Skokomish Indian Tribe

Background

The Department of the Interior accepted retrocession of partial criminal jurisdiction over the Skokomish Nation from the State of Washington on November 20, 2024, with the change of jurisdiction scheduled to take effect on May 27, 2025. Olympic National Park counts the Skokomish among the eight tribes of the Olympic Peninsula, and says those eight ceded their lands and waters to the federal government through treaties in 1855 and 1856 and now live on reservations along the shores of the peninsula. A memorandum of understanding that the park and the eight tribes signed on July 10, 2008 names the Treaties of Point No Point, Neah Bay and Olympia among the authorities it rests on, and states that the eight are federally recognized tribal governments whose treaty rights cover the plants, animals and fish of the peninsula.

Visit and learn

Skokomish Indian Tribe's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Olympic National Park

What is now the Skokomish Tribe was made up mainly of Twana, a Salishan people whose territory covered the Hood Canal drainage. There were nine Twana communities, the largest known as the Skokomish, or big river people. Source

Affiliations

• Memorandum of Understanding with Olympic National Park

  An umbrella agreement signed on July 10, 2008 by Olympic National Park and eight peninsula tribes, resting on the Treaties of Point No Point, Neah Bay and Olympia. It clarifies responsibilities and expectations, clarifies consultation on proposed actions that could affect treaty rights, and opens dialogue on restoring the peninsula's resources.

  https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/management/memorandum-of-understanding.htm

Sources

• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/historyculture/tribes-of-the-olympic-peninsula.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/management/memorandum-of-understanding.htm
• https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/11/26/2024-27619/acceptance-of-retrocession-of-jurisdiction-for-the-skokomish-nation

Checked September 2026.

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