The Quinault Indian Nation, whose small village lies at the
mouth of the Quinault River on the outer coast of Washington's Olympic
Peninsula, for now they are relying on a 2,000-foot-long sea wall to protect it
from the encroaching Pacific Ocean.
This Native American Tribe has considered abandoning the lands
it has lived on for thousands of years. The Quinault tribe has developed a $60
million plan to move their entire village of Taholah uphill away from the sea. They
will have to relocating the school, the courthouse, the police station and the
homes of 700 tribal members.
The effects of climate change for the Quinault doesn't end with
sea-level rise. Five years ago, the Anderson Glacier, which contributes cool
water to the Quinault River, disappeared for good. This past winter, there was minimal
snowmelt feeding into the Olympic Peninsula's rivers, including the Quinault.
Normally, glacial melt supplements river flows late in the summer and early fall.
Without the glacier, the Quinault River was lower than ever recorded. So low
that while walking through a newly exposed stretch of riverbed, one tribal
member stubbed his toe on what turned out to be a mastodon jaw that may have
been submerged since the last ice age.
The Quinault people are dependent on salmon fishing. The warm
ocean waters and dry summer have made for a confusing and hostile environment
for salmon, which rely on cool river flows to find their way home to spawning
grounds above Lake Quinault.
Indigenous peoples around the world are often on the front lines
of climate change despite the fact that they contribute the smallest amount of
greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2015/12/01/455745765/facing-rising-waters-a-native-tribe-takes-its-plea-to-paris-climate-talks
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| The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers repairing the seawall that protects the village of Taholah, March 2014. Photo Credit: Larry Workman, Quinault Indian Nation |
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A tribal fisherman brings up his nets near the mouth of the Quinault River on the coast of Washington state. Climate change is threatening tribal families, who have worked the same fishing grounds along this river for generations.
Photo credit:Ashley Ahearn/KUOW/EarthFix |
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| Map of Quinault traditional tribal territory and reservation en.wikipedia.org |
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