Overnight on New Year’s Eve, vandals struck at Washington’s newest state park in more than 40 years.
Nisqually Tribe member William Frank III shared photos of the destruction on New Year’s Day, showing the figures cut at their bases and toppled to the ground.
The park, which remains under development and is currently closed, is located near the city of Eatonville on the Nisqually River between the Mashel River and Ohop Creek.
“This is an act of HATE from Racist Individuals who have absolutely (no) respect,” Frank wrote on social media Thursday. “Our beautiful Nisqually Park welcome figures were desecrated last night. It is absolutely disturbing and heart breaking, but what this act of hate doesn’t do is bring fear or chaos. This is Washington in 2026. Our presence and our light shines on darkness and casts it forward. This is why we have to keep telling our story now more than ever.”
The park represents the first time Washington State Parks has partnered with a local tribe to create a new full-service camping park.
“The Nisqually People have lived in this area since time immemorial, and the engaging details of their lives and culture will be prominent among the park’s interpretive themes,” State Parks wrote in a description of the project online.
The Nisqually Tribe has been working with Washington State Parks to collaboratively plan and develop Nisqually State Park since 2008.
“Nisqually State Park includes lands that are deeply significant in tribal history and culture, lands that have been home to the Squalli-Absch people since time immemorial,” the Tribe wrote online.
In 2014, the tribe signed a memorandum of understanding with the Washington State Parks Commission to cooperate and partner in the development of the park. The tribe also purchased 217 acres of land within the long-term planning boundary of the park in 2014.
The park was expected to reopen at some point this year.
In a video update to followers on Thursday, Frank III called the vandalism “unfortunate and sad,” noting the time that went into the design, creation and placement of the figures.
“My dad always taught us that you don’t play around when it comes to your identity and culture,” Frank III said of his father Billy Frank Jr., a legendary Nisqually tribal leader and activist. “And so, for me, I am all about karma, and karma will come to the people who destroyed those welcome figures.”
He thanked the Nisqually State Park Committee for its work on the project. He noted the park is located in the same area where the Mashel Massacre took place in 1856.
According to HistoryLink.org, the incident known as the Mashel Massacre occurred in late March 1856 on the Mashel prairie just north of the confluence of the Mashel and Nisqually rivers in present-day Pierce County.
“It was the last episode of the Puget Sound Indian war that had begun in 1855. Governor Isaac Stevens ordered the Washington Mounted Rifles up from the Columbia River,” according to HistoryLink. “These volunteers were led by Captain Hamilton J. G. Maxon (1813-1884). During a series of patrols around the Nisqually River vicinity, Maxon’s men killed a number of Indians who were in hiding in the dense forest. The exact count of deaths varied, ranging from as few as eight to as many as 30. Most accounts agree that the dead were women, children and elderly men, largely unarmed and fleeing for their lives. These events have been a point of contention and controversy ever since.”
Frank III said any anger over the vandalism should be tempered with action as the next generations of tribal leadership emerge.
“We want to teach them that hate is not acceptable, but we don’t get all cranky,” he said. “We don’t throw a temper tantrum. We just make sure we get those welcome figures back up any way possible and continue the beautiful work that is being done up there.”
Frank III said he knows Washington state is filled with good people of all races and types. He said he looks forward to moving into 2026, a year in which a statue of Billy Frank Jr. will be installed at both the U.S. and Washington state capitols.
“If you guys thought you guys were putting a little fear in us, it doesn’t work as Indian people,” he said. “We’ve been through too much in this world.”
