La Push, Washington
Unincorporated area in Clallam County · Not an incorporated municipality
About La Push
La Push (Quileute: Kʷoʔlí·yot̓) is a small unincorporated community situated at the mouth of the Quillayute River in the Western Olympic Peninsula. It is the de facto capital and main population center of the Quileute Indian Reservation, which is home to the federally recognized Quileute tribe. La Push is known for its whale-watching and natural environment. The community has historically been located on the coast; however, sea level rise led the community to begin managed retreat to higher grounds in 2017.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
How La Push is governed
La Push appears to be an unincorporated community or a census-designated place, so it may have no city government of its own — services usually come from Clallam County and its elected officials. The chart below is a generic template; readers can correct it if La Push does have local officials.
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Residents of La Push
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Mayor
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The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.
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The budget, taxes, and city accounts.
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City Council
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City Clerk
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City Attorney
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History
Etymology
The name La Push is from French term, La Bouche, meaning "The Mouth" of the Quillayute River, adapted into Chinook Jargon.
Quileute Tribe history
La Push, 14 miles from Forks, is home to the Quileute Tribe. Tribal members traditionally built cedar canoes for a variety of uses; they ranged in size from two-man to ocean-going freight vessels capable of carrying three tons. The Quileute ranked second only to the Makah as whalers and first among all the tribes as seal hunters. They bred special woolly-haired dogs and spun and wove their hair into prized warm blankets. According to traditional stories, the Quileutes' only kin, the Chimakum, were separated from them by a great flood that swept them to the Quimper Peninsula on the other side of the North Olympic Peninsula. There they were attacked and destroyed in the 1860s by Chief Seattle and the Suquamish Tribe.
Their first treaty with the United States occurred in 1855, when the Quileutes signed a treaty with representatives of the governor of the Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens. A treaty a year later would have moved them to a reservation in Taholah, but the Quileute territory was so remote that it was not enforced. In February 1889, an executive order by President Grover Cleveland established a one-mile square reservation at La Push. At the time the town had 252 inhabitants. Later in 1889, arsonists destroyed La Push while villagers were picking hops in Puyallup.
La Push relocation
Work began in 2017 to relocate the village to higher ground. The plan was to reduce damage from tsunamis and flooding that might result from a higher sea level caused by climate change. The plan required modification of the boundaries of the Olympic National Park. The first building that was moved was the K-12 school.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.