HARTSTENE ISLAND, Mason County — Here on this inlet in far South Sound, a visitor recently arrived from distant waters, and the Squaxin Island tribe did what their ancestors taught them: They welcomed an honored guest.

That the visitor was a dead whale made it the more important; that it was a Bryde's whale, never before documented in these waters, clinched it.

"We felt very sure it was a gift from the Creator," said David Lopeman, Squaxin tribal chairman. "And we were going to treat it right."

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