The Makah Manifesto

Whaling has been part of the Makah tradition for more than 2,000 years. Attacks by conservation activists on the tribe's plans to resume whale hunting this fall prompted this response from a tribal leader.

I am a Makah Indian and president of the Makah Whaling Commission, comprised of representatives from 23 traditional whaling families of our tribe. For the past three years, we have been reading the attacks made on us by animal-rights organizations, aimed at stopping our whale hunt. These attacks contain distortions, exaggerations and outright falsehoods. Reading these things has sickened and angered me and I feel I must respond.

WHAT WE PLAN TO DO

We plan to conduct a whale hunt this year, sometime in October or November. While we are legally authorized to take up to five whales per year, our management plan limits the number of landed whales over a five-year period to 20, or an average of four per year. But I want to point out that our whaling commission will issue a permit only if there is an unmet need in the community, so it is possible that as little as one whale per year will be taken.

WHY DOES THE TRIBE WANT TO DO THIS?

Whaling has been part of our tradition for more than 2,000 years. Although we had to stop in the 1920s because of the scarcity of gray whales, their abundance now makes it possible to resume our ancient practice of whale hunting. Many of our tribal members feel that our health problems result from the loss of our traditional seafood and sea-mammal diet. We would like to restore the meat of the whale to that diet. We also believe that the problems that are troubling our young people stem from lack of discipline and pride and we hope that the restoration of whaling will help to restore that. But we also want to fulfill the legacy of our forefathers and restore a part of our culture that was taken from us.

HOW DID WE GET A LEGAL RIGHT TO HUNT?

Before entering into negotiations with the Makah for cessions of our extensive lands on the Olympic Peninsula in 1855, the United States government was fully aware that our people lived primarily on whale, seal and fish. They knew that we hunted several species of whales and had a substantial commerce in whale oil that had brought us prosperity.

When U.S. Territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens arrived at Neah Bay in December 1855 to enter into negotiations with our leaders, he was met with strong declarations from them that in exchange for ceding our lands to the U.S., they demanded guarantees of their rights on the ocean and specifically, of the right to take whale. The treaty minutes show Gov. Stevens saying to the Makahs:

"The Great Father know what whalers you are - how you go far to sea to take whale."

He went on to promise U.S. assistance in promoting our whaling commerce. He then presented a treaty containing the specific guarantee of the U.S., securing the right of the Makahs to continue whaling. The treaty, accepted by us, is the only treaty ever made by the U.S. that contained such a guarantee. The treaty was ratified by Congress in 1855 and has since been upheld by all the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

To us, it is as powerful and meaningful a document as the U.S. Constitution is to you, because it is what our forefathers bequeathed to us. In fact, one of our whalers has said that when he is in the canoe whaling, he will be reaching back in time and holding hands with his great-grandfathers, who wanted us to be able to whale.

WILL THE MAKAHS SELL ANY OF THE WHALE MEAT?

Absolutely not! Yet, animal-rights groups such as The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society continue to insist that we secretly plan to sell whale meat to Japan. That claim has been repeated endlessly by other animal-rights groups. It is utterly false.

Although our treaty guaranteed a commercial right, we have agreed to limit ourselves to noncommercial whaling. We have no plans to sell whale meat in the future.

Though it may be difficult for some people to accept, we are acting out of purely cultural motives. In fact, it is costing our tribe an enormous amount of money to carry on the whale-hunting program. It is, if you please, part of our religion, because for us, culture means religion.

IS THERE ANY CONSERVATION ISSUE?

Absolutely not. The Eastern Pacific or California gray whale has been studied by scientists around the world and it is established that the gray- whale population is currently at an all-time high of around 22,000. The population continues to increase at 2.5 percent per year, despite an annual harvest which has gone as high as 165 by Russian aborigines called Chukotki.

The gray whale was removed from the endangered-species list in 1994 and the population is now considered to be at its maximum level.

In fact, some biologists have raised the question of whether the number of gray whales may be nearing the carrying capacity of their range, that is, the number that can be supported by the food resources. No reputable biologist or whale scientist has suggested that our taking five whales a year will present any conservation threat whatsoever to the gray-whale stock.

The fact that no one can legitimately argue that this is a conservation threat is one of the main reasons why two of America's leading conservation organizations have refused to join in the attack on our whaling: The Sierra Club and Greenpeace. There are animal-rights activists within those organizations who are trying to get them to come out against our whaling, but they have steadfastly refused because they do not see this as a conservation issue.

