Hoh Tribe

The Hoh River Indians are considered a band of the Quileutes but are recognized as a separate tribe. The Hoh Reservation consists of 443 acres located 28 miles south of Forks, and 80 miles north of Aberdeen. The Hoh Reservation has approximately one mile of beach front running east from the mouth of the Hoh River, and south to Ruby Beach. The Hoh Reservation was logged in 1954 and it will be 40-60 years before the second growth will be of commercial value. None of this land has been allotted. The Hoh Indian Reservation was established by an Executive Order of September 11, 1963. The Hoh Tribe has formed a Tribal Government under Public Law 89-655, providing for a basic roll of tribal members. The Governing body is elected by secret ballot biannually in November. The livelihood of the Hoh Indians is primarily fishing although a few of the residents make traditional decorative baskets, carved canoes for ocean going or river use and other decorative carvings. The local people dip for smelts on the beaches and still use smokehouses for preserving food for future use. The tidelands are abundant with razor clams, butter clams, crab and perch fishing.

The tribe has worked for several years to acquire a safe homeland for its people and a viable land base for economic development. The tribe has purchased about 260 acres to move some of its reservation out of the flood zone, and has taken title to 160 acres transferred to the tribe from the state Department of Natural Resources.
The tribe now is seeking 37 acres of national-park land, to be deeded into trust as part of its reservation, through an act of Congress.
While only a small piece of land, it is crucial to the Hoh because it would connect the tribe’s existing parcels into a contiguous swath of usable land. The tribe has plans for a new future on that land, from building housing for its people, to creating a publicly accessible trail from Highway 101 to the beach.
The bill that would transfer the parkland to the tribe would prohibit logging or hunting on the parcel, today in second-growth forest and an important wildlife corridor. The tribe also would be prohibited from developing a casino on the property.

Chalá·at: People of the Hoh River. This river, descending more than 7,000 feet from the Olympic glaciers to tidewater in only 50 miles, is a critical aspect of the environment that made traditional aboriginal lifeways possible in the watershed. The annual average rainfall of 145 inches resulted in abundant and idiosyncratic rainforest vegetation. That, along with the fish and wildlife shaped the tribe’s annual subsistence cycle. Characteristic of neighboring tribal groups in the Northwest Coast cultural area, Hoh life centered on the “salmon, cedar and spirits of their watershed.”

Hoh is a Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. The tribe lives on the Pacific Coast of Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. The Hoh moved onto the Hoh Indian Reservation, 47°44′31″N 124°25′17″W at the mouth of the Hoh River, on the Pacific Coast of Jefferson County, after the signing of the Quinault Treaty on July 1, 1855. The reservation has a land area of 1.929 square kilometres (477 acres) and a 2000 census resident population of 102 persons, 81 of whom were Native Americans. It lies about half-way between its nearest outside communities of Forks, to its north, and Queets (on the Quinault Indian Reservation), to its south. Reservation is 443 acres about 28 miles south of Forks, Washington.

The original Hoh language was actually the Quinault language. Though Hoh are considered to be a band of the Quileute tribe, they are originally related to the Quinault tribe. After intermarriage with the Quileute tribe, the Hoh tribe became a bilingual tribe, speaking both Quileute and Quinault, until the Quileute language was favored.

The Hoh Reservation was logged in 1954 and it will be 40-60 years before the second growth will be of commercial value. None of this land has been allotted. The livelihood of the Hoh Indians is primarily fishing although a few of the residents make traditional decorative baskets, carved canoes for ocean going or river use and other decorative carvings. The local people dip for smelts on the beaches and still use smokehouses for preserving food for future use. The tidelands are abundant with razor clams, butter clams, crab and perch fishing.

Principal industries: Tourism, wood products, agriculture and fishing.

The Hoh Tribe has formed a Tribal Government under Public Law 89-655, providing for a basic roll of tribal members. The Governing body is elected by secret ballot biannually in November.

City: Forks, population 2,870, elevation 300, (logging community on Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Pacific Coast). County: Clallum, population 53,400; Native American, 2,275, 58% of nonwhite population, 4% of total. 1,752 square miles. (Strait of Juan de Fuca and Pacific Coast nearby.) County’s assessed value averages $1,554 per acre. County: Jefferson, population 18,100, Native American 349, 45% of nonwhite and 2% of total population. 1,805 square miles (extends from Pacific Coast through Olympic Peninsula to Puget Sound). County’s assessed value averages $805 an acre.