Longhouse for The People Prepares to Break Ground in Quilcene
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Volunteers strip bark from cedar logs that will become part of the Longhouse For the People. Photo by Angela Downs. [/caption]
News by Angela Downs
Recognition of the need to heal settler history and reinforce Indigenous sovereignty has only recently become a part of mainstream conversation. With deep wounds comes a need for long-term planning and community action.
Naiome Krienke is the founder of Longhouse For the People, held by the Tamanowas Foundation, an Indigenous led organization located on 12 acres of the Olympic Peninsula in Quilcene, WA, aimed at building a longhouse alongside a restorative future.
“I see Longhouse as places where the wounds of both colonization and long-standing tribal conflict can be healed,” said Krienke.
A longhouse is a single-room, narrow structure built by many traditional cultures around the world, including many PNW indigenous tribes. They are used for communal, multi-generational dwelling and support interrelations through rituals, gatherings, and ceremonies. During settler colonialism, longhouses were burned down as tribal families were forced to relocate, and were made illegal in 1910. It wasn’t until 2019 that they became legal again.
The property is on Aqokulo (Chemakum) territory. Krienke lives on the land with her husband and six children. They are a mixed tribal family enrolled at Quinault. Krienke’s Great Great Grandmother, Annie “Hoskia” Bright Hicks Butler Dyer, was Quileute and lived at Point Hudson in Port Townsend WA. She was a blind basket weaver and owned the Tyee Saloon buildings with her third husband.
On Saturday, May 3, over twenty people arrived at Krenke's land for a work party, preparing the land for the longhouse build by clearing scotchbroom and weedeating. Some pulled bark from the locally harvested Cedar logs, and others removed invasive blackberries from around the local Hawthorns– an Indigenous plant that provides heart and blood medicine.
Seventeen thousand dollars of garbage was removed from the land when Krienke first purchased it. During this particular work party, approval was given to remove the last two junk cars left behind. The land hosts first foods gardens (foods eaten pre-contact), an orchard, medicine plants, and running water all the way through the property.
“This effort is just as much cultural restoration as it is land restoration,” Krienke said
“Our next step is preparing the ground for construction. We also plan to construct a traditional smokehouse for drying salmon harvested by our family.”
The land is primarily for Chemakum - Aqokulo use, but open to all tribal people, intended as a place for intertribal cultural events, such as singing, dancing, storytelling, a living museum, and a spiritual healing center.
Traditional workshops, rituals, and educational opportunities will be hosted on the land, along with an invitation to visit as a restorative place to be. Supporters from other Indigenous nations, and Black, People of the Global Majority (PGM), and White settler allies have been an important part of the process and are all welcome too.
“Our longer-term goals include forming an Indigenous-led land trust,” said Krienke. So far, Krienke is the only person who has approached the city council with ideas about working together. Krienke hopes that land owned by tribal citizens can one day be recognized as tribal land and be held as such for all tribal generations of the future. There is also hope for land stewardship within Port Townsend, which would be used for similar traditional and educational practices as the land in Quilcene.
For more information visit, Longhouse For The People. And to donate, go to their patreon at Longhouse for the People. Join their newsletter at, Join — Longhouse For The People and view their event calendar at, https://www.thetamanowasfoundation.org/events. Their next work party is on May 26 and 27.
