By Ross Anderson
Seattle Times staff reporter

SUQUAMISH, Kitsap County - To Scott Crowell, last week's attack on the grave
of Chief Seattle was not random vandalism. It was a "hate crime" aimed at
the people who have lived thousands of years in and around the place now
called Seattle.

"It's akin to burning a cross on the neighbor's lawn," says Crowell, acting
director of the Suquamish Tribe.

Chief Seattle, who died in 1866, was the leader of the Suquamish and other
mid-Puget Sound tribes who greeted the city's founders 150 years ago this
year. The settlers showed their gratitude by naming their frontier town
after the chief.

Last week, vandals knocked a marble cross off the top of the nearly
century-old monument, which occupies a low knoll in the Suquamish cemetery
at the edge of this historic village. The cross was smashed and garbage
strewn across the grave.

Police are investigating, and the tribe is looking into whether the monument
can be repaired or needs to be replaced.

Without suspects, it is impossible to establish a motive. But the vandals
left a clue - a community newspaper article about the continuing dispute
over a proposed Suquamish housing project for low-income tribal members.

"There is no mystery what this is about," Crowell said. "It's about people
who simply don't want to acknowledge that they live on an Indian
reservation."

Suquamish is at the center of the 8,000-acre Port Madison Reservation,
created by the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855. Nearly 900 Suquamish still live
on or near the reservation, but so do hundreds of people who don't belong to
the tribe.

Such people own their land outright, Crowell said. But there is recurring
tension over issues ranging from property rights to traffic tickets issued
by tribal police.

Most recently, the tribe purchased a 13-acre parcel near Angeline Avenue,
which winds along the Agate Pass waterfront near the site of "Old Man
House," Chief Seattle's ancestral home. Here the tribe proposes to use
federal money to build 24 homes for low-income families.

"Housing is a big problem," Crowell said. "We have hard-working people who
have been on a waiting list for years."

But some neighbors object to the "Angeline Development." They say it will
increase traffic and density along their rural lane, which now sprouts at
least a dozen "For Sale" signs.

In a letter to the federal housing office, one longtime resident protested
"this very outrageous and divisive project designed to unjustifiably
impregnate our community with low-income housing."

Another wrote the community newspaper, The North Kitsap Herald, protesting
the lack of an environmental-impact study: "Although the Suquamish Tribe has
no legal obligation to the neighborhood, they do have a moral one."

Critics say the plan violates the county housing code by placing homes on
half-acre lots.

Crowell points out that the tribe is a sovereign government that is not
bound by the county zoning code. Besides, he says, most of the adjacent
waterfront lots are less than half an acre.

There was similar opposition when the tribe built low-income housing in
nearby Indianola. But the newcomers have proved to be good neighbors,
Crowell said.

The tribe intends to push ahead with the housing, he said, and many
neighbors support the project.

The nearby Suquamish Casino has provided some 400 jobs, helping pull the
tribe out of poverty, but many can't afford to buy family-sized homes in an
area of fast-rising real-estate prices.

Meanwhile, tourists continue to find their way up the narrow gravel road to
Chief Seattle's grave, where the garbage has been removed and the lawn
freshly mowed. The inscription on the undamaged base remains legible,
reading:

"Seattle: Chief of the Suquamish and Allied Tribes The firm friend of the
whites."

Ross Anderson can be reached at 206-464-2061 or randerson@seattletimes.com.






Copyright � 2001 The Seattle Times Company