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Capitalists and Whalers: the Makah Indians

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Capitalists and Whalers: the Makah Indians Journal of Historical Archaeology & Anthropological Sciences Review Article Open Access Capitalists and whalers: the makah Indians Abstract Volume 1 Issue 4 - 2017 Historically the Makah organized themselves in small chiefdoms, whose society was Sandra Busatta stratified in aristocratic lineages, commoners and slaves. Status was ascribed by birth and Department of Anthropology, Italy validated by potlatching. Ruling class control was economic, political and ideological, although far from complete and not always effective. Things changed profoundly, however, Correspondence: Sandra Busatta, Department of in the mid-nineteenth century. After an epidemic and the 1855 treaty many slaves that were Anthropology, Italy, Email [email protected] born in the tribe had purchased their freedom and a number of slave men and women married their former masters and mistresses. The children of such marriages were considered Received: April 07, 2017 | Published: July 19, 2017 half slaves and the stigma of these ascendants has not yet disappeared and is matter of much gossip. Trading with the Euro-Americans opened the door to property and chiefly privileges, and being near the source of American power, the reservation agent, meant being also able to distribute favours. This change caused a number of problems in the old system of social and family status. In 1924 the United States granted all American Indian people citizenship and the right to vote, and in 1934 the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) gave the Makah the opportunity to develop a tribal constitution and an elected government. The Makah stopped whaling in the early 20th century. After more than a seventy years’ gap, they petitioned the US government to represent them at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) after the grey whale was removed from the list of the endangered species. Although the Makah cannot be considered to hunt for subsistence, they can rely on the1855 Treaty of Neah Bay with the USA which explicitly safeguards their right to whale. Hence, the US delegation petitioned the IWC on behalf of the Makah ‘cultural rights’. This move, however, created havoc among environmentalist groups and animal rights advocates, who boycotted physically the hunt. So far the Makah killed successfully only one whale out of the twenty in five years they had been permitted to hunt with a legal device and failed the 2000 and 2001 hunts. They also lost in the federal court in 2002 and 2004, killed illegally a whale in 2007 and are presently banned from whaling. Most analyses of the Makah effort to revitalize whale hunting deal with the contrast between the ‘ecological’ Indian of green ideology, and the ‘non-ecological’ one the Makah supposedly represent in green activists’ propaganda. Studies also deal with on the issues of authenticity, invented traditions, etc., but very few with the consequences of Makah neo-aristocratic restoration, supported by neo-whaling ideology as a tool of social control, if it succeeds in being federally recognized. This ideology, however, though accepted by most Makah and social scholars (in the name of political correctness, which emphasizes the uniqueness of specific and especially cultural, features,1 has been challenged by green activists and above all by the media and the public. I argue that most of those who are supporting a return to a non-denaturized form of ‘traditional’ government that is a post- traditional ‘capitalist chiefdom,’ put at risk both their property and civil rights. Keywords: makah land, cultural, salish language, seagulls, tribe Abbreviations: IWC, international whaling commission; IRA, the Makah language was not used when the treaty was negotiated, indian reorganization act; MCRC, makah cultural and research centre so the government used the Salish language name for the tribe. The current name is supposedly an incorrect pronunciation of a Salish The makah land term that means ‘generous with food,’ but this interpretation is rather brand new and looks a bit self-serving. Eighteenth-century visitors2 The Makah, a southern Wakashan speaking people live at Neah knew them as the people of tutu-ts, “thundering”, one of the three Bay, a small reservation around Cape Flattery on the extreme north-western tip of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. has been the Markishtum Middle School and Neah Bay High School principal Their name reflected this geographical location. In fact, they called since 2005. She also wrote the IWC Reports representing Makah position themselves qwi-dich-cha-at, that is people who live near the rocks about whaling: Whale Hunting and the Mahak Tribe: A Needs Statement in 3 and the seagulls2 their current name is based on the Clallam maqa?a, 2007 (IWC59/ASW/209) and 2012 (C:\IWC64\ASW\64-ASW 4) 2 that is People of the Cape, and it has been in official use since the John Meares, sea