The Friends of Fort Worden took the evening of April 20 to celebrate some of their accomplishments in its 25 years of being a registered nonprofit. 

They were joined at the Fort Commons by area Native American leader Brian Cladoosby as the event’s keynote speaker.

THE FRIENDS LOOK BACK

Janine Anderson, president of the Friends’ board, explained the group’s mission: to support the 435-acre state park as a recreational, historical, educational and natural resource.

Although the park’s on-site partner organizations already include the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, the Port Townsend School of the Arts, and Goddard and Peninsula colleges, as well as the Marine Science Center, the Friends’ all-volunteer organization has made valuable contributions of its own.

The Friends’ eco-friendly filtered water-bottle-filling stations, bike racks and Dogi-Pot dog-waste-bag dispensers help keep the park green and clean, while their oral history program has conducted more than 300 interviews with those who lived, worked or served at Fort Worden.

The Friends offer natural history interpretive walks on a quarterly basis, provide well-stocked little lending libraries for park visitors and are set to install a public viewing telescope. 

Within the Friends’ organization is an active and a dedicated trail team.

The Friends’ trail team works to reduce invasive plant species, install signage at trailheads and create interactive maps of the park, earning the Friends the 2017 “Group of the Year” award from Washington State Parks. Anderson lamented the death of trail team member Mark Henthorn, who was struck by a car and killed on March 29 while bicycling in Port Townsend.

Anderson explained the Friends provide financial support for park projects without adequate funding from Washington State Parks or the Fort Worden Public Development Authority. Funds come from the Friends of Fort Worden gift shop and visitor center, and selling Discover Passes to support State Parks and the Fort Worden PDA. The Friends’ Discover Pass sales in 2017 totaled more than $72,000. 

Anderson announced the rest of the board members for 2018: Vice President Bayly Miller, Secretary Terry LeLievre and Treasurer Kevin Alexander. She also called for more volunteers to join the board in its meetings on the first Friday of every month, except December, with a strategic planning session substituting for their May meeting.

Anderson presented certificates of special mention to Zan and Claude Manning, who have been active on the board, with Zan recently completing a term as president, following several terms as secretary. Claude’s term as treasurer saw the group make the transition from manual accounting to accounting with QuickBooks software. Anderson added that Claude’s oversight of park projects such as the interactive trail map, enhanced trail signage, eradication of invasive plant species and installation of bike racks. 

Zan Manning, in turn, presented a certificate of appreciation to Cindy Johnson for her role as bookkeeper for the Friends, and added Anderson and LeLievre’s names to the volunteers honor roll plaque for their work at the visitor information center, on the Friends’ newsletter and in social media outreach, as well as their work on the Natural Resources Committee.

CLADOOSBY ANSWERS QUESTIONS

Cladoosby has been chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for more than 20 years, and recently served two terms as president of the National Congress of American Indians. At the White House Tribal Nations Conference in 2016, he presented President Barack Obama with a blanket and traditional hat in honor of the president’s efforts to strengthen government-to-government relations with Native nations. Cladoosby is also co-speaker of the annual Coast Salish Gathering, an organization comprising tribes from Western Washington and British Columbia.

While he was scheduled to speak for an hour, Cladoosby eschewed an extended speech and opened the floor to a freewheeling question-and-answer session, talking about how Point Wilson and other areas near Fort Worden State Park and Admiralty Inlet have shaped Coast Salish tribal traditions, which he’s connected to personally as a fisherman.

“Our tribes were pescatarians,” Cladoosby said, referring to their subsistence on salmon. “When the tide was out, the table was set. Seafood was everything to us, from crab to clams and mussels. It was a tough life, but it was a utopia, a virgin environment.”

Cladoosby noted that his tribal community currently numbers 983 members, with amenities such as free eyeglasses, braces and full-ride college scholarships to schools worldwide provided to every member.

In the 34 years Cladoosby has served on the tribal council, it has gone from “not having a pot to pee in” to running a casino operation with roughly 900 employees and opening one of the largest heroin treatment centers in the region.

“You don’t just drop in and pick up a pill,” said Cladoosby, who elaborated that the treatment center provides not only free transportation and day care, but also counselors for mental health and substance abuse issues, and even has a medical doctor on staff.

“If you’ve got legal problems, we can help you,” Cladoosby said. “If you need to get your GED, we can get you started on that.”

Although Cladoosby praised Obama as “the greatest president we’ve ever had in dealing with Native American issues,” he emphasized that Native Americans “will support any politician who supports us.”

Cladoosby cited a number of Republican members of Congress whom he considers friends because of their advocacy for Native Americans.

One whom Cladoosby singled out by name was U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, whose ancestor was a senator who filibustered against President Andrew Jackson’s policy of Indian removal.

“Every one of our budget increases has been thanks to friends like him,” Cladoosby said.

In spite of his tribe’s relative good fortune, Cladoosby pointed out, far too many tribes are still among “the poorest of the poor,” with rates as high as 90 percent of unemployment, alcoholism and high school dropouts among tribes in states such as South Dakota.

“My goal is to break the cycle of drug and alcohol abuse,” Cladoosby said, noting that his grandfather and father were both alcoholics, but his father quit drinking in 1974, just as he himself quit in 1989. “My grandchildren are the first in our family in 100 years to be raised in a home that has no drugs or alcohol.”

The subject of family drew Cladoosby back to talking about Fort Worden itself.

“When you traveled by canoe, the whole family came along, including the elders,” Cladoosby said. “No one got left at home. If your elders passed on during the journey, this place was one of the stops where you knew that the people who lived there would allow you to give your elders a final resting spot.”