A tribe is one signature away from getting its land back along a river that came back to life
Congress has voted to return 1,082 acres along Washington's Elwha River to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, where two dams came down and the salmon returned. The bill now sits on the President's desk.
For nearly a century, two dams blocked the Elwha River in Washington state, and with it the salmon runs that had fed the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for generations. The dams came down more than a decade ago. Now the land around the river is about to go back to its original stewards.
Congress has passed a bill transferring 1,082 acres to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to be held in trust for the tribe. The House approved it in December 2025 and the Senate on 24 September. On 14 October it was presented to the President. One signature is all that’s left.
The land that held a river’s comeback
Most of it, 1,061 acres, was bought by the National Park Service so the dams could be demolished. It sits just outside Olympic National Park. The other two parcels were acquired to build a pipeline carrying water to the tribe’s new hatchery, the House of Salmon.
The goal: restore habitat and help bring back five species of Pacific salmon, plus steelhead and bull trout.
Unusually broad support
The bill drew backing from Washington’s Department of Transportation, the neighbouring Makah Tribe and the City of Port Angeles, and cleared the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs unanimously. Senator Maria Cantwell called it “an important action for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe”.
