Finland’s Aalto University is helping a rare North American indigenous people design a new hometown that is out of harm’s way, in a cooperative effort with a backstory as unlikely as any that could be imagined.
The Quileute tribe of La Push, Washington holds a ritual each year, where every woman, man and child in the reservation summons local whales, dolphins, sharks, seals and other marine species to the community’s beach by playing drums. The tribe’s chief then wades among the animals and interprets the sounds they make.
In 2014, tribal leaders said they received information from the Pacific Ocean whales that a tsunami would soon hit their community. La Push is located at the intersection of three tectonic plates, and is prone to earthquakes of a 9-point magnitude.
The tribe immediately started to make plans to move their community to higher ground. It applied for and received money from both the State of Washington and the federal government to fund the relocation. Read More…