ray Mullen said.

"We were looking for land to invest in and ... looking at gaming probability," Mullen said, adding that an I-90 location east of Seattle would be difficult to top.

Mullen said the tribe is talking to Weyerhaueser about the purchase of as much as 640 acres about 30 miles east of Seattle, southeast of where Washington 18 intersects with I-90 and spreading into the Raging River Valley.

Weyerhaeuser has declined to comment specifically on a land sale to the tribe.

"We buy and sell land all the time," company spokesman Frank Mendizabal said. "There are plenty of tracts that are available that we would be happy to discuss with any qualified buyer, whether that be the tribe or others."

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs would have to approve creation of a reservation, which would become sovereign Snoqualmie land, not subject to local land-use restrictions.

Commercial development in the forested Raging River Valley would be opposed by King County, said Lori Grant, a policy analyst for the county Office of Regional Policy and Planning.

"It's an area we've long said is important to remain forested. I don't think we'd just stand back. There's a lot of community support for making sure that area remains" in its present state, she said.