Council votes to honor harbor’s indigenous peoples by flying Puyallup tribe’s flag

The Gig Harbor City Council will honor indigenous people during November, which is Native American Heritage Month, by flying the flag of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians during council meetings.

It will also recognize the second Monday in October as “Indigenous People’s Day.” The two observances would be repeated each year.

The resolution passed 6-1 after council members agreed to strike a line blaming racism against native Americans for “high rates of poverty and income inequality,” “adverse health, education, and social outcomes” and “disproportionate incarceration.”

“That statement is a very unfair assumption,” said Council Member Jim Franich, who also objected to displaying the Puyallup flag in council chambers

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to fly a sovereign nation’s flag in the council chambers,” Franich said.

His motion to remove the flag was rejected 5-2.

The council chose to keep a line acknowledging the city’s duty to “oppose systematic bigotry and racism toward indigenous people in the United States.”

Two motions did pass, one of which strikes a part of a sentence that says, “which has perpetuated high rates of poverty and income inequality; exacerbated adverse health, education, and social outcomes; and contributed to disproportionate incarceration.”

The resolution was one of several efforts underway to recognize the Twa-Wal-Kut band of the Puyallup people, who for centuries had a longhouse and fishing camp at the head of Gig Harbor, at the mouth of what is now called Donkey Creek. A Makah sculptor is working on a redwood carving of a Puyallup fisherman that will be placed near the village site sometime next year.

In other business, the Gig Harbor City Council:

• Listened to a Gig Harbor art’s commission presentation proposing their 2021 work plan/budget. During the presentation council learned that 96 percent of people in Gig Harbor believe art and culture activities offer positive experience in the community, 80 percent agree arts and culture is an asset to the community, and 79 percent of household members are involved in artistic activities.

• Listened as Mayor Kit Kuhn warned about a Puget Sound Regional Council study to identify routes for a proposed fleet of 250-passenger foot ferries. He said Gig Harbor is on the list, but doesn’t want a ferry.. “You will have very angry citizens and lawsuits,” Kuhn said. “We told them, ‘Thank you,’ but asked them to keep us off their list.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 5:30 AM.