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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2021
Timber company returns waterfront property to tribe
By LYNDA V. MAPES
Seattle Times
SEATTLE
—
Port
Blakely Companies, a fami-
ly-owned company with tim-
ber operations in the U.S. and
New Zealand, has returned 2
milesof waterfront and 125
acres of tidelands on Lit-
tle Skookum Inlet in Mason
County to the Squaxin Island
Tribe, at no cost.
The return of the tideland
property is part of a growing
“Land Back” movement, in
which landowners are return-
ing property lost by tribes
when white settlers arrived
and began colonizing the
landscapes where Indigenous
people had lived and thrived
for thousands of years.
The return of the shore-
line restores the tribe’s direct
access to Puget Sound, and
some of the most productive
shellfi sh beds in the region
— the very reasons the tribe
had made the land and water
home.
In a separate transaction,
the tribe also reached agree-
ment with Port Blakely to
acquire about 875 acres of
upland forest in its ances-
tral lands for an undisclosed
sum.
The so-called Kamilche
property was acquired by
Port Blakely following the
signing of the 1854 Medi-
cine Creek Treaty 167 years
ago, almost to the day of the
announcement of the land
Port Blakely Companies
Port Blakely Companies returned this 2-mile beachfront property in Washington state on the Little Skookum Inlet in Mason
County to the Squaxin Island Tribe at no cost.
transactions.
In the social justice reck-
oning after the murder of
George Floyd, a Black man
killed by police in Minne-
apolis, it was obvious giv-
ing the shoreline back was
the right thing to do, Mike
Warjone, president of Port
Blakely, U.S. Forestry, told
the Seattle Times.
A mere spoken “land
acknowledgment,” recogniz-
ing tribal presence and stew-
ardship, is not enough, War-
jone said.
“Just an acknowledgment
about the place would ring
hollow if the only owner of
record was still around, and
the people it was stolen from
were alive and well, and right
up the street. The obvious
thing to do was simply give
it back.
“Frankly I feel a little like,
why didn’t we think of this
earlier? … It’s about time.”
Kris Peters, chairman of
the Squaxin Island Tribe,
said the tribe has no plans for
development of the property,
which will be cherished for
ceremonial use.
Peters said the tribe has
long had a good relation-
ship with Port Blakely, and
the Warjone family that runs
the fi ve-generation family
business. “They carry them-
selves with compassion and
dignity.”
It is hard to put into words
what it feels like to have
back land that the tribe never
regarded as theirs, or any-
one’s, but rather a gift to
steward on behalf of future
generations, Peters said.
Families lived on these
lands collectively, and never
overtaxed the resources, he
noted, sustained for thou-
sands of years off abundant
lands and waters. “For our
ancestors, truly these lands,
these waters, these animals,
these trees, everything was
sacred to them, those aren’t
just words,” Peters said.
Today’s Squaxin Island
tribal members are the
descendants of those same
maritime families, who lived
and prospered along the
shores of the southernmost
inlets of the Salish Sea for
centuries uncounted.
“It is a diffi cult thing to
put into words, when we talk
about our connection to the
land. People look at it as a
cliché, it is not,” Peters said.
Peters said he, and other
tribal members, are eager
to practice ceremony once
more on the sea-swept beach
their ancestors knew.
“I can’t wait to drum, and
sing, and dance out on those
beaches, just like our people
did hundreds, and thousands
of years ago,” Peters said.
“To me it is a very spiritual
thing; it fi lls my heart.”
‘I hoped and prayed every day something would change’
Longview abuse
victim speaks out
By HAYLEY DAY
The Daily News
When Haylee Norred was
about 8 years old, she said
she lived alone in a locked
Longview room without fur-
niture, heat or light. She was
punished when she escaped
to fi nd food in the dumpster,
and called names like “pig”
when she ate table crumbs
amongst locked kitchen
cabinets.
Nearly 13 years later , her
abuser and aunt, Jennifer
Norred, 42, was sentenced
to 90 days of incarcera-
tion, after pleading guilty in
October, bringing indepen-
dence to her niece.
“I’m fi nally free,” Haylee
Norred said.
For almost a decade,
Haylee Norred said she
lived isolated and starved
under her aunt’s care.
Today, the girl who wasn’t
able to play with friends,
attend school or even eat
until full, has been given a
second chance.
“I hoped and prayed
every day something would
change, but I didn’t know
when,” she said. “I never
knew the darkness would
end.”
