The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

‘duMp sLAde 2000’ 311
Gorton and the tribes even fought over “Kennewick Man,” an ancient
skeleton discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia. Five tribes
claimed him as an ancestor and demanded the remains for reburial under
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It was
patently obvious, Gorton said, that the remains were of archaeological
importance. If anthropologists in England unearthed a 9,000-year-old
skeleton in his ancestral village, he said he would be eager to have it studied.
Ron Allen of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, a longtime Gorton adversary,
was president of the National Congress of American Indians. He
said Gorton clearly had little respect for Indian religious traditions. “Once
a body goes into the ground it’s supposed to stay there.” 4
When the Makahs set off an international controversy by declaring
their intention to harvest a whale for the first time in 70 years, Gorton
joined the save-the-whale environmentalists as they squared off with cultural
liberals. Literally caught in the cross-fire was one 32-foot female
gray whale. As the tribe exulted in the revival of an ancient practice, some
characterized Gorton and other opponents as blubbering “eco-racists.”
They had the right to kill the whale, the senator said, but the responsibility
to be more sensitive. “This gruesome event, documented on live television,
has rightly offended the great majority of Americans.” 5
whiLe they LoAthed his stAnds, they respected his power and his talented
staff, which always returned calls. By the 1990s, Indian leaders had
become sophisticated political operatives. Ron Allen was—of all things—
a Republican. Joe DeLaCruz was the champion frequent flier of Indian
Country, one part warrior, one part lobbyist, going from office to office in
D.C. with a sack of the finest Quinault smoked salmon. Billy Frank Jr.,
the wily sage of the Nisquallys, knew how to close a deal. Though he
cussed like a sailor and drove a hard bargain, he was always respectful of
public officials, even when they were his adversaries. Frank said the senator
was frequently sadly misguided but that didn’t make him a racist.
In 1996, when a flood wiped out the Wa He Lut Indian School at
Frank’s Landing east of Olympia, Billy and Tom Keefe, the superintendent,
called Slade. He quickly secured $1.8 million for a new school. “Unless
Slade Gorton had taken an interest, there would have been no money
for this school,” said Keefe, a former Magnuson aide who well understood
how much power a committee chairman wielded. He told reporters that
for Gorton, “sovereignty is just another legal argument, and the part
about limiting financial aid is his conservative desire to get the tribes to
wean themselves from federal dependence. It’s very consistent with his