Quinault members serve food to homeless camps on Christmas

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Around 30 people from the Quinault Indian Nation spent Christmas morning serving hot food and drinks to more than 100 homeless people camping out along the Chehalis River in Aberdeen. The volunteers distributed 125 meals of oatmeal, biscuits and gravy and Indian tea and coffee.

“As for me, a disabled, Queets tribal elder woman, it was the best Christmas gift we could share with our less fortunate,” said tribal elder Jean Ramos. “They were really happy, just to have a hot meal on Christmas.”

Ramos, from Queets, said members from the tribe felt inspired to come out to help on Christmas after she shared a Facebook live stream last fall that showed the poor conditions of some camps. The video also revealed to some that a number of Quinault tribal members had begun living along the river.

“It really brought it to the attention to the rest of the tribe that there are quite a few of our own people out here on the street,” said Ramos. “My little sister is one of the people who hangs out around and asks for change. So I’m trying to get her off the street.”

For Quinault tribal member Bina Sampson-Kramer, a drone video of the homeless camps that went viral last week inspired her to help out.

“The drone video just got to me,” said Sampson-Kramer. “I’ve seen posts before about the camp, but I never knew it was ‘home’ to so many.”

The volunteers also made bagged lunches with sandwiches and cookies for those in need, and spent some time cleaning up the camps by going around picking up garbage. A few people even cut up logs found along the river so they could then used as firewood.

For the past couple months, Ramos said she and fellow tribal members have made an effort to donate more tents, sleeping bags and tarps to help out the homeless, and that they now want to hold a fundraiser for firewood so they can help keep people warm.