Five tribes on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Hood Canal will share a $10 million slice of a $33 million settlement with commercial shellfish growers.
The total settlement will be split among 17 Washington treaty tribes in a buyout of their rights to shellfish farmed on the state’s tidelands.
In return, commercial shellfish growers needn’t share their harvest with the tribes.
On the North Olympic Peninsula, the Makah, Lower Elwha Klallam and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes will receive parts of the $10 million, along with the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Skokomish tribes.
Sonya Tetnowski, executive director of the Lower Elwha, said the groups haven’t reached an agreement on dividing the money.
Thus, she said Wednesday, it was premature to speculate on how the tribes would spend it.
Tony Forsman, chief negotiator for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, said the tribes probably would place the money into a trust “to build some projects in the future.”
The commission approved the settlement Tuesday.
A federal judge still must endorse it by June 29.
