The Trump Administration is preparing to shutter the National Archives facility located in Seattle’s Sand Point neighborhood and sell the property to the highest bidder. This plan would hurt Indian Country, particularly Indigenous Americans who seek to prove or confirm their belonging in their Tribal communities.
The Sand Point location is a repository for all federal records generated in the Pacific Northwest, including historical documents relating to the 272 federally recognized tribes in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Notably, “[i]t contains important treaty documents.” As Josh Wisniewski, an anthropologist for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, explained to the Seattle Times: “You can see an earlier draft of a treaty.”
The facility also includes various federal land, census, and other information that tribes and tribal citizens use to establish or confirm tribal history and heritage. As genealogist and historian Trish Hackett Nicola explains:
Tribal members use these files to establish or keep membership in tribes. Proof of tribal citizenship is used to obtain education funds. Tribal records have been used for retaining fishing rights, as in the Boldt Decision. Native school records from Alaska and Oregon are included in the NARA collections.
The Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribes were quick to denounce the proposed closure and sale. Read Puyallup and Port Gamble’s opposition letters here.
Senators from Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Idaho, and eight of Washington’s ten House Representatives also condemned the proposal, in part because of the negative impacts it would have on Indian Country.
The facility houses records, both archival and in storage, that are vital to...tribal members…
Nor were Native American tribes or Alaska Natives consulted about the proposed relocation of records so important to their sovereignty and history.
This facility’s Textual Research and Public Access Research Rooms...provide in-person access to records of importance on a broad range of issues and topics...including....tribal membership…
Our firm has represented many Indigenous persons who seek Tribal citizenship, and hundreds of Tribal citizens facing disenrollment by politicians in charge of Tribal governments in Washington and Oregon.
The Sand Point location, which is within two miles of our office, is one of those clients’ first stops when seeking to establish or confirm that they belong to their Indigenous communities.
Disenrollees, in particular, travel from throughout the Northwest to Sand Point, at significant expense, to search for federal allotment and other Indian land records; U.S. censuses and Indian rolls; and Indigenous ancestors’ marriage and birth certificates and other vital records. They do so with a proverbial gun to their head, often expected to find such genealogical information within a few weeks.
Moving those records to National Archives storage in Kansas City and Southern California would render that information unavailable to disenrollees when needed the most, as well as other Indigenous Americans who casually seek ancestral information to ascertain or confirm their sense of belonging.
All of Indian Country would suffer if this plan is realized. Please do your part to help preserve our heritage:
1. Email the Office of Management and Budget’s Acting Director Russell T. Vought: Russell.t.vought@omb.eop.gov.
2. Email the agency proposing the sale, the Public Buildings Reform Board: fastainfo@pbrb.gov.
3. Contact the National Archives via its contact page at https://www.archives.gov/contact.
Gabriel S. Galanda is the managing lawyer of Galanda Broadman, PLLC, in Seattle. Gabe is a descendant of the Nomlaki and Concow Tribes, belonging to the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Northern California.
