Uncle Sam billboard on I-5 goes from right-wing zingers to a statement of Native rights

The 70-year saga of the Uncle Sam billboard on I-5 south of Chehalis and its provocative, right-wing messaging took an abrupt turn this summer when the billboard and the 3.5 acres on which it sits was purchased by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.

After driving by messages ranging from “Where’s the birth certificate?” questioning the U.S. citizenship of President Barack Obama to a pandemic post that said, “Oh, no! A virus! Quick – burn the Bill of Rights,” many wondered what the Chehalis tribe would post now that they own the billboard.

The answer came last week, when this simple message appeared: “Native Land” and on the line below “#chehalis.”

Jeff Warnke, director of government and public relations for the tribe, said he has been shocked at how much discussion he’s seen around what he considers a statement of fact.

“It’s the most innocuous message I’ve ever seen in my life,” Warnke said. “It says that it’s owned by an Indian tribe. Anybody can access county records to see that.”

The billboard, with separate messages for people traveling north and south on I-5, has garnered an undue amount of attention since the highway cut through the turkey farm owned by Alfred Hamilton and his wife Ruth in the early 1960s.

Over the years, Hamilton, who died in 2004, voiced his opposition to everything that annoyed him, from gun control and Democrats to abortion rights, homosexuality, and big government.

Since his death, the messages have continued, garnering chuckles at times. A 2007 message said, “In the race for president can I just vote no?” But the messages have continued to wade into divisive issues sometimes with a clear point and other times with head-scratching takes.

For example, the final message for southbound traffic was, “How many Americans will we leave behind in Ukraine?” and the final northbound message was, “No one died in WW2 so you could show papers to buy food.”

Along the way, the billboard has survived numerous threats, including a petition to remove it that garnered more than 75,000 signatures and a reported attempt to burn it down in 2020.

Warnke said some of his earliest memories around political discourse involved passing the billboard as a kid and laughing at the messages. He said the divisiveness of the billboard and how deeply people are offended is a sign of our current political divide.

“I think it’s one of those signs that our society is not well that this is such a big topic," he said. "I mean there is a government shutdown, there are wars around the world, people are about to run out of SNAP benefits and we get more comments on that sign than the fact that the Earth is hurtling toward destruction through man-made efforts around climate change.”

Warnke said he did not know whether the Chehalis tribe would continue to change the messaging or just keep what’s there now.

He said the “Native Land” message conveys something essential around which there should be no controversy or hidden meaning.

“The tribe is restoring its homeland,” he said. “Their land was stolen from them 150-200 years ago, and now they're buying it back one piece at a time. That land has been held by non-tribal interests since it was taken in the 1800s and they're just saying, 'Hey, look, it's ours again.'”