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INTRODUCTION: JUST WHERE DOES ONE GET A LICENSE TO KILL INDIANS? On the morning of May 17, 1999, eight Makah men paddled the Kʷiti˙kʷitš (“kwih- tee- kwihtsh,” Hummingbird) up to the three- year- old gray whale. Ignor- ing the drizzling rain, buzz of news copters above, and watchful eyes of a Na- tional Marine Fisheries biologist, Theron Parker thrust the harpoon. Unlike his misses on the prior two days of hunting, this throw sank into the thirty- ton le- viathan and stuck. From a nearby support craft, a modifi ed .577 caliber rifl e roared three times. Fired by an experienced game hunter and decorated Vietnam War combat veteran, the third shot lanced through the water and into the whale’s brain, killing it within seconds. As the female whale died off Washington State’s Pacifi c coast, harpooner Theron led the crew in prayer, thanking her for offer- ing herself to the Makahs. Surrounded by a small fl eet of canoes from neigh- boring American Indian nations, the Hummingbird brought the whale ashore at Neah Bay about twelve hours later. Hundreds of men pulled on two heavy chains, hauling her onto the beach where generations of whalers had beached them before. Theron sprinkled ea gle feathers on the whale’s head while the com- munity welcomed her— the fi rst in seventy years—to the Makah nation.1 A co ali tion of indigenous peoples and non- Natives throughout the world sup- ported the hunt at several critical stages. When the United States removed the gray whale from the list of endangered wildlife in 1994, the tribal nation expressed interest in resuming customary whale hunts. With the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 1997, the Makah petitioned the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for approval of annual subsistence hunts. After negotiating with other North Pacifi c indigenous groups, the IWC Copyright © 2015. Yale University Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights © 2015. Yale University Copyright granted the tribal nation a yearly quota of fi ve whales, one for each ancestral Makah village near Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost tip of the contiguous 1 Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country : The Maritime World of the Makahs, Yale University Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=3421613. Created from washington on 2017-11-07 11:50:39. 2 Introduction United States. As part of this deal, Alaska Inuits traded twenty bowhead whales to the Chuktchis, a Siberian people, for fi ve gray whales. Chuktchis have an an- nual quota of two hundred grays, and this reallocation undercut the potential criticism that Makah hunts would add stress on the species.2 Indigenous peoples continued to provide encouragement during the 1999 hunt and afterward. A few years earlier, several Vancouver Island Nuu- chah- nulth carv- ers, relatives of Makahs, helped to make the Hummingbird, and American Indian communities and Canadian First Nations from across North America of- fered prayers for the hunters’ success. After landing the whale at Neah Bay, members of the community stripped blubber and meat from the carcass and hosted a large feast, reminiscent of potlatches from earlier centuries. Makah elder Dale Johnson remembers that getting the whale “brought a gathering of people; tribes from all over came in” as the whalers shared the catch. In addi- tion to American Indians from Alaska, the Great Plains, and the West Coast, indigenous peoples from across North America, the Pacifi c, and Africa were honored guests at the celebratory feast. Billy Frank Jr., a Nisqually elder, presi- dent of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, and veteran of the Indian fi shing wars of the 1960s and 1970s, spoke passionately about the importance of Copyright © 2015. Yale University Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights © 2015. Yale University Copyright Hauling the whale ashore, May 17, 1999. After the power winch failed, the community worked together to pull the whale ashore. Photograph by Theresa Parker, courtesy the Makah Cultural and Research Center, Neah Bay, WA. Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country : The Maritime World of the Makahs, Yale University Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=3421613. Created from washington on 2017-11-07 11:50:39. Introduction 3 exercising treaty rights. A Maasai warrior from Kenya expressed the need to preserve unique cultural characteristics in the world today. Many non- Natives also supported the hunt because whaling is a treaty right that Makahs reserved for themselves in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, which the tribal nation signed with the United States. The 1999 hunt has inspired self- determination struggles by others. Currently negotiating treaties with the Canadian government, Nuu- chah- nulths point to the Makah whale hunt to support their efforts to re- sume a customary lifestyle based on whaling.3 