Makah Whaling

awip2062 · Post by **awip2062** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:57 pm

Has anyone heard that five members of the Makah nation took a whale on Saturday?

Walkinghairball · Post by **Walkinghairball** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:28 pm

Where did they take it?

J/K

Isn't this ok for them to do, you know, culture and tradition and alla that?

awip2062 · Post by **awip2062** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 6:45 pm

They took it out of the strait. As for culture, this is their culture; they are a whaling people. They were granted the right to continue their whaling in the 1800s. They stopped whaling of their own accord when the grey whale numbers got low, but never gave up their rights to whale. They wanted to go back to whaling once the numbers came back and were told that even though the Marine Mammal Protection Act was written, they could, because of the treaty, take a small number of whales a year for cultural reasons.

They took one whale in 1999 and have not been allowed to take any since because those who are against whaling have kept them from it with legal wrangling.

The five men who killed this whale got fed up with all the tie-ups in court and decided to go take their whale that the treaty had afforded them. The tribe did not know these men were going whaling. They didn't take he Hummingbird, the traditional canoe they used to kill the last whale. They just had been talking about whaling and then Saturday morning one man said to the others, "Let's go get a whale" and they went out.

Now, the Makah Tribe is receiving death threats from people who are against whaling. *sigh*