As climate change warms the earth, the coastal tribes of Washington are beginning to see the effects as storms increase in severity and frequency, damaging tribal infrastructure and threatening future inundation of sacred places. The Hoh, Quileute and Makah Tribes and Quinault Indian Nation are all faced with moving infrastructure in the face of rising seas.
Recent national and local news stories have captured the Quinault Indian Nation’s problems with heavy ocean surf and the cost of moving the lower village out of the tsunami zone. “Our membership sees the exciting opportunity of creating a new village and what that might look like. But so many of our memories are here in this village and the thought of it being under water, you know, there’s a lot of trauma to that prospect that a very sacred site could no longer exist,” QIN President Fawn Sharp told PBS News Hour.
The Northcoast News detailed the damage from March storms to Taholah other parts of the central Washington Coast. “We’re thankful for the work the Army Corps has done in the past to help protect our village but we need to remain vigilant because the ocean is rising much more than anybody expected it to,” said Larry Ralston, QIN councilman.
