Tribe closes beach access in hopes of higher ground

The small Quileute Indian Reservation sits on a shoreline of storm-tossed driftwood and pebble beaches, with dramatic views of rock formations rising out of the Pacific Ocean.

But the same ocean that crashes daily on these beaches could roll ashore and sweep away the tribe’s lower village in a tsunami. That fear is stoking the fire under a long-simmering boundary battle between the Quileute Tribe and the National Park Service. The tribe has closed public access to one beach, and threatens to close another if they don’t get additional land on higher ground.

The tribe has offered a land swap -- it will hand over eight acres of disputed land at Rialto Beach and reopen access to Second Beach if the Park Service cedes -- or buys for the tribe -- enough land to more than double the size of the reservation.

“We don’t have anything against the public,” said James Jaime, the tribe’s executive director. “It was the only way to get the federal government’s attention.”

The reservation is bounded on one side by the ocean and three sides by Olympic National Park. The tribe wants to move its school, senior center, tribal offices and some housing to higher ground as well as expand its reservation to build more housing developments.

Of the more than 700 members of the tribe, 350 live on the reservation -- 250 in the flood zone.

“Our primary concern is the health, safety and welfare of not only the tribal members, but the entire community,” said Jaime, noting that during the summer, thousands of tourists flock to the area.

Tribal leaders originally sought 1,200 acres, but are now asking for about 800 acres to add to their one-square-mile reservation -- 309 acres of parklands, and another 480 acres of private land that it wants the National Park Service to purchase for them.

The Quileute reservation was established in 1889 at the mouth of the Quillayute River; Olympic National Park has bordered the reservation since 1953. The tribe and the park have been debating the boundary at Rialto Beach for decades. The tribe argues that it owns most of Rialto Beach, but the park has built a parking lot and a restroom at the edge of the beach, and both sides are disputing eight acres of land there.

The dispute came to a head last year after a tribal member was cited for collecting firewood near the disputed boundary. Though charges were ultimately dropped, Jaime said that the tribe needed to take action.

To get the government’s attention, the tribe closed off access to one of the most admired sections of Washington state’s Pacific shore, Second Beach, in October 2005. The beach is public, but the parking lot and access to the trail to the beach is on tribal ground.

“This was the one that actually brought them to the table so we could start some serious negotiations,” Jaime said.

The park service has offered 274 acres of parkland -- a deal that officials say the tribe should take.

Olympic National Park Supt. Bill Laitner said that the park wanted to make sure the tribe could move people out of the tsunami zone.

“We feel that is of utmost importance,” he said. “We believe we can do that. We don’t believe we can solve all of the tribes’ problems for all time.”

After several meetings, the two sides remain at an impasse, and the tribe said that it was ready to raise the ante.

“If there are no improvements to this offer and we do not resolve this issue, Rialto Beach will be closed next year,” Jaime said. “Rialto Beach is very important to the park. It’s very pristine -- a very beautiful piece of property.”

Laitner agreed, but said that while closing the beach would be inconvenient for park visitors, it would also be “devastating to the local economy” of the tribe.

“I don’t think the tribe wants that,” he said.

The park also is set to negotiate with another nearby tribe that wants to move housing out of the tsunami zone.

Larry Burtness, the planner and grant writer for the Hoh Tribe, about 30 miles south, said that tribe wanted to move the 130 members who lived in the flood zone of the 440-acre reservation to higher ground.

He said they hadn’t begun formal negotiations with the park service for about 20 acres of parkland. They also are seeking to negotiate with the state and private business for additional land in the area.

The last time a tsunami hit the area was 1964, when a quake in Alaska generated waves that caused damage in southeastern Alaska, on Vancouver Island, Canada, and in Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii.

“The concern is very real,” Burtness said, adding that the reservation flooded earlier this month from heavy rains.

Jaime said that if a tsunami warning were issued for the coast, people would have just minutes to travel nearly a mile down the only road out of the reservation.

In October, the Quileute Tribe had a reservation-wide tsunami drill with a complete evacuation of the lower village, getting everyone to high ground in nine minutes -- the amount of time tribal leaders have determined is necessary to prevent loss of life.

“What I fear the most is at 3 o’clock in the morning, when we are all sleeping and not prepared,” Jaime said. “Our exercises, our drills -- they’re structured, they’re choreographed. It’s the real event that’s going to be unpredictable.”

Any change in the boundary would have to be approved by Congress, but the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks, said he worried that if the tribe didn’t accept the current offer, they may end up with nothing.

“We’re all concerned about the safety of the tribe and the possibility of a tsunami,” he said. The tribe has “to realize that they are running a risk by not accepting this offer.”

But Jaime said that the land exchange was the only fair deal that could be made, noting that the tribe lost most of its land more than a century ago, and didn’t want to lose any more.

“We ceded 90 square miles of property to the federal government, now we have just one square mile,” he said.

But Jaime said they were not using the tsunami concern to make a random land grab.

“It’s the complete reverse. We’re trying to prevent the park from taking over our land,” he said. “It’s not a tribal land grab. It’s the national park that’s been grabbing our land. If Rialto Beach is something that they need, and they want, then we should be compensated in equal value.”