SUQUAMISH — Life was different on the Port Madison Indian Reservation when the grandparents were children.

The grandparents’ grandparents could remember the U.S. government burning Old Man House, the largest winter longhouse on the Salish Sea. They saw parcels of ancestral land go to newcomers, some by choice, some because they had no choice.

Jobs were scarce here. Even agricultural work that the U.S. government tried to force the grandparents and great-grandparents into lost its economic viability in the evolving 20th century economy.

The young ones were sent away to boarding schools — some to nearby Tulalip where there were cousins, some to far-off places — where they could be indoctrinated in the newcomers’ ways.

And yet the People held on. They didn’t let the U.S. government back out on the promises it made when it signed the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855. Elders who remembered the teachings of the grandparents and great-grandparents passed those teachings on to the succeeding generations.

The people elected leaders with vision and courage to the Suquamish Tribal Council, leaders charged with upholding the authority of this indigenous nation, with upholding rights never surrendered on that day in January 1855, with restoring that which had been lost.

And so they did.

“It’s been an amazing trip to watch. And it’s been for the betterment of the Tribe and for Tribal members,” said Ed Midkiff, a former board member of Port Madison Enterprises.

“We’re buying back our land and sending people to school.”

Midkiff remembers the pre-boom unemployment. “You used to see people wandering around doing nothing, waiting for fishing and clamming [to open]. As that changed, the people disappeared [into jobs],” he said.

That’s the backstory. Here’s where the Suquamish Tribe is today:

— Port Madison Enterprises, the Tribe’s economic development arm, is the second-largest private-sector employer in Kitsap County with 752 employees, surpassed only by Harrison Medical Center. That’s according to data from the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance.

— The Tribe has reacquired land lost during the allotment era, and “the Tribe and Tribal members now own more than half of the land on the reservation for the first time in recent history,” Suquamish Tribe communications director April Leigh said. Recent major acquisitions include White Horse Golf Club in 2010, placed into trust in March 2014; and 200 acres known as the Place of the Bear, in the Cowling Creek watershed, in November.

— Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort, which opened in a fabric structure 20 years ago, has evolved into an events and entertainment destination, with 15,000 square feet of meeting space, 183 hotel rooms, a showcase of Coast Salish art by such prominent artists as Ed Carriere and Andrea Wilbur-Sigo, fine dining, a spa, golf at White Horse, and a summer concerts-on-the-lawn series (2014’s lineup included ’80s chart-toppers Coolio and Lisa Lisa).

Ninety-eight of those hotel rooms — as well as a café, a fine-dining restaurant, 10,000 square feet of meeting space and an outdoor terrace — were built in the latest expansion phase and are scheduled to open June 1. The next phase begins in February; the casino will be remodeled with a larger lounge, larger stage and larger non-smoking section.

— Completion of the Suquamish Museum in 2012 helped solidify Suquamish Village as a walkable cultural district which includes Chief Seattle’s grave, the Old Man House site, the Suquamish Veterans Memorial, and the House of Awakened Culture.

— The Tribe owns and operates an accredited school for grades 6-12, Chief Kitsap Academy, which offers regular public school curriculum as well as culturally-oriented classes. According to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, only four of 10 of North Kitsap School District schools and programs met Adequate Yearly Progress goals in reading and math proficiency in 2014 — one of those was Chief Kitsap Academy.

— Suquamish Seafoods is building a 16,000-square-foot seafood processing plant, eight times larger than the current plant. It will have chilled processing rooms, live-product holding areas, larger cold storage and air-blast freezers.

Until now, Suquamish Seafoods has concentrated on geoduck. “With the new plant, we have the ability to deliver fresh clams, crab and salmon to our commercial customers,” Suquamish Seafoods general manager Tony Forsman said when construction began. “We also plan to develop our product lines further, making them available directly to the consumer.”

The new plant is expected to be in operation in spring.

— Construction is expected to be completed by fall on a 34,000-square-foot fitness and youth center, on Totten Road near the Tribe’s early learning center and a sports field.

— The Suquamish Tribe government has a preliminary master plan for Suquamish Shores, a neighborhood of 80 lots on 36 acres, midway between the government center and the House of Awakened Culture. Leases there expire in 2018, and Chairman Leonard Forsman said the Tribe is looking at restoring the area to accommodate cultural activities, recreation, and, possibly, housing for elders.

