Lummi Nation has filed a federal lawsuit against Whidbey Telecom, Whatcom County, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce alleging that a series of federally funded construction projects repeatedly cut through known burial grounds—resulting in the disturbance, exposure, loss, and ongoing mishandling of ancestral human remains at Point Roberts over multiple years.

The complaint describes not an isolated mistake, but a pattern: construction moving forward despite clear warning signs, operating in secret, ignoring legal obligations, and repeatedly bypassing safeguards for human remains.

Since time immemorial Point Roberts served as a fully integrated cultural landscape for the Lummi Nation and its ancestors—supporting the largest traditional fishing stations in the region, villages, hunting, gathering, trade, ceremony, and burial. The remains of countless ancestors were carefully laid to rest in its soil.

Lummi Nation seeks a court order requiring Defendants to immediately provide the Nation with full access to be able to document damage and recover and properly rebury its ancestors.