Burke: Even in far-flung Neah Bay, covid’s isolation comes hard

By Tom Burke / Herald columnist

Neah Bay (at the very northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula) has some of the most awesome, the-world-as-it-once-was topography in the Pacific Northwest.

The ocean, mountains, forest, beaches and the Strait of Juan de Fuca are unmatched in terms of their testimony to the wonder of all that God hath wrought. It’s the place to go when the soul needs rejuvenation or the body a good workout.

But the coronavirus has changed everything.

For Tom and Dora Burlingame, who own a charming, honest, just-outside-the-Makah-tribal-reservation bed-and-breakfast, The Inn at Neah Bay, (along with a charter fishing/maritime tour business) it’s been a long, hard nine months as the Makah Nation closed its reservation down tight when covid-19 first struck, back in March.

While Tom says, “Normally, a lot of people come here for what we don’t have;” meaning there’s no chichi crowds, rank commercialism or too-cutsy tourist traps; now they no longer have all the great places people want to visit (on the reservation). So the shutdown was a big hit to bookings, although Tom says they are “managing” at the inn and had to relocate their fishing boat from the closed tribal marina in Neah Bay to nearby Sekiu, which remained open. (Tom hopes Sekiu’s docks will re-open for a hoped-for rockfish season beginning in March after their winter hiatus.)

The Burlingames got a bit of help from the Cares Act, are scrupulously disinfecting rooms, and reminding people that there’s more to the area than just the reservation.

For the Makah people, however, the pandemic has meant a near-total life transformation, as they went into isolation from outsiders. The (only) road in, Highway 112, was “closed” with tribal authorities monitoring who goes in and out. (Ya gotta either live on the reservation or have legitimate business there to gain entry.)

The tribe’s Hobuck Beach resort has been shuttered; the Shi Shi Beach Trail is shut down as is the Third Beach Trail (surf ain’t up no more); the Cape Flattery Trail is shut; and the tribal museum is closed.

But the good news, according to Tim Green, the tribal council chairman, is their measures have worked. “We developed our own pandemic protocols and have only had nine cases of covid-19 since March, and none of them have been communal transmissions.”

However, like much of 2020, it’s a bittersweet victory.

“This is troubling for a small rural community,” Green said.

“We’ve had help via the Cares Act, through federal treaty obligations, and worked closer with the state to obtain PPE and bring some economic stability into the homes of our residents,” he said. (Green reported, for example, both the tribal government and the Makah Museum are buying art from local craftspeople to keep them going.)

But the loss of visitors has hurt. While the town’s one grocery store is still open, many other business are shuttered; anglers no longer come to fish (and buy food, rent campsites, or charter boats); and the Hobuck Beach cabins and campsites are locked.

The children of Neah Bay, like kids everywhere, are distance learning, and that too has been a challenge, Green said.

That’s the bitter part.

On the sweet side, however, he observed a renewed sense of place and an enhanced appreciation for the tribal traditions.

“We’re still living on our ancestral lands (the Makah weren’t “relocated” by the 1850s Stevens treaties), we still own the five villages we originally owned, and we’re developing even more connections to the amazing land of our forefathers.”

He also said people have a new-found appreciation for what visitors bring to the community and they are actively planning for their return.

At the end of our conversation, Green reflected a bit, describing the Makah as “people of the sea, of the ocean.” And like the sea and the ocean, he agreed that a popular sentiment among Native Americans nationwide — “We’re still here.” — could sum up the year.

An end of year note: Most columnists end a year, decade, era with a retrospective. I’m foregoing that journalistic tradition, there’s more than enough of it going round.

Instead I’d like to thank the many people whose help I’ve received over the past few years: Jon Bauer, my Daily Herald editor; my wife who “proofs” my grammar (and my thinking), my three children and their families who provide some of the ideas I scribble about, and, most of all, the many readers who write me about what I write.

Yes, readers do write. A lot. Some like what I do; others think it stinks. I appreciate both sentiments, because it is readers’ comments that keep me grounded, keep me honest, and remind me there’s no shortage of perspectives out there, and how fortunate I am to have a forum to express mine.

Stay safe and mask up.

Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.