THE WISHES OF THE TRIBE

Our attackers continue to claim that we are disregarding the views of the majority of our members. They repeatedly publicize in the media and elsewhere the views of two women who are members of the tribe and are outspoken opponents of whaling. While we respect the right of all of our members to hold and to express their views on any subject, I must respectfully point out that these two women do not speak for anywhere near the majority of the tribe and there are other elders who strongly support whaling.

In the last opinion poll we held on this issue, 85 percent of those voting favored whaling. There is a faction within our tribe that is opposed to whaling, but they are a distinct minority.

I can say proudly that the Makah Tribal Council and the Makah Whaling Commission represents the strongly held views of the majority of our members.

We were the premier whalers on the American continent and were able to enjoy a prosperous life because of our whaling trade. Our forefathers bequeathed our right to whale to us in our treaty and we feel that a treaty right which cannot be exercised is no right. I can tell you that our tribe is not prepared to abandon our treaty right.

HOW WE PLAN TO CONDUCT THE HUNT

We will hunt the whale from one or two sea-going canoes, each carved from a single cedar log by Indian carvers. Each canoe will be manned by a crew of eight whalers and will include a harpooner and rifleman. Both these men will be stationed in the bow. The harpooner will use a stainless steel harpoon mounted on a wooden shaft. It will be connected to the canoe by a rope with floats attached. The harpooner will throw the harpoon at the whale. Immediately afterwards, or simultaneously, the rifleman will fire a special high powered rifle using a .50-caliber round.

We are using this specially designed rifle and this ammunition on the specific recommendations of, Dr. Allen Ingling, a veterinarian and specialist in arms and the humane killing of animals. This weapon has been tested by Ingling, who has worked with the National Marine Mammal Laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Ingling has instructed us on the target area to be hit so as to bring about almost instantaneous loss of consciousness and death of the whale.

The use of the special rifle has been attacked by many animal-rights groups as brutal and traditional. I believe these attacks are dishonest. In the 19th century, we didn't use such a weapon; we used harpoons and spears. The whale often died after a prolonged and agonizing time from internal bleeding. That was not humane.

I don't hear any of these animal-rights groups attacking us for conducting the hunt with a canoe. The lives of at least eight people will be at risk on the dangerous waters of the Pacific in October and November to hunt the whale. That is our traditional method. If we wanted to abandon all cultural tradition, we would simply use a deck-mounted cannon firing a harpoon into the whale. No, our canoe has been carved by traditional carvers and will be paddled by eight whalers who have sanctified themselves by rituals that are ancient and holy to us. The hunt is being conducted in a manner that is both traditional and modern.

THE DIRE PREDICTION

The Sea Shepherd organization has been making sweeping claims that if we hunt a whale, whales will begin attacking humans throughout the waters of the state and devastate the whale-watching industry. This is complete nonsense.

First of all, most of the whaling watching is focused on orcas, not gray whales, and takes place in Puget Sound and the eastern area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As for gray whales, whale watching on this species is primarily concentrated in Westport, far from any area where we will be hunting whales.

The idea that whales will somwhow begin to act aggressively against human boats or change their migratory path to avoid boats is false. The whales passing through the waters of Washington state have come here after being hunted and attacked in the Bering Sea by the Russian indigenous people called Chukotki. The Chukotki have been hunting the gray whale for more than 40 years and there is no evidence that gray whales have attacked other boats. Nor is there any evidence that whales communicates with each other and spread the message that humans are the enemy, to be attacked or avoided.

This is a fantasy promoted by animal-rights activists.

WHAT IS OUR CULTURAL NEED?

It is hard for us to explain to outsiders our "cultural" attitudes about whaling. Some of us find it repugnant to even have to explain this to anyone else. But let me tell you about my own case.

I have a bachelors degree in education from Central Washington University, Ellensburg. I was the first Makah teacher in the Neah Bay School System from 1972 through 1976. I received my principal's credentials from Western Washington University, Bellingham, in 1975 and served as vice principal of the Neah Bay Schools in 1976 and between 1990 and 1997.

Have I lost my culture? No. I come from a whaling family. My great-grandfather, Andrew Johnson, was a whaler. He landed his last whale in 1907. My grandfather, Sam Johnson, was present when the whale landed and told me he played on the whale's tail. I lived with my grandfather for 16 years and heard his stories about whaling and the stories of family whaling told by my father, Percy, and my uncle, Clifford.

When I was a teenager, I was initiated into Makah whaling rituals by my uncle. While I cannot divulge these sacred rituals, they involve isolation, bathing in icy waters and other forms of ritual cleansing that are still practiced today. I have been undergoing rituals to prepare me for the whaling this year. Other families are using their own rituals.

