buried by a mudslide in the 1700s. Claplanhoo, who was chairman of the Makah at the time of storm, immediately recognized the importance of the discovery. He soon contacted Richard Daugherty, an archeologist at Washington State University. Daugherty was the WCU freshman class adviser during the 1950s when Claplanhoo had served as class treasurer. Edward Claplanhoo and Richard Daugherty, who led the Ozette excavation, collaborated to preserve the artifacts found at the site. Claplanhoo lobbied researchers and Washington state officials in an effort to keep the artifacts on Makah land. Claplanhoo spearheaded the creation of the Makah Museum in Neah Bay, which houses the Ozette artifacts within the Makah Cultural and Research Center. The Makah museum and cultural center opened in 1979. In 2010, Ruth Kirk, wife of Richard Daugherty and author of a book on the Ozette excavation, noted the contributions that both men made to the dig and the museum: "Ed and Dick were really instrumental in getting the museum set up. Usually, back then, artifacts were taken back to the university, but here Dick always wanted them, and Ed worked with him because the Makah wanted them to stay in Neah Bay...Now it is common to do that, but back then it was a new idea." Claplanhoo remained actively involved with his community. He served as the chairman of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation of Seattle, a member of the Makah committee to promote higher education, and a Neah Bay Assembly of God Church elder. Edward Claplanhoo was a member of the Makah Whaling Commission, which drew worldwide attention for killing a gray whale in May 1999 after a seventy-five year abstention in whaling. (The Makah are the only tribe permitted to hunt whales in the continental United States. The right was granted to them in an 1855 treaty in exchange for much of their traditional lands.) Claplanhoo and his wife, Thelma, (together with two other Makah families) donated land to establish Fort Núñez Gaona–Diah Veterans Park in Neah Bay in May 2008. The Claplanhoo's property had been inherited from his parents. After the death of his father, Art, in 1973, Edward Claplanhoo and his mother, Ruth, jointly inherited the property. Edward Claplanhoo approached his mother with the idea of eventually building a memorial to Neah Bay's military veterans on the land, "When my dad passed away, my mother [Ruth] and I inherited this piece