The Samish also never got the valuable fishing rights that most tribes in Washington state have, due to a clerical error at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In 1969, a clerk left the Samish Nation off of a list of recognized tribes. Five years later, a U.S. district court judge ruled that tribes in the state were entitled to half the fish and shellfish in their traditional areas. But the Samish were "left on the beach," Wooten explains, and even though the tribe regained its federal status as a recognized tribe in 1996, it still lacks fishing rights.

The few Samish tribal members who fish for a living do so in Alaska.

"For all of our ceremonies and gatherings, we purchase fish just like everybody else," Wooten said.

a glimpse into the future for a lot of people -- first for the palestinians and then for the rest of the world's climate change refugees.