captain, entrepreneur, fur trader (b 1756?; d 1809), in 1788 2 1 sailed with 2 ships to Nootka, where he built a temporary trading post; in the 1850s. Anthropologist Ann M. Renker remarks elsewhere that spring of 1788 he anchored off the coast of Tatoosh Island. The Spaniards from 1Anthropologist A.M. Renker has worked for the Makah Cultural and Research New Spain, responding mainly to Russian activity in Alaska and worried by Center as Director of the Makah Language Program and later, as the Executive British activity in an area they claimed as theirs sailed into Neah Bay in 1790 Director of the facility. Since 1993, she has worked for the Cape Flattery and established a fort in 1792, which was abandoned after four months. In School District, which supplies the public education services for the Makah 1809-1810 a number of shipwrecked Russians and 'Aleuts' (probably Pacific Reservation. Initially Dr. Renker was the ESL teacher and coordinator of the Eskimos) were enslaved by the Makah and then ransomed by the British, a fate bilingual education program till she moved into administration in 2002. She that was later shared by three shipwrecked Japanese in 1833.2 Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com J His Arch & Anthropol Sci. 2017;1(4):125‒137 125 © 2017 Busatta. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Copyright: Capitalists and whalers: the makah Indians ©2017 Busatta 126 thunderbird brothers, and the name of a powerful chief, Tatoosh, cedar plank houses were sealed into a deposit permanently saturated identified with the island off Cape Flattery. The Makah are considered by surface water flow, which allowed outstanding organic preservation the southernmost representatives of the Nootka tribes.3 Historically as well as unprecedented clarity in the recognition of cultural features. they organized themselves in small chiefdoms, whose society was Archaeological excavations between 1970 and 1981 produced more stratified in aristocratic lineages, commoners and slaves. According than 50,000 artefacts and more than 100,000 pieces of associated to Colson,4 however, only their special legal status differentiated them faunal material. The prehistoric artefacts recovered from the Pompeii from their non Indian neighbours n the 1940s. First contacted4 in the of the Northwest, as it is called by tourist guides, were preserved in late 18th century, the Makah have been known since then as proud the tribally-owned Makah Cultural and Research Center (MCRC). whalers, they stopped whaling in the early 20th century. This tribal museum/cultural centre, opened in 1979, have become the centre of a Makah ‘cultural renaissance.’ In a territory experiencing winter storms and sunny, cool summers in the Boreal Rainforest, in pre-contact times the Makah dwelled in Makah social organization five independent villages Diya (Neah Bay), Biheda, Wayatch, Tsoo- jess and Ozette, linked by language kinship and common traditions, The whaling culture of the Nootkan peoples on both shores of but which occasionally warred among themselves as well as against the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the pre-contact period was of central their neighbours. These villages were inhabited all the year long, but importance: not only it served subsistence and economic purposes, but in summer some people moved to temporary residences at Achawat, it also fulfilled important social, spiritual functions.4,9,10 The aboriginal Kydikabbit and Tatoosh Island.5,6 However as Renker and Gunther2 populations of the Northwest Coast, such as the Makah, were divided point out: “All the people of one village did not necessarily go to the into a three class system: the ruling elite, the commoners, and the same fishing sites. If a headman owned rights to multiple sites, he slaves6. Status was ascribed by birth and validated by potlatching9 could divide the labour in his household to accommodate the need for and as MacLeod11 (1929:95) put it, “the private ownership of the groups at different sites.” means of production, capital and land, made for the differentiation of labour classes within the community.” Chiefs were owners of all 5 The Makah ‘tribe’ had little unity beyond the local communities resources, included beaches, fishing grounds and beached whales and in the old times the five Makah villages probably never formed commoners’ exploitation of resources, such as salmon streams, was more than a very loose alliance in some occasion and it seems that always at the chief’s pleasure. Territories were bounded with markers the Ozette fought with the Cape Flattery groups. This ‘war’ seems and defended from intruders. Spanish scientist Moziño, in 1792,11 to have been for the most part between the Ozette and a Neah Bay stressed the fact that “the chief of the nation carries out the duties 7 group with the other villages relatively neutral. Even the village unit, of the father of the families, of king and of high priest at the same however, might be riven by feuds between members of powerful, time.
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