$25M from feds will boost Quinault Indian Nation’s climate relocation; here’s how
The courthouse, community center, store, post office and dozens of homes in Quinault’s lower village of Taholah were flooded within minutes when the ocean breached the seawall two winters ago.
But it wasn’t the first time. At the confluence of the Quinault River and Pacific Ocean, the village had already begun to experience the effects of sea level rise and intense storm surges that caused flooding and landslides in early 2014 and again in 2015.
The Quinault Indian Nation is just one of many tribal communities now bearing the brunt of climate change despite contributing very little to it. And on Wednesday, the Biden administration announced $75 million in funding to help three tribes, including the Quinault, move to higher ground.
“There are communities that are in harm’s way and whose residents are in harm’s way,” U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said Wednesday. “But it’s also important to acknowledge that most of these communities can’t do this on their own. They need the federal government to step up and help and that’s particularly important in the instance of tribal communities because the federal government has a trust and treaty responsibility.”Quinault and two Alaska tribal communities will each receive $25 million for relocation efforts. And eight other tribal communities, including four Alaska Native villages and the Yurok Tribe in Northern California, will receive $5 million to start planning for relocation if they choose.
For the Quinault Nation, the $25 million will make up about one-quarter of the relocation’s cost, Fawn Sharp, Quinault vice chairperson, told The New York Times. Projects like these require not just moving buildings, but sewer, water, electricity and more. The projects are a huge undertaking that will require more federal support in the future, Kilmer said.
In 2021, the tribe completed its new Generations Building, home to programs for seniors and children. That year, Kilmer and the tribe hosted U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in Taholah to discuss the imminent threats of climate change for tribal communities and the need for future funding.
Kilmer said tribal leaders told him the ocean seemed like it was a “football field away” when they were growing up. Now, it’s their front porch.
The new funding will be used for a community center that will house a health and wellness center and council meeting space, Sharp said. The structure will also serve as an emergency evacuation center.
The impacts of climate change — sea level rise, flooding, erosion, storm surges and tsunamis — have made it unsafe for Indigenous communities to continue living in low-laying areas, wrote Ed Johnstone, chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and Quinault fisheries spokesperson.
Other tribes along the Washington coast, like the Quileute and Hoh, have also begun moving to higher ground, but need more federal support to continue. The National Congress of American Indians recently asked for a federal relocation coordination program to help tribal communities with the process.
This new funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior through the bipartisan infrastructure bill is slated to create a blueprint for future efforts to help vulnerable communities.
“As part of the federal government’s treaty and trust responsibility to protect Tribal sovereignty and revitalize tribal communities, we must safeguard Indian Country from the intensifying and unique impacts of climate change,” Interior Secretary Haaland said in a statement.
By: Isabella Breda
Source: Seattle Times