The Quinault Indian Nation ( or ; QIN), formerly known as the Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation, is a

federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

of Quinault,

Queets Queets is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Grays Harbor and Jefferson counties, Washington, United States. The population was 174 at the 2010 census. The primary residents of the community are Native Americans of ...

Quileute The Quileute , are a Native American people in western Washington state in the United States, currently numbering approximately 2,000. They are a federally recognized tribe: the ''Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation''. The Quileute peo ...

Hoh Water () is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "univer ...

Chehalis Chehalis may refer to: People * Chehalis people, a Native American people of Washington state **Lower Chehalis language **Upper Chehalis language * Sts'Ailes people (Chehalis people), a First Nation in British Columbia * Chehalis First Nation, Bri ...

, Chinook, and

Cowlitz people The term Cowlitz people covers two culturally and linguistically distinct indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest; the Lower Cowlitz or Cowlitz proper, and the Upper Cowlitz / Cowlitz Klickitat or Taitnapam. Lower Cowlitz refers to a southwe ...

s."People of the Quinault."
''Quinault Indian Nation.'' Retrieved 24 Sept 2013. They are a Southwestern

Coast Salish people The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coast ...

indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and prac ...

. Their tribe is located in

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

on the Pacific coast of the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

. These peoples are also represented in other tribes in Washington and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. In July 2016, about 2,500 landowners with interests in the Quinault Reservation were offered about $59 million by the

U.S. Department of Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the man ...

as part of its Native Lands Buy-Back Program as part of the settlement of the ''

Cobell v. Salazar ''Cobell v. Salazar'' (previously ''Cobell v. Kempthorne'' and ''Cobell v. Norton'' and ''Cobell v. Babbitt'') is a class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) and other Native American representatives in 1996 against two departm ...

'' class-action suit."Landowners on two reservations see $70M from Cobell program"
''Indianz.com,'' 14 July 2016; accessed 26 November 2016"Landowners with Fractional Interests at Fort Hall, Quinault Indian Reservations Receive $70 Million in Buy-Back Purchase Offers"
14 July 2016, Press Release, Department of Interior; accessed 26 November 2016 The land purchased will be put into trust for the tribe at this reservation. Among other tribes, a range of 41 to 45% of people have accepted such offers. The agency has restored about to tribes under this program.

Reservation

The Quinault Reservation was founded in 1855 with the signing of the

Treaty of Olympia The Quinault Treaty (also known as the Quinault River Treaty and the Treaty of Olympia) was a treaty agreement between the United States and the Native American Quinault and Quileute tribes located in the western Olympic Peninsula north of Grays ...

(also known as the Quinault River Treaty) with the United States. The reservation covers and includes of

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coastline, located on the southwestern corner of the

. It is bordered by the

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

to the northwest, which was established in 1909 as a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

by President

Teddy Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

. The reservation is in

Grays Harbor Grays Harbor is an estuary, estuarine bay located north of the mouth of the Columbia River, on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington (U.S. state), Washington state, in the United States of America. It is a ria, which formed at the end of the l ...

and

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

counties, north of

Hoquiam, Washington Hoquiam ( ) is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. It borders the city of Aberdeen at Myrtle Street, with Hoquiam to the west. The two cities share a common economic history in lumbering and exporting, but Hoquiam has mainta ...

. The three largest rivers on the reservation are the Quinault, the

, and the

Raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrel ...

. The Quinault Indian Nation owns

Lake Quinault Lake Quinault ( or ) is a lake on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington state. It is located in the glacial-carved Quinault Valley of the Quinault River, at the southern edge of Olympic National Park in the northwestern United States. One o ...

Taholah

Taholah is the largest settlement in the Quinault Reservation and is home to the tribal government's main facilities. In 2015, the tribal government proposed a $60 million plan to relocate the village to an uphill area southeast of the existing village, away from potential

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

and flooding hazard zones. Construction on the relocated village began in 2019. The first part of the relocated village, a senior and children center named the Generations Building (), opened in May 2021.

Government

The Quinault Indian Nation is headquartered in

Taholah, Washington Taholah is a census-designated place (CDP) on the Quinault Indian Reservation, in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. Named for a Quinault chief in 1905, its population was 840 at the 2010 census. The headquarters for the Quinault ...

. They ratified their bylaws on 24 August 1922 and their constitution in 1975. The tribe is governed by an eleven-member Tribal Council, or "Business Committee", which is democratically elected by the adult tribal membership (the General Council) at regular annual meetings. The current tribal administration is as follows: * President: Guy Capoeman * Vice President: Fawn Sharp * Treasurer: Larry Ralston * Secretary: Latosha Underwood * 1st councilwoman: Gina James * 2nd councilmen: Jim Sellers * 3rd councilmen: John Bryson Jr. * 4th councilwoman: Noreen Underwood * 5th councilwoman: Dawneen Delacruz * 6th councilwoman: Clarinda Underwood * 7th councilmen: Thomas Obi."Quinault Tribal Council."
''Quinault Indian Nation.'' Retrieved 24 Sept 2013. Enrollment to the Quinault Indian Tribe requires a minimum

blood quantum Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establ ...

of one-fourth of any combination of the seven member tribes. Persons who are direct descendants of members but have less than one-fourth blood quantum can apply to be formally adopted into the tribe.

Language

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

is commonly spoken by the tribe. Formerly tribal members spoke

Cowlitz Cowlitz may refer to: People * Cowlitz people, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest ** Cowlitz language, member of the Tsamosan branch of the Coast Salish family of Salishan languages * Cowlitz Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe of ...

, and

Chinook language The Chinookan languages were a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples. Although the last known native speaker of any Chinookan language died in 2012, the 2009-2013 American Community ...

Economic development

The Quinault Indian Nation owns Quinault Pride Seafood, Land, and Timber Enterprises, and the Mercantile in

. They run their own internal facilities and in the 21st century are the largest employer in Grays Harbor County. They also own and operate the Quinault Beach Resort and , a new enterprise started in the late 20th century; Emily's Ocean Front Restaurant, Sidewalk Bistro and Deli, coffee bar, and Fireplace Nook; and Qmart 1 in Oyehut, near

Ocean Shores, Washington Ocean Shores is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. The population was 6,715 at the 2020 census. History The City of Ocean Shores occupies the Point Brown peninsula on the Washington coast. Long before the arrival of Eu ...

. They also own Qmart 2 in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. Since 2009, the casino has been the site of the annual Hog Wild Rally, one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the Pacific Northwest. In June 2018, $25 million in renovations and expansion to the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino were completed. This project included remodeling of 159 resort rooms, additional gaming area, a new feature bar, kitchen facilities and a tribal themed buffet restaurant.

Notes

References

External links

Quinault Indian Nation
official website

Economic Development of QIN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinault Indian Nation Coast Salish governments Native American tribes in Washington (state) Geography of Grays Harbor County, Washington Geography of Jefferson County, Washington Federally recognized tribes in the United States Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast Quileute Quinault