Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, Chad Lewis remarks

15-year anniversary of the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, Chad Lewis remarks, January 27, 2024
(Published with permission.)

My name is Chad Lewis. I served as a co-chair of the longhouse capital campaign committee and as a volunteer fundraiser and consultant for the Duwamish Tribe. It is my honor and privilege to talk with you about the capital campaign that led to the construction of this beautiful building.  

The longhouse capital campaign began in the late 1990s. It was led by a group of special people, The Friends of the Duwamish, comprised of Seattle philanthropists who each donated generously. These people were Ellen Ferguson, Judy Pigott, Michael Alhadeff, Martha Kongsgaard, and Arlene and George Wade. The co-chairs of this first capital campaign were Jolene Williams, now Jolene Haas, and Arlene Wade.  

With the matching funds from the Friends and the hard work of Jolene and Arlene a grant was awarded from the Washington State Heritage Fund that helped to purchase the land and jump-started the capital campaign for the longhouse. Unfortunately, after raising over $1 million the campaign stalled for a few years. 

In late 2003, my father and I attended a ceremony put on by The Descendants Committee at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). This committee was comprised of descendants of the Denny Party that landed at Alkai in 1851. The purpose of the ceremony, titled “Coming Full Circle,” was for descendants of the Denny Party to say “thank you” to the descendants of the Duwamish Tribe for all the help the tribe provided the settlers in the early years.  

I had a good conversation with Cecile after the event and offered to do a strategic planning workshop for the DTS Board. I subsequently offered to write a grant to help cover DTS operating expenses. One thing led to another, and by that spring I found myself leading a new capital campaign and working with the tribe to finish funding the longhouse. 

Between 2004 and 2008, the tribe and I closed 26 competitive agency, foundation, and individual solicitations raising $2.1 million for the longhouse and another $300,000 for DTS operating expenses. The campaign was a success, The DTS bills were paid and the longhouse was fully funded without a mortgage.   

The story of the campaign was about individuals who didn’t lose hope, and who came through at crucial times. It’s a story about key contributions and “going of the extra mile” that occurred at different times that, each time, made it possible for the DTS bills to be paid and/or for the campaign to continue.  

There are so many stories I could tell. It took so many different people and organizations contributing at exactly the right time for this project to succeed. It was always a delicate balance. Had any one of these individuals and/or organizations not come through, the project or DTS would or could have failed.  

For example, the original capital campaign committee—The Friends of the Duwamish—was crucial to credibility and financial support right from the start. And the Friends happened. 

A major foundation grant was needed in the early days to add credence for future applications. Peter Berliner and the Paul Allen Family Foundation stepped up to do this. When the campaign stalled in the early 2000s, Garry Shalliol of the Washington State Heritage Fund and Anne Takekawa of the Seattle DON protected hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been taken away.  

What if Annie Clark, program officer for the Gates Foundation, had said “No” after the tribe failed in its first two applications? But she didn’t. (When I came along, Annie posed a special challenge. She insisted that we present her with two business plans for the longhouse in case the first one failed. She was right to do this since the first vision of the longhouse as a dinner theater and art gallery didn’t work out.)  

If the Annenberg Foundation had not decided to fund a project outside their normal funding area, and to listen to the Tribe one more time after initially saying “no,” longhouse funding could have been short $248,000. If Leonard Garfield had not lent the support of MOHAI as a partner for the Tribe’s business planning, the capital campaign would have had a very hard, maybe impossible time.  

There’s more. Had King County Council member Dow Constantine and State Senator Margarita Prentice not championed earmarks from the County and State respectively, at best, the longhouse would have had a mortgage. At worst, the campaign would not have been completed.  

Had the federal Administration for Native Americans; the New Tudor Foundation, the Social Justice Fund; and the Seattle Foundation not contributed to DTS operating expenses during the campaign, especially over the final four years, the bills would not have paid. You know, might have had a longhouse, but DTS might have been insolvent.  

Had Deb Twersky and 4Culture in King County not supported the longhouse project so generously, this project might not have happened.  

I don’t want to leave without also mentioning over $200,000 in individual contributions—whether $5 or $1,000—that streamed in over the years. Pat Wright a Denny family descendant was an especially generous patron of the project.  

And, of course, without the iron will and dedication of Tribal Chair, Cecile Hansen, we wouldn’t be here today.  

Before I finish, I’d like to highlight two people. They worked behind the scenes and made a huge difference. The first is Carl Hageman, the accountant. Carl worked tirelessly with Byron and me to manage cash flows necessary for construction, to help me reconcile dozens of grant accounts for quarterly and final reporting, and to successfully close the books on the longhouse project. The tribe passed all its audits with Carl in the background.  

Tribal member Cindy Williams also deserves special mention. Cindy and I worked side by side on every single grant and business plan. She also handled details over the four years related to myriad activities whether planning a gala at MOHAI to test the first business plan and raise money, coordinating a site visit from a funder, or making 30 copies of a business plan for a meeting. I bounced ideas off her sometimes daily. My contribution to the tribe and the longhouse project could not have succeeded without her.  

There are so many others. People like Sunny Speidel who offered Doc Maynard’s as a place for art auction fundraisers, Ken Gordon from the Potlatch Fund, tribal member and first director of the longhouse, James Rasmussen, Descendant’s Committee member, Louise Brown, or long-time DTS Board member and social activist, Paul Benz. The list goes on and on.  

I’ll close with how I concluded my talk at the ribbon cutting 15 years ago. True then and still true today.  

I’d like to thank Chairperson Cecile Hansen for inviting me to contribute to the Tribe. Doing so has been one of the greatest honors of my life.  

That concludes my remarks. Now, I’d like to introduce Byron Barnes, the miracle worker who led the design and construction of the longhouse and who also donated hundreds of hours to the project.