The Twilight Epic used its own people and traditions. Now, the Quileute Tribe moves on in an effort to preserve it.

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Quileute Tribal School is located just yards from the Pacific Ocean in the Quileute community in La Push, Washington, Monday, April 11, 2011. Tony Offerman/The Olympian/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The Peninsula Daily News reports that construction of the new Quileute Tribal School is expected to be completed in May 2022.

In 2012, President Barack Obama signed a bill to relocate 785 acres of Olympic National Park in order to relocate the Quiliote Tribe.

Quileute Tribal School is the only institution that teaches the language of the tribe.

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The Quileute Tribe has resided in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years, and has preserved their ocean-centric language and culture despite being forcibly resettled via executive order on a one-square-mile reservation in La Bush, Washington. In recent years, the tribe’s lower village has been forced to relocate from its ancestral home due to the threat of extreme weather events.

The Quileute Tribal School and the community’s lower village are located near the Pacific Ocean, only feet above sea level in northwest Washington, according to the tribe’s Move To Higher Ground website.

“A catastrophic earthquake can wipe out our community in less than 10 minutes – an entire generation of Quileute people will cease to exist,” the site’s homepage says. The community is also at risk from floods and storms as sea levels rise.

Geologists told the Peninsula Daily News that a 9.0-magnitude earthquake could occur at any time along the Cascadia subduction zone and trigger a 40-foot-high tsunami that slams into low-lying coastal areas like La Bosch.

Even as construction began last July at the school’s new site, the school is just the first phase in a multigenerational effort to move tribal facilities and housing to higher ground, according to the Peninsula Daily News.

The Move to Higher Ground defines its new site, which will include the Quileute Tribal School, Seniors Center, cultural facilities, a tribal government building, a justice complex, residential areas, gardens, and open spaces.

“So much has been achieved by our former leaders, many years of fighting for what is rightfully ours, to protect and preserve our children and our culture. It is time to build that future,” said the Quileute Tribe Statement: Presentation to the Indian Education Bureau.

Many viewers got to know the Quileute tribe through the saga “Twilight”, a series of films based on books by Stephenie Meyer. Although its members have differing opinions about the books’ depiction of their people and culture, the Quileute tribe has been forced to negotiate their rights to their oral history, ancient mask and emblem designs, and even the sanctity of their tombs, according to an article by Deana Dartt-Newton and Tasia Endo for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. It is based in Seattle.

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