I am proud to carry on my family legacy and my father is overjoyed because he is going to see this in his lifetime.

I can tell you that all of the Makah whalers are deeply stirred by the prospect of whaling. We are undergoing a process of mental and physical toughening now. We are committed to this because it is our connection to our tribal culture and because it is a treaty right - not because we see the prospect of money.

We are willing to risk our lives for no money at all. The only reward we will receive will be the spiritual satisfaction of hunting and dispatching the whale and bringing it back to our people to be distributed as food.

Recently, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) distributed a brochure in which they implied we have lost our cultural need for whaling because we have adapted to modern life. They cite our ". . .lighted tennis courts. . .Federal Express. . .and other amenities. . ."

Well, excuse me! I want to tell PAWS that the two tennis courts on our high-school grounds have no lights. How about the fact that Federal Express makes deliveries to our reservation? Does that mean that we have lost our culture?

These attacks on our culture and our status are foolish. No one can seriously question who we are; we are a small Native-American tribe whose members were the whalers of the American continent. We retain our whaling traditions today. It resonates through all of our people from the youngest to the oldest, and we don't take kindly to other people trying to tell us what our culture is or should be.

THE DOMINO EFFECT

Animal-rights groups have been scaring each other and pumping up the claim that if we whale, it will mean the collapse of all restrictions against commercial whaling and whaling will be resumed everywhere. This is nonsense. If there are other indigenous people who have a legitimate whaling culture and whaling tradition, then they should be allowed to whale just as we do. The rest is all hype.

The leader of the pack attacking us is The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. They have been responsible for a steady stream of propaganda aimed at inflaming the public against us, some of which has been repeated by other anti-whaling groups, who have assumed it was factual.

Who is Sea Shepherd? They are a California-based organization that has for years operated on the fringe of mainstream conservation groups. They have built a flourishing organization supported by contributions from around the world. They portray themselves as the swashbucklers of the ocean because they have sunk whaling ships. This action has earned them the label of a terrorist organization and they have been barred from attending the deliberations of the International Whaling Commission even as observers since 1987.

They applied for readmission in 1995 and the IWC sanction again denied them admission.

They threatened to sink our boats if we whaled without IWC sanction, smug in the assumption that we would never get approval from the IWC. They have since churned out reams of material attacking us.

We can't hope to keep up with this barrage by Sea Shepherd and others. These groups are well-financed. Sea Shepherd operates two ocean-going vessels, a submarine, an airplane, a helicopter and other waterborne craft. It seems to me that Sea Shepherd is actually in the commerical whaling business and we're their best ticket now.

THE ETHICAL ISSUE

The arguments and claims by Sea Shepherd and the other anti-whaling groups are designed to inflame the public against us and to attack the honesty of our motives. They mask the real aim of these groups: To prevent the killing of a single whale.

Some people honestly believe that it is wrong to kill one of these animals. Maybe their minds are made up, but I want to say to them that we Makahs know the whales, probably better than most people. We are out on the waters of the ocean constantly and we have lived with and among whales for more than 2,000 years. We are not cruel people. But we have an understanding of the relationship between people and the mammals of the sea and land.

We are a part of each other's life. We are all part of the natural world and predation is also part of life on this planet. So orca whales attack and eat whales and whales calves as well as seals and fish. Those who regard the orcas simply as cute may prefer to ignore this side of their nature. But there is a reason they are called "killer whales." In fact, they were originally called "whale killers."

I want to deal with the claims of those who would romanticize the whale and ascribe almost human characteristics to it. To attribute to gray whales near-human intelligence is romantic nonsense - as any professional whale biologist can tell you. The photographs of gray whales surfacing to be petted by people are all taken in the calving lagoons of Baja, Calif., and Mexico. This behavior is not exhibited by gray whales anywhere else, particularly by migrating whales passing through our waters.

The whales we will hunt are migrating whales and we will not hunt any mother whale with a calf.

Whales have captured the public's fascination. The world has had a similar fascination with our cultures, but whenever we had something you wanted or did something you didn't like, you tried to impose your values on us.

Too often white society has demonstrated this kind of cultural arrogance. To us the implication that our culture is inferior if we believe in whaling is demeaning and racist.

The Makah people have been hurt by these attacks, but nevertheless, we are committed to continuing in what we feel is the right path.

We Makah hope that the general public will try to understand and respect our culture and ignore the attacks of extremists.

Keith Johnson is president of the Makah Whaling Commission and a member of the Makah Tribal Council.