The Quileute Tribe is small, approximately 750 persons. They are nestled on the Washington coast�surrounded on three sides by the Olympic National Forest with its massive, old growth evergreen trees, and on the fourth side by the beauty and treachery of the Pacific Ocean. They are literally living in a rain forest; and much of their one-square-mile coastal village/reservation, at La Push, is within the area now designated as a "coastal tsunami danger zone." The tribe is currently in land swapping negotiations with the park. This is especially critical because the tribal school is still within the tsunami zone.

In hard hats and sporting shovels, the crew awaits their big moment.

It was only fitting that the future beneficiaries of the Quileute Tribe's new Child Development Center would be the ones to break ground for construction of the building that will be named the Quileute word for "the little children's building."

On April 28, a crew of hardhat clad 2 to 5 year olds performed the groundbreaking for the new 8,600 square-foot building, which by October will house both their daycare and the tribe's Head Start Program.

The $1.5 million project is funded, primarily by two HUD grants: a $500,000 Indian Community Development Block Grant and $472,000 from their Indian Housing Block Grant funding. The new center will replace a building that is deemed a major safety hazard to the children-both from extensive damage that occurred during a recent major windstorm, and due to the fact that it is located within a recently expanded tsunami zone.

"Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho�" The groundbreaking crew is ready to dig some dirt.

About the ancient Quileute people: The Quileute tribe's ancestry purportedly reaches back to the Ice Age, which would make them the most ancient inhabitants (www.u-s-history.com/pages/h610.html) of the Pacific Northwest.

Like many Northwest Coast natives, the Quileute relied on fishing from local rivers and the Pacific Ocean for food. They also hunted sea mammals and were accomplished whalers and sealers. The cedar canoes they built ranged in capacity from two-man crafts to vessels capable of conveying 6,000 pounds of freight. The Quileute spun long dog hair into warm blankets and wove fine baskets - some of them capable of holding water.

Olympic National Forest

Extended families of Quileute built plank houses (longhouses) to protect themselves from the harsh wet winters west of the Cascade Mountains.