The Forks Chamber of Commerce was invited by the Quileute Tribal Council to hold the organization’s weekly meeting on Wednesday, May 16 at the River’s Edge restaurant in LaPush. At the meeting Quileute Tribal Council Vice-Chairperson Deanna Hobson greeted the Forks’ Chamber members and gave an update on the Quileute’s recent acquisition of Olympic National Park lands. The Quileutes need to move their government offices, tribal school and low-lying coastal homes to a tsunami-safe location. Currently the location of the facilities are located on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and vulnerable to inundation should large tsunami waves roll ashore. The land lies adjacent to the one-square-mile Quileute Reservation. One plot of land encompasses about 285 acres and is located near the entrance to the reservation on the plateau just beyond the A-Ka-Lat Center at LaPush. A second section of park land, some 550 acres, is located up the Quillayute River from the Quileute village at LaPush. Quileute Tribal Council Secretary Naomi Jacobson also greeted the visitors from Forks.

Acting Quileute Tribal Council Executive Director Larry Burtness provides a brief overview of the location and benefits of the land acquisition, which was approved by Congress earlier this year. He said surveying work begins later this month by a crew funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs on a new location for the Quileute Tribal School on the upper plateau parcel. He said relocation plans are in the works for the tribal school, the senior center, the social services building and the Quileute Tribal Council’s administration office building. 

Burtness reported that several hundred halibut fishermen used the Quileute Marina area facilities at LaPush during the recent halibut fishing open day. Another date is scheduled before the end of the month.