Makah Whaling Rights
Legal, Harmless to the Environment,
Held Up by Red Tape and Destructive Cultural Prejudices

In 1855 the US Government signed the Treaty of Neah Bay, which is unique in that it gives the Makah Tribe out on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State the right to catch gray whales forever. Today, the Makah Nation wants the red tape to stop, and their rights to continue to hunt gray whales, completely restored. In 1999, they legally killed their first gray whale in some 70 years but since then animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States have opposed the hunt, saying that it is "merely" done for cultural reasons. Naomi Rose, spokesperson for HSUS, describes this cultural need as insignificant, compared to the "genuine" nutritional need of the Alaskan Eskimo villages to take their bowheads.

IWMC deplores this kind of discussion and the "politically correct" false "reasons" why the Makah are prevented from taking their whales. Gray whales are not endangered. The quota (20 whales in 5 years) would not affect the population, which has rebounded to numbers perhaps too numerous for its environment.

US Government scientists know that the quota would not adversely affect the animals, but the lawsuits demand that another environmental assessment be conducted, and that the Makah should not be given the same waiver (releasing them from the restrictions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act) that was given to the Alaskan Inuit people.

This lawsuit against the Makah's treaty rights is nothing but a demonstration of the political power of animal rights groups to force their value system on people whose own values have sustained them and their prey for thousands of years. Naomi Rose infers (according to the New York Times, September 19) that the Makah are less deserving of such rights than are the Eskimo people, whose own quota has also been found to be safe. This is an unreasonable prioritizing of value systems and needs by a member of the dominant white culture, and it is reminiscent of the imperialism common one hundred years ago.

IWMC wishes all the best for the Makah Nation. All the best would be that the culturally prejudiced and biologically unsound lawsuit(s) against them would be either thrown out or resolved in their favor immediately. This is a matter of interpretation of law, combined with a truly fair decision about seeking social justice for people who need their whale hunt, their national pride restored, their nutritional needs supplemented by their traditional foods, and their souls nourished through the restoration of their tribal identity through the hunt. There is no good reason, either legal or biological, why they should be prevented from conducting this hunt in the manner agreed upon at the International Whaling Commission, and in line with their treaty.

Best wishes to the Makah Nation from IWMC and all our colleagues who support the sustainable use of all natural resources. May justice prevail, and very soon.