Thirty Years and Time Immemorial

Constitution, Bylaws and Enrollment Requirements

In 1968 the process of drawing up a Constitution and bylaws began when Tribal Council requested advice from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who would ultimately have to approve the documents as part of the recognition process.
 
The Tribe also joined the Small Tribes Organization of Western Washington (S.T.O.W.W.). The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe began working with S.T.O.W.W. attorney Frank S. La Fontaine, who helped them write and revise the governing documents based on comments from the BIA, and gather the pieces of documentation that would be required for writing the “Petition of the Jamestown Clallam Tribe of Indians to the Secretary of the Interior for Federal Recognition as a Recognized Indian Tribe.”
 

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Seven years later, on November 16, 1975, the Constitution and Bylaws were ratified 35-to-0 by the newly documented membership of the Tribe, made up of people who were at least one-quarter S’Klallam by blood quantum (and who could not be members of either of the other two S’Klallam bands - Port Gamble or Lower Elwha).
 
With these documents approved, La Fontaine was able to submit the first Petition for Recognition on January 22, 1976. The Petition was based on successful applications that had been accepted prior to that time from other Tribes and predicated on the Tribe’s signing of the Treaty of Point No Point in 1855.
 
But because Congress was in the process of creating the new regulations now contained in 25 C.F.R. Part 54, it became quickly apparent that the application would have to be amended to meet the specific seven mandatory criteria listed in the new regulations.
 
Tribal Constitution
 
Tribal By-Laws
 
Tribal Enrollment
 
Petition of the Jamestown Tribe