"As a consumer specialist, I open everything that comes in mail. I'm looking to see if a small financial detail may be revealed or if I'll find a story idea.

When I opened the invitation-looking type envelope, I was surprised to learn I'd been invited to a forum celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Puyallup Indian Land Claims Settlement at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma Sept. 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

I decided to attend.

When I worked for the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, I'd been coordinator of the state agency effort to develop a list of items the state wanted to have included in the final contract for the settlement.

Dignitaries at the event included U.S. Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Tacoma, Puyallup Tribal Chairman Herman Dillon, and U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii.

The agreement was a success, said Dillon, and it will continue to be successful.

Inouye, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs at that time, said he came to Washington state 13 times to help with the negotiations. On one trip, he acted as a "messenger boy" going between the Indian group on the second floor and the non-Indians on the fifth, he said, adding he went up and down 21 times."

Get the Story:
Boomer Consumer: Looking back: The Puyallup Land Claims Settlement (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 9/23)

More Stories:
Celebrating the deal that brought prosperity to the Puyallups (The Tacoma News Tribune 9/22)
Smooth sailing in congress (The Tacoma News Tribune 9/21)
An agreement for the ages (The Tacoma Weekly 9/18)