Climate Refugees of the Quinault Indian Nation
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Conversations on race and climate change Case studies CASE STUDY #3 by Tso’lo si’am A. Eatherton IT TAKES A VILLAGE: CLIMATE REFUGEES OF THE QUINAULT INDIAN NATION Conversations about climate change tend to get framed around the unavoidable catastrophes of the future wrought by our actions today. But the Quinault Nation is experiencing the impacts of climate change right now, and it’s irrevocably altering the community’s culture and way of life. Taholah Josh Cohen Taholah sits on the western eight times. Oral history of the edge of the Olympic peninsula Quinault tells of great floods in so called Washington, USA. sweeping away swaths of land, PACIFIC OCEAN It is one of the main villages destroying plankhouses, and of the Quinault Indian Nation leaving a path of flattened beach (QIN), sitting on land that has grass. These oral histories have been inhabited by the ancestors been matched to slips and strikes of the kw ínay , Chehalis, and of the fault lines of the Pacific Chinook since time immemorial Ocean, earthquakes that caused (Lehman 2017). The lower tsunamis that rise to the height village sits about ten meters of multiple trees (Lehman 2017). from the Pacific Ocean, a meter These events are very rare, the and a half above sea level. It has last occurrence in the oral record been here for thousands of years, being 319 years ago. Storm but since 1990 the village has surges are never mentioned in been inundated by storm surges oral histories, and even recent – 17 – – 18 – Conversations on race and climate change Case studies 95% of Taholah’s population are a master plan for the new village was presented Indigenous to Quinault (QIN 2017). in 2017. Planners and officials within QIN are Taholah’s residents experience using the relocation as an opportunity to take intergenerational trauma from the ownership and agency over the construction designed decimation of populations and design of the village. Though the village through disease, forced removal and of kʷínayʷ sat on this land for thousands of centralization from land based living years, Taholah as it is experienced today is onto small reservations, and the cultural under the colonial constraints of the Bureau of and physical genocide of the residential Indian Affairs, who built much of the current school system (Amberson et al. 2016). infrastructure when people from throughout western Washington were moved onto the Quinault reservation. This was during the Figure 3: Quinault community members used to commercially fish the Figure 2: Lower Taholah’s sea wall with encroaching Pacific ocean This relates back to the root of settler- Quinault River. Most salmon stocks are now closed due to settler overfishing. colonialism and the policies of the decades-long ban on traditional housing, dance, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), created and song; most of these building are currently to expand white supremacy’s ideals of designed for assimilation of culture, not the manifest destiny into US law. To this celebration and teaching of it (Amberson et al. day, BIA controls many aspects of life 2016). for Indigenous people in the United States; healthcare, education, treaty Climate change’s effect on the community of obligations, reservation employment, Taholah is not only limited to sea level rise and law enforcement are all administered and storm surges. Higher amounts of average through BIA and its branches. BIA precipitation have already caused flooding of also holds all reservation lands in trust upland areas on the Quinault and Queets Rivers, for Native Americans and “status” exacerbating flooding issues in lower Taholah. Indigenous peoples are effectively As well, warmer ocean temperatures and ocean wards of the state (Lehman 2017). A acidification have. Along with historic and Figure 3: Taholah community member canoeing on flooded main street in 2015 continual overfishing, led to the degradation of Figure 4: Quinault community members conduct arrival protocol to welcome lost sense of agency results from the neighboring canoes for Tribal Canoe Journeys. extent of this government control, and salmon stocks in the Quinault River. This is a accounts from elders record agreed upon in 2015 after being forced to rebuild an entire village critical food source for members of the Quinault the beach being about 200 two consecutive record is another layer of this loss. Current- Indian Nation, and is also of great cultural be both exacerbated and addressed by the relocation meters wide between the breaking years of flooding day Taholah was designed and built importance. Similarly, razor clam populations plan. One of the dangers to women, overcrowding village and the ocean. (EPA 2018). Climate models by BIA when people from throughout on the beaches near Taholah are in decline due in housing, will be resolved with new single family, predict that storm surges western Washington were moved onto to sea level rise and ocean acidification. Though multi-family, and apartment style dwellings designed As sea level rises and storms will inundate the area of the the Quinault reservation. This is the the relocation of the village to higher ground for the new village site. As well, access to culturally essence of settler-colonialism in North creates a solution for the flooding issues in relevant health care and education will be available become more severe and lower village every year after e more frequent, Taholah is 2060 (QIN 2017). The loss America; enacting policies and creating Lower Taholah, many of these larger issues at the health center and at Wenα sgw ll α ? α W, a left increasingly vulnerable of belonging and culture institutions like the BIA to remove the cannot be as easily solved, and will require generationally oriented community center that to flooding from storm resulting from the moving agency of the Indigenous people and societal shifts globally to prevent catastrophic will house the seniors program, Head Start, Early surges and tsunamis (QIN of an entire village would to assimilate those people into settler climate change. Many of these impacts, however, Start, and Day Care. Another danger to women, 2018). QIN is left with no be traumatic for any people, society. are locked in, and these cultural staples may be lack of steady community employment, will also be choice but to relocate the but the effects are intensified lost forever. resolved by the relocation plan, as the project will village to higher ground, a in Taholah by its specific Taholah’s community has been making bring hundreds of jobs to the community. However, decision that the community demographics and history. plans for this relocation for 4 years, and Dangers to women in the community will it is unlikely that the building and construction to – 19 – – 20 – Increase in violence against sex workers Conversations on race and climate change Case studies Flooding concerns Loss of be done is possible using building on reservation land Smaller critical salmon infrastructure Loss of only employment from the runs belonging is shown in the lack of this Loss of community, so the establishment essential piece of infrastructure There is hope work Loss of Movement of some kind of man camp is in current lower Taholah. As of elders within the crisis for sacred sites/ likely during the construction a result, plans now include the Man camps burial areas period. This influx of settler building of the community Quinault and the Loss of usable labor, usually men, typically center Wenα sgw e ll α ? α W. people of Taholah. reservation land Lack creates a less safe environment This addresses a multitude of of BIA funding for women in Indigenous and effects that colonization and remote communities due to the Loss of razor the village relocation have on clam fishing Displacement lack of connection of these men the Quinault; it will improve Potential climate future in DAILY IMPACTS DAILY of community away from to those communities, therefore safety for elders and children, Taholah could include a coastline Moving costs a perceived lack of consequences provide culture and language reclaiming of cultural practices Influx of for the actions of these men. revitalization programs, that have historically been colonizers to the Perpetuation community of historical This is a direct expression of the and encourage community rejected by the US government displacmeent power of the cisheteropatriarchy members to remain with the and Bureau of Indian Affairs due Overcrowded Job Community over marginalized peoples community throughout the to their inherent incompatibility housing creation member exodus including Indigenous women. process of relocation. Moving with settler-colonial ideology, into the future with a center white supremacy, and the Treaty/cession process Loss of culture and ageism were for gathering and learning will cisheteropatriarchy. This two of the largest concerns help Taholah embrace cultural reclamation would allow Carbon US judicial intensive system Quinault put forward by community resurgence and language. Taholah residents and the larger industries Nation Police members during the consultation Quinault Indian Nation as a process for the relocation plan. There is hope within the crisis whole to return to Indigenous US Intergenerational government trauma Enviromental The community is made up for Quinault and the people of practices and integrate this Protection Washington Agency (EPA) of a large number of elders Taholah. Planners and officials indignity into present day Salmon State fishing Bureau Government and youth, both groups are