Coming at the close of the twentieth century, however, the whalers’ actions drew passionate opposition. Longtime foes of American Indian treaty rights, such as Congressman Jack Metcalf (R- Washington), railed against the federal govern- ment’s bias of “giving Indians special rights,” a statement exhibiting his igno- rance that Native negotiators, not the government, reserved rights for their tribal nations in the treaties.4 A vocal minority argued that whaling is barbaric and out of step with today’s more “enlightened” views. Racism peppered much of their rhetoric, echoing criticisms levied against Washington’s American Indians during the fi shing rights confl ict of earlier de cades. Makah commercial fi sher Dan Greene observed that “the same people who are racist against the Indian tribes are still there” since the treaty fi shing wars of the 1960s and 1970s, “and that this [the 1999 whale hunt] just brought it to the surface again.” After the May 17 hunt, “the fl oodgates of hate were opened.”5 Calling Makahs “ ‘Red’ necks with rifl es” and accusing them of “playing Indian,” non- Natives revealed strong anti- Indian sentiments still present in mainstream society. Phillips Wylly, an ac- complished fi lm and tele vi sion producer, wrote to the editor of the Seattle Times, asking, “I am anxious to know where I may apply for a license to kill Indians. My forefathers helped settle the west and it was their tradition to kill every Red- skin they saw. ‘The only good Indian was a dead Indian,’ they believed. I also want to keep with the faith of my ancestors.” Protestors blocked the road to Neah Bay, issued bomb threats, and harassed gray whales in local waters in order to chase them away from Makah hunters. Anti- Indian sentiment became so vocif- erous that the governor deployed the National Guard to the reservation to pro- tect Makah lives. The US Coast Guard defended the whalers at sea from activist organizations such as the Sea Shepherd Society.6 These critics were racist, and they were also wrong. This kind of criticism of the Makahs’ continuing whaling efforts reveals a deep lack of understanding about the issue. They have Copyright © 2015. Yale University Press. All rights reserved. Press. All rights © 2015. Yale University Copyright overlooked— and continue to ignore— the historical and cultural connections Makahs have to the ocean. Calling themselves the Qwidiččaʔa˙tx (“kwi- dihch- chuh- aht”), meaning “the People of the Cape,” Makahs shaped marine space in and around the Strait of Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country : The Maritime World of the Makahs, Yale University Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=3421613. Created from washington on 2017-11-07 11:50:39. 4 Introduction Juan de Fuca, rather than terrestrial spaces, as the primary locus of their iden- tity. They placed marine space at the center of their culture. Strategic exploita- tion of customary waters enabled the People of the Cape to participate in global networks of exchange, to resist assimilation, and to retain greater autonomy until the early twentieth century, later than many other land- based reservation com- munities in North America. When explorers and maritime fur traders entered the Pacifi c Northwest at the end of the eigh teenth century, Makah chiefs pro- tected their control over customary waters and resources. During talks for the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, Makah negotiators forced Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens to alter the treaty language to fi t the tribal nation’s maritime needs. Net- works of exchange, kinship, and confl ict made the waters around the Strait of Juan de Fuca, today an international border that separates the state of Washing- ton from the Canadian province of British Columbia, into a space of connec- tions. Indigenous whalers, sealers, and fi shers combined customary practices with modern opportunities and technology to maintain Makah identity amid the cultural and environmental changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Challenges included overfi shed marine species, environmental degradation, ris- ing state power, and assimilation and conservation efforts. By understanding the contours of the Makahs’ connection to the ocean, we can see more easily why reviving the active practice of whaling is critical to the People of the Cape today. THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE NORTHWEST COAST As a marine people, Makahs developed a deep understanding of and rela- tionship with the waters around them. Oceanographic features created what some scholars call a bioregion, acknowledging that powerful forces of the natural environment are more important than divisions created by borders. As in other places such as the Medicine Line country of the Alberta- Montana border- lands, environment and geography— rather than gender, age, ethnicity, or nationality— dictated community bonds in this region.

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