Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe
A nation today
Background
S’Klallam is a Salish term for the Strong People, and the Tribe's front page uses it as its own motto. It says the S’Klallam have lived and prospered on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State since time immemorial, and that their leaders signed a treaty with the federal government in 1855 on the understanding that they would always be able to hunt, fish and gather in their usual and accustomed grounds. As non-Indian settlers arrived for the same lands and waters, the S’Klallam people living in the Dungeness area decided that to survive they had to take up property ownership, and in 1874, under the leadership of Tribal citizen Lord James Balch, they pooled $500 in gold coins and bought 210 acres along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the land now called Jamestown, which the Tribe says is where the Jamestown S’Klallam community began. The Tribe's Culture Department restates the aim as preserving and enhancing the Jamestown S’Klallam Nation's historical and cultural identity as a self-reliant community while protecting its sovereignty, self-governing authority, homelands and treaty rights. Its offices are at 1033 Old Blyn Highway in Sequim, Washington.
Where they were, and where they were put
- From
- The village at Dungeness, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca north of the city of Sequim.
- To
- The 210 acres that became Jamestown.
- Year
- 1872
The date is the Chairman's arithmetic, not the Tribe's: "In 1874, several families who had been removed from their traditional village in Dungeness two years earlier pooled their money and purchased 210 acres of land (now known as Jamestown)." Why no reservation: the same testimony says they had "steadfastly refused, on several occasions, to move to a federally-established reservation," while reservation Tribes were receiving services denied to those at Jamestown. The Tribe's own history page records the 1874 purchase and does not mention a removal. That page is the only place the Tribe records its refusal, the 1953 cutoff of federal services, and the derivation of "nuxsklai'yem," and it is absent from the Tribe's own navigation and sitemap, so it may not be where a reader finds it.
Visit and learn
Dungeness River Nature Center
An interpretive center and public park the Tribe developed with the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society and the National Audubon Society. Open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., and the phone number is 360-681-4076.
https://jamestowntribe.org/program-staff/dungeness-river-nature-center/
Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe's own site
Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.
Parks on its homelands
Olympic National ParkIn 1874, under the leadership of Lord James Balch, the Jamestown S'Klallam pooled $500 in gold coins to buy 210 acres along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and that purchase started the Jamestown community. The tribe's own site says S'Klallam is a Salish term for the Strong People. Source
Programs
Dungeness River Nature Center
A natural history interpretive center and public park on the Dungeness River at Railroad Bridge Park, 1943 West Hendrickson Road, Sequim, Washington, with a stated mission to inspire understanding, respect and stewardship of natural and cultural resources. The Tribe built it in partnership with the Center, the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society and the National Audubon Society, and takes part in the Dungeness River Management Team doing habitat restoration and water conservation work. The Tribe's site lists hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, and gives the number 360-681-4076.
Sources
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htm
- https://www.jamestowntribe.org/
- https://jamestowntribe.org/program-staff/culture-department/
Checked September 2026.