‘I didn’t know
it was wrong’
Court records show Jen-
nifer Norred was arrested
in February 2019 for two
counts of criminal mistreat-
ment and was released from
jail that March on a $2,000
bond. She was sentenced
last week and was sched-
uled to be taken into cus-
tody on Monday .
Haylee Norred’s great-
aunt, Cindy Stauff er, said
charges came after the chil-
dren in Jennifer Norred’s
care were able to tell their
grandmother about living
conditions. Stauff er said
a family member called
the police during a fi ght
between Jennifer Norred
and her boyfriend and the
children were taken away. A
police report states six chil-
dren were taken from Jenni-
fer Norred’s care in 2018.
Under her grandma’s
care, Haylee Norred said
she started to question
whether her aunt’s treat-
ment of her was abuse.
“Grandma treated me diff er-
ently,” she said, by provid-
ing three meals a day. Even-
tually, she told her family
and a social worker about
her living situation.
“I didn’t know it was
wrong until I told them,”
she said.
A probable cause state-
ment for Jennifer Norred’s
arrest states she told peo-
ple an eating disorder and a
mental disability attributed
to
Haylee
Norred’s
social isolation and small
demeanor. When offi cials
took the child in 2018,
police reported the 17-year-
old weighed 84 pounds. The
report states her weight and
IQ score increased after she
was taken from her aunt’s
custody.
At last week’s sentenc-
ing, Jennifer Norred said she
was in an abusive relation-
ship which she depended on
for housing during the time
she cared for her niece and
other children. She said she
has done a lot of self-work,
is “diff erent now” and loves
her niece.
“I’ll never forgive myself
for what my kids went
through,” Jennifer Norred
said.
‘Wasn’t allowed
to be normal’
Haylee Norred said life
with her aunt didn’t start off
badly. Her aunt asked to take
her when Haylee Norred’s
biological mother couldn’t
care for her . At fi rst, Haylee
Norred said she had a bed
and desk. She spent time lis-
tening to music and clean-
ing with her aunt.
That changed, she said,
when her aunt gave birth
to her fi rst girl, and slowly,
more chores were dele-
gated to her , then furniture,
food and socialization were
stripped away.
Inside what she called
the “back room” of a 17th
Avenue home, Haylee
Norred said she used pieces
of cable wiring and her
bare hands to claw through
a closet in hopes of reach-
ing a food pantry. When she
broke through the wooden
bedroom door to fi nd food,
a steel door took its place,
she said. When she escaped
through the window to grab
stale bread from a dumpster,
plywood was nailed over
the opening and light was
shut out.
Stauff er said she’d see
the shy youth with thick
glasses about four times a
year at holiday gatherings,
but Haylee Norred never
talked, and never played
with other kids. Stauff er
said Jennifer Norred told the
family her niece was autis-
tic and had a disorder that
made her eat food uncon-
trollably, prompting her to
lock the kitchen cabinets
and refrigerator.
“We believed she was
autistic and had an eat-
ing disorder,” Stauff er said.
“She fooled everybody.”
Haylee Norred said her
aunt also told her she was
autistic and physically
threatened her before family
functions to not talk to oth-
ers and disclose information
about her living situation.
When the state agency
that investigates reports
of child abuse paid visits,
Haylee Norred said the bar-
ren back room she lived in
was given a bed and TV.
When Child Protective Ser-
vices left, the items would
disappear and the child
“didn’t know why.”
“I wasn’t allowed to be
normal,” Haylee Norred
said. “It was like she had
control of my mind.”
‘There is always
a way out’
Today, Haylee Norred is
living on her own near War-
renton . She has a boyfriend,
two cats and a best friend
she said she can call any-
time and will always get an
answer.
She learned to drive a car,
graduated from high school
at the age of 20 and took her
fi rst plane ride to California
last summer.
She said she’s close with
her extended family, but
fears running into her aunt
when visiting Longview.
She said journaling and
counseling has helped her
cope with the trauma, as
nightmares persist, but still
hopes Jennifer Norred “gets
the help she really does
need.”
“Because that’s my
aunt,” Haylee Norred said.
She said she is study-
ing criminology at Clatsop
Community College to be
a lawyer or police offi cer to
help people trapped in sim-
ilar situations as her expe-
rience from about 8 to 17
years old.
“I know many people are
out there in the same place
I was in,” she said. “But,
there is always a way out.
You just need to fi nd it.”
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Haylee Norred
smiles at her
high school
graduation
last summer in
Warrenton.
Haylee Norred