Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe seeks to name clamming grounds

Thursday, December 6, 2018  

The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe is seeking a more appropriate name for its clamming grounds in Washington, The Peninsula Daily News reports.

Tribal citizens have harvested littleneck clams at the site for centuries but it is presently known simply as the "log yard" in official documentation. So they want it to be named "Littleneck Beach" in recognition of its importance to the S'Klallam people.

“I’ve watched it come to life,” Marlin Holden, a tribal elder and fisherman, wrote in a letter to the Washington Committee on Geographic Names. “I have witnessed the healing of the beach and the life that now thrives there.”

The committee first took up the name at a meeting on June 20, according to the agenda. It's due for "final consideration" at a meeting in Olympia, the state capital, on Friday morning.

The tribe purchased the site and completed restoration in 2004, according to materials submitted to the committee. It is known as "sk̕ʷɬáʔiʔ" in the S'Klallam language.

Elder Kathy Duncan came up with the S'Klallam, according to the tribe's August 2016 newsletter.

Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe seeks to rename clamming beach (The Peninsula Daily News December 6, 2018)