NEAH BAY — Makah whale hunters plied the Pacific Ocean for centuries.
It may seem like they’ve hoped that long to return to the high-seas chase.
It’s actually been only since 1991 that the tribe has sought to kill whales again under their 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, but — except for one legal hunt in May 1999 and a botched rogue kill in September 2007 — they’ve been beached by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
That act is what anti-whaler Margaret Owens of Joyce calls “the whales’ treaty with the government,” and she is as steadfast in her opposition to whaling as the tribe is determined to resume it.
The Makah’s continuing effort reached its latest point Friday with the release of a new draft environmental impact statement by the National Marine Fisheries Service that offers six alternatives.
Among them is a “no action” alternative, which would mean no hunting of gray whales off the Makah reservation.
That option is the choice of pro-whale activists led by Owens and her husband, Chuck, whose Peninsula Citizens for the Protection of Whales has fought the tribe on picket lines and in court for 16 years.
As for the other choices, which include “taking” as many as five whales a year, “I’m sure they are all going to be very distasteful,” she said.
Neither Owens nor Makah tribal officials said they could comment on specifics of the newly released statement.
Nonetheless, just getting this far was a victory for the Makah.
“We are a patient people,” said Meredith Parker, tribal general manager.
“We feel secure in knowing our past and its link to the future. Whaling is something that is a large factor in our culture, then and today.”
Makah Tribal Chairman Timothy J. Greene Sr. echoed Parker:
“Our treaty right to whaling is important to us spiritually and culturally.”
Resuming hunting whales looks unlikely, however, if the Owenses and their anti-whaling allies convince the fisheries service — and, perhaps later, federal courts — to continue to ban whaling as key to allowing whales to flourish.
Throughout the controversy, the Makah and other tribes have championed the treaty right to whaling as a keystone of tribal sovereignty.
Makah whalers once stood atop the tribe’s society, with the highest honors going to harpooners and men who dove from cedar canoes into the Pacific to sew shut the captured whales’ mouths so they wouldn’t sink.
As for current efforts, “the tribe is happy we’re able to reach a point where we may actually return to our treaty right to whale,” Greene said.
But Margaret Owens’ agenda will remain to save the whales.
“Our group’s position has remained unchanged since 1998,” she said. “We feel it is our honor to continue to speak for the great gray whales in the hope that they will be allowed to live safe and peaceful lives amongst us, and continue to fill us with awe and joy.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
