Businesses and more brace for light rail’s impact in Federal Way

Potential routes could disturb sacred land at Federal Way’s southern edge.

Public discussion continues around the future light rail path through Federal Way and its potential impact on local businesses, homeowners and a sacred tribal site.

Sound Transit added three new route alternatives for the light rail construction options of the Tacoma Dome Link Extension in the spring of 2023.

This came after the Puyallup Tribe stated no mitigation would resolve the impacts on culturally sensitive areas for the route options along Interstate 5.

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While multiple cultural resources have been identified by the tribe along various route alternatives, one that stands out in Federal Way is the former site of the St. George’s Indian School, whose campus included a graveyard. That site is located at the southern edge of Federal Way and includes the current Gethsemane Cemetery.

“The SF Enchanted Parkway and SF I-5 alternatives … both would have unavoidable impacts to known culturally sensitive areas and resources in proximity to the I-5 corridor,” the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) states.

The three other route alternatives in the South Federal Way segment of the Tacoma Dome Link Extension would travel along Pacific Highway South (Route 99) rather than I-5, avoiding impacts to the site of the former school.

Sound Transit reports that it has worked closely with members of the Puyallup Tribe to evaluate these route alternatives and the potential impacts to historic sites and current resources. When this segment of the light rail is completed, it will be the first light rail in the country to serve a tribal reservation, according to Sound Transit.

Each proposed route has benefits and impacts, including displacement of businesses and residents, as well as environmental and transportation impacts. The DEIS details every possible impact and benefit in depth at soundtransit.org/tdlink-deis. Public comment is open until Feb. 10.

Kenny Garvin points to the location of his business, Tire City, and where three of the route alternatives intersect with it. Garvin shared his public comment at Sound Transit’s public hearing at the Federal Way Performing Arts and Event Center on Jan. 28. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

Kenny Garvin points to the location of his business, Tire City, and where three of the route alternatives intersect with it. Garvin shared his public comment at Sound Transit’s public hearing at the Federal Way Performing Arts and Event Center on Jan. 28. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

Sound Transit public hearing

At the Jan. 28 public hearing in Federal Way on the light rail route alternatives, Kenny Garvin shared that the three routes that would avoid the site of the former school may take out his business, Tire City. The business is located at 35516 Pacific Hwy. S., just north of South 356th Street.

“How do I continue to survive after this with the confidence that I have now in the location, with my reputation in the community and being able to continue the sales that I do on a daily basis that takes care of my employees, the community and myself as well?” he asked.

Another guest at the event told the Mirror he is a homeowner who would have to move if one of the routes were chosen.

While exact impacts can’t be determined until the design is further along, these three routes also look like they would impact the site of a future emergency shelter.

This emergency shelter is not open yet, although King County purchased the former Red Lion hotel at 1688 S. 348th St.for use in this way in 2021. The city of Federal Way is also working on requesting $2.5 million in federal funds to move the current Day Center (run by Catholic Community Services and located at the Federal Way Family Center) to the pool house at a future emergency shelter, according to documents from the most recent Finance, Economic Development and Regional Affairs Committee (FEDRAC) meeting.

At the Jan. 28 event, public commentors also shared their appreciation for the light rail in general.

“I’m really excited for this project, thank you so much for all your work,” public commentor Hannah Bates said to the project leaders present. She shared her thoughts on the potential route and station alternatives and said, “I really hope that this will help revitalize the area and encourage more development.”

History of St. George’s Indian School

The former St. George’s Indian School operated from Oct. 26, 1888, to 1936, according to documents compiled by the Historical Society of Federal Way.

It is one of many residential schools for Native American children across the country that have received increased attention in the past few years due to greater awareness of damaging and sometimes abusive conditions for its students.

Attendance was mandatory in many cases, and some of the children who were sent to these schools never came home, like those were buried at St. George’s. An estimated 250 people were buried at St. George’s, according to a report by the Federal Way Historical Society titled “Native American Presence in the Federal Way Area” that states: “records indicate that Indians, nuns and pioneers were buried in the cemetery until the early 1920s.”

The school closed in 1936, and buildings were torn down in 1971. The Gethsemane Cemetery was built on the site in 1971 by the local Catholic church, and the rest of the former school’s campus is grown over with trees.

Today, the Gethsemane Cemetery at 37600 Pacific Hwy. S. is expanding. Permitting for this project required thorough environmental and cultural research, although many details of these documents are redacted. This is due to the “information about burial sites and other cultural resources protected from disclosure,” according to communications included in permitting documents.

A history of vandalism of the graveyard wasn’t stated as a direct reason, but is also documented in the Historical Society’s report.

Most of the bodies that were buried there have been moved to a Tacoma cemetery, and the graves that remain were heavily damaged, according to the Historical Society report.

In an email to geoarchaeologist Brandy Rinck, the Puyallup Tribe’s historic preservation officer Brandon Reynon stated that when it comes to the possibility of more bodies there, “we are aware of some and their locations but can’t rule out that there are more in the vicinity.”

The Puyallup Tribe has put together The Boarding School and Cushman Project, giving in-depth context and history of St. George’s and other local residential schools, which can be found on their website.

In this series, elders name abusive conditions at the schools.

“The sisters continually told me that I was born to hang,” one elder remembers. “They used corporal punishment,” said another. One specific memory of punishment came from an elder who remembers that “they would whip kids that wet the bed and make them walk around the room with wet sheets wrapped around them.”

One elder even stated that “some kids were punished to death at the school.”

St. George’s specifically was also included in a recent investigation under the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative that was announced in June 2021 by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

The goal of the initiative is to be a “comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past.”

This journey of reconnecting families to their lost loved ones is ongoing.

Amber Sterud Hayward is currently the program director of the Puyallup Tribal Language Program. She shared in the Puyallup Tribe’s videos that she was able to help a family locate the body of their relative and they were finally able “to give her a headstone” and “find peace in knowing where she was buried.”

Doing this work can be challenging because some graves were unmarked or marked with unfamiliar names.

“The exact burial plot and the identity of many of those interred is sketchy at best. Often Indians assumed European surnames because the Indian names were too difficult for the white man to pronounce. Those European surnames frequently were inscribed on the gravestones shading the true identity of the person buried,” according to the Historical Society report.

Submit a comment

The public has until Feb. 10 to submit a public comment on the DEIS, which can be done via email at tdlinkdeis@soundtransit.org or by leaving a voicemail at 206-257-2144. Visit soundtransit.org/tdlink-deis to learn more.