School at the Edge of the World

In my persona as (volunteer) consultant/helper to tribal libraries, I spent Friday with the woman who takes care of the school/community library in La Push on the Quileute Reservation (maps: 1)(2). We were working on the corner where the Native American books are shelved: putting things in order, assigning numbers, reshelving. (We also got permission to get rid of seven different old encyclopedia sets.)

If I worked there, I'd never get anything done. The windows of the library look west, and those of the adjacent classroom look out at the north end of First Beach.

Classroom window, Quileute Tribal School. Looking along First Beach. (Click for larger image.)"When there are whales, we see them out there behind those trees." (Click for larger image.)
Library window, Quileute Tribal School. Looking west, to Gunsight Rock. (Click for larger image.)

It rained like crazy while I was driving out there, and then was really windy. The whole building shook. Then the weather moved on east, and things lightened up. When we were finished, there was no point to chasing the storm east along the highway and getting blown into the lake. So I parked the car behind the school and went out on the beach. Low tide, and lots of wave action. Not likely to be able to spot gray whales. One of the teachers told me they've been seeing them, though not today.

The school is the left-most building, with the blue roof. (Click for larger image.)

The empty classroom which opens on the library, where two teachers and I took our lunch trays, had signs and posters in Quileute, Quileute words on the greenboard. I heard that the actor who plays Jacob in the Twilight movies came for lessons in speaking Quileute, to prepare for his much larger role in the second film, now in production around Tofino up on Vancouver Island (not around here in La Push and Forks, where the stories take place)(eeee-too-bad).