Planning “is still a dynamic process,” Forsman said.

The Suquamish Tribe has grown in political influence as well.

Forsman, an anthropologist and archeologist who has served as the Suquamish Tribe’s chairman since 2005, is also a governor-appointed member of the state Board on Geographic Names and an Obama appointee to the U.S. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

Rion Ramirez, general counsel for Port Madison Enterprises, is an Obama appointee to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships.

Cindy Webster-Martinson, a former Suquamish Tribal Council member, is vice president of the North Kitsap School Board and is believed to be the first Native American elected to public office in Kitsap County.

NOT ALL ABOUT GAMING
When Russell Steele became CEO of Port Madison Enterprises, or PME, in 2001, PME had 274 employees and the casino was in a fabric building with about 200 slot machines and 27 table games.

“I’m now sitting at 800 employees and I have 60-plus job openings now. When we get through with the expansion, we will add another 95 jobs on top of that.”

Steele said he was not at liberty to disclose revenue figures. But he told this story to illustrate the annual economic growth that he said is still “phenomenal.”

The present casino opened in 2003. The next year, Suquamish Tribe bought Kiana Lodge. The casino had a convention hall with a little over 7,500 square feet. PME moved the convention business to Kiana Lodge and filled the former convention hall with 400 machines.

“The amount of revenue generated by food and beverage in a year was duplicated in 11 days by the 400 machines,” he said.

Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort is not just about gaming. It’s about connecting visitors to cultural, entertainment and recreational experiences, he said. Steele pointed out that in Las Vegas — the gambling capital of the United States — only 37 percent of revenue is generated from gambling. Sixty-three percent is generated from dining, entertainment, lodging and shopping.

Diversification “is why we added the hotel in 2006,” Steele said. “The hotel does real well and the demand is there.”

PME ventures and subsidiaries to date: the resort, White Horse Golf Club, Kiana Lodge, PME Retail, Property Management, and Port Madison Enterprises Construction Corporation.

PRIORITIES FIRST
Suquamish officials say community priorities drive decision-making.

“When we started with our capital campaign, we had these essential needs. They were priorities,” Forsman said.

“The new Early Learning Center — we needed that because it was at capacity. We’d always wanted a larger museum, so that was something on our list. A lot of community members saw a need for new dock. Construction of the House of Awakened Culture and acquisition of Old Man House Park and hosting the Canoe Journey [were priorities].

“The seafood enterprise has been operating out of a temporary building for some time. We always felt like, in order to expand beyond geoduck exporting, we needed a new facility to support the processes and the staff to do that. We hope we can diversify into other seafood species like salmon and crab, and provide markets for our fishermen and expand our business.

“Our youth center has been in a kind of less-than-modern facility. We needed to provide better facilities for staff and activities. It lines up with our commitment to fitness for cultural and spiritual purposes — healthier lifestyles, drug and alcohol free, a return to more traditional diet and being more physically fit.”

‘FIRED ON ALL CYLINDERS’
Ed Stern, a member of the Poulsbo City Council and the City/Suquamish Tribe Intergovernmental Committee, and chairman of the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Economic Development District Board, calls the Suquamish Tribe’s continuing economic boom “breathtaking.”

“They have fired on all cylinders,” Stern said.

Stern said Suquamish’s 20-year economic boom was the talk of the morning at a regional economic development summit in Bremerton, Jan. 28. The resort’s expansion will put it “on even par” with downtown Bremerton in terms of convention space and hotel rooms, “and it’s at the front door to Seattle,” he said. “It’s exciting for Poulsbo, because we’re within the radius for spinoff business.”

Stern is particularly proud of the relationship that the City of Poulsbo has with the Suquamish Tribe — a government-to-government relationship formalized in a memorandum of understanding in 2001. As a self-governing indigenous nation and, with the United States, a signatory to the Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855, the Suquamish Tribe has a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. It maintains certain cultural and natural resource rights within its historical territory, including Poulsbo.

But, Stern said, the local memorandum of understanding is about more than intergovernmental cooperation.

“We consult each other and meet annually, not just over problems or issues, but to maintain our relationship,” Stern said. “I’m especially proud that we have the longest formal [city-Tribal] relationship in the state of Washington. That relationship, that two-way street, supersedes economic development.”