2003: a remarkable year for 
Suquamish Olalla Neighbors
The Bainbridge and North Kitsap Interfaith Council accepted our invitation to participate in Suquamish Olalla Neighbors.
We held our annual meeting and a pot luck, which celebrated those in the community who have been doing extra special work with our young people. We focused on the teachers and administrators at Suquamish Elementary School,  including those who have developed the Basket Marsh, a wonderful place where young people learn about their local wetland ecosystems while also learning how Native peoples have used wetland plants for basket making. This program has since won a national EPA award, and a group from Suquamish Elementary School went to Washington, DC, to receive the award. Suquamish Olalla Neighbors contributed $200 towards their travel expenses.

We co-sponsored two cultural events: THEN & NOW: From the First Stories to Contemporary Native American Works and an evening of ancestral music featuring Git Hoan, Na Mele ‘O Hawai’i and Akoma. 

Rich Brooks and Rob Purser from the Suquamish Tribe contacted Suquamish Olalla Neighbors about Old Man House Park. The state was (and is) discussing the possibility of returning to the Tribe this land that was once the site of the famous Long House of Chief Sealth and Chief Kitsap and the center of the Suquamish village. Past efforts to do so have broken down when some in the area have adamantly opposed such a move.
     Suquamish Olalla Neighbors heard the Tribe’s presentation, heard from the “Friends of the Park,” a group formed to encourage the state to maintain ownership of the land, and decided that we would work with the Tribe to see that this land - taken from the Tribe in 1903, is returned to the Tribe, if possible, on the 100th anniversary of when it was taken away

Working with the Tribe, we produced, a newsletter, a survey, did outreach to organizations and individuals in both the Tribal and non-Tribal communities, and co-organized with the Tribe a community meeting and workshop to gain public input into how the park should be managed if the Tribe does reacquire the land.
     We were convinced this was a win-win opportunity: the Tribe can regain this land that is so central to their history and culture, and park users and neighbors can continue to enjoy the park. The detailed management plan developed jointly by the Tribe and by non-Native members of the community, based on hundreds of comments from surveys, e-mails, letters, and comments at a community meeting and workshop showed that this goal was within reach. 

During the summer, we launched our website so that our activities and information about the issues we work on are easily accessible. 

In October, we participated in an anti-hate rally in support of the Jewel Box Theater's production of of the Laramie Project.

The other major issue for the year was a  Memorandum of Understanding and it’s close cousin, Element K in the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council planning policies. These two documents simply laid out ways for different government entities in Kitsap County would work together. Surprisingly, these became controversial as a few people insisted that the Tribes not be fully included in these documents as governments.
     As of the end of the year, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Suquamish Tribe and the Kitsap County Commission was still on hold. However, because so many came to the hearing on November 24 and sent emails and letters, the Commission voted 3-0 to approve Element K, including full acknowledgement of Tribal governance. With over 70 people at the hearing standing up (literally) for full respect and recognition of Tribal sovereignty, this was a proud moment for North Kitsap County, and one that will help heal some wounds and bring us forward together.

As the year ended, our work on Old Man House Park intensified, as we gathered letters of support and materials for a major presentation to the Washington State Parks Commission, . . . preparing us for 2004, our third year.