The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe fought for decades to free its river of dams in the heart of the Olympic Peninsula. The dam removal was the largest in the world at the time and is still widely known as an example of successful river restoration.
When the final obstacles were taken out 12 years ago, salmon quickly returned to the pristine habitat upriver in Olympic National Park. The tribe revived a subsistence fishery. The dam removal also uncovered nearly 1,100 acres of federal lands that the tribe is now getting ready to reclaim.
Congress passed a bill this fall enabling the transfer. Once completed, it will nearly double the tribe’s reservation. Last week, tribal leaders toured the land with staff from the National Park Service. Melissa Gilman, chair of the tribe, said the land includes several sacred places that had been submerged, among them, what is known as the tribe’s creation site.
“This is a part of who we are as a people,” she said. “We're getting our land back, even if it's just a little bit. We're getting it back, and we can steward these lands as our ancestors did. And we can take our youth out and teach them these stories that we've been told for decades. It's a huge thing because these are the stories that we've heard, and it brings us back to that connection to our ancestors.”
Once completed, Gilman said, the land transfer will ensure that the tribe has oversight of the full river restoration. Seeing the land uncovered and no longer underwater brought home for her that along with the salmon returns, other things are bringing the Elwha back to life.
“There's trees, there's vegetation. I mean, it's going to be so good for the river and the restoration efforts that the tribe had done for so long,” she said.
The legislation now awaits President Donald Trump’s signature. Once approved, it will be the first time since the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe signed a treaty with the federal government in 1855 that lands have returned to it.
Gilman said that although the dam removal has promised to give them land back, it also eroded about 100 acres of beach.
