Puyallup Tribe to have 17 acres of waterfront land added to reservation

About 17 acres of ancestral homeland will soon be restored to the Puyallup Tribe.

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians Land Into Trust Act transfers land along the Tacoma waterfront to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, allowing the Tribe to expand its reservation and access to federal benefits associated with it.

"This Act will restore the Tribe's place along Commencement Bay and will expand the Tribe's presence along the Blair Waterway," Puyallup Tribal Council Chairman Bill Sterud said in a statement. "It is truly historic for the Tribe."

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On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 400-15 to approve the Act, which the U.S. Senate passed unanimously in December. The Act now goes to President Joe Biden's desk.

The land in question is already owned by the Puyallup Tribe, and is the site of the Tribe's new Ruston Way waterfront property. But the stretch of land has been excluded from federal trust because of "an absurd consequence of the decades of pollution brought to ancestral Puyallup lands," according to the Tribe. The land was contaminated over the years by industrial development near Commencement Bay.

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The Tribe was left to clean up the polluted property themselves, to bring it into "virtually pristine condition." According to the Tribe, the Bureau of Indian Affairs would not accept it into trust otherwise.

Benefits associated with the land include tax-exempt financing, discounted leasing rates, and new market tax credits, which are intended to incentivize private investments in economically distressed communities by providing investors with a federal tax credit.

Washington's Democratic U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray worked with Democratic House Reps. Derek Kilmer and Marilyn Strickland to shepherd The Puyallup Tribe of Indians Land Into Trust Act through Congress.

"Bringing this land into trust will help the Puyallup Tribe pursue economic development on the Tacoma waterfront, expand critical infrastructure, and open up tax benefits for the entire community," Murray said in a statement. "Ensuring that Tribal communities have what they need to grow and thrive is an important responsibility of the federal government and something I will always take seriously."

The effort took several years to make it to this point.

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The Act was first introduced in 2022 and was referred to the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs but stalled out. Cantwell and Murray reintroduced the legislation last February for a second, successful attempt.

"The Puyallup Tribe is an economic force and taking this land into trust allows the Tribe to continue to diversify its economy within its traditional lands on Commencement Bay," Cantwell said in a statement.