I remember just turning 9 years old when I heard the news about the struggle of the Makah whalers attempting to re initiate their 2,000 year old whaling tradition. At the time, I did not understand the controversy of animal rights activists protesting the event or why the whalers wanted to kill an innocent animal. This is my attempt to delve deeper into the spiritual and environmental issue that occurred in 1999.
My grandmother on my mother's side grew up on the Makah reservation on the north westernmost point of Washington state called Neah Bay and is 50% Makah and 50% Tulalip. My only connection with this portion of my heritage has been the annual trip to Neah Bay to participate in Makah Days, an August celebration featuring the gathering of native groups, smoked salmon and canoe races. I have never felt a particularly strong connection to the Makah tribe, mostly because I was raised in the Seattle area my whole life. However, when given the opportunity to explore local environmental issues, I was struck with the idea to investigate the Makah whaling controversy and how it relates to what we are learning in Environmental Anthropology.
Over 150 years ago, the Treaty of Neah Bay was signed with the US and the Makah peoples that stated that while land was being taken away from the natives, the right to whale legally was still intact. This right to whale was not exercised by the native peoples of Neah Bay for nearly 70 years until the late 1960s when artifacts from the ancient mud buried village of Ozette were excavated, artifacts including equipment that was used for whaling. This discovery sparked an interest in whaling in the Makah natives. It wasn't until 1999, however, that the first successful whaling mission took place. Tribal members who were to participate in the event trained for months in order to be a part of this historical event. During the whaling process, animal rights activists protested the Makah's traditional practice, claiming that the traditional killing of the whale was inhumane and that while the Makah are only permitted to kill 5 whales every year under the treaty, the fear that this Makah whaling would be "used as a wedge to break international protections against whaling" existed among protesters (Walker, "The Makah Whale Hunt: Politics Meets Tradition"). I remember driving up to Neah Bay soon after the whale was killed in May of 1999, passing by crowds of people standing on the sides of the winding roads, attempting to make it known that what the Makah peoples had done was wrong.
Legally, the Makah peoples had every right to kill the grey whale that was killed in 1999. The Makah peoples share a whaling quota with the Chukotka, a tribe found in Russia, so the amount of whales killing was within a manageable rate so as to not create extinction of a species. However, protestors still believed that the ethical circumstances of this situation were more important than the traditional and spiritual values the Makah held with this whaling process. According to the Makah webpage, whaling is a deeply spiritual process that is the focus of many of the creative forms of expression in the Makah culture. To have that denied, or rather protested, by groups of people fighting for the life of one creature seems to be a destruction of cultural diversity. While many protestors argue that since the whaling tradition was dormant for 70 years so it therefore must not be critical to the native peoples of Neah Bay, whaling is what the Makah peoples claim to be known for and is something my ancestors specialized in. Ethnocide is the destruction of one group’s culture or identity. While the Makah peoples successfully practiced their whaling process, the attempt to stop the killing of the whale (often physical attempts of motor boats of protestors trying to interfere with the canoe of whalers) is an attempt at ethnocide.
While I would hardly say I have a spiritual background connected to my Makah ancestors, traveling to the Neah Bay High School gymnasium to partake in the gathering of native communities from across the US and Canada to enjoy the refreshing of a cultural practice and traditionally prepared whale meat and blubber was a cultural experience that I will always appreciate.
Sources: http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/what_are_the_issues/whaling/makah_the_tribe_who_would_be_whalers/the_makah_whale_hunt_politics_meets_tradition.html
http://www.makah.com/ozette.html
http://www.makah.com/whalingrecent.html
-Brittany Vigoreaux
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