Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in American Indian Nation Building

Chapter 6: Articulating a Traditional Future: Makah Sealers and Whalers, 1880–1999

6 Articulating a Traditional Future Makah Sealers and Whalers, 1880–1999 Joshua L. Reid On the morning of May 17, 1999, eight Makahs paddled the Hummingbird up to the three-year-old gray whale. Ignoring the drizzling weather, buzz of news copters above, and watchful eyes of the National Marine Fisheries biologist, Theron Parker hurled the harpoon. Unlike his misses on the prior two days of hunting, this throw sank into the several-ton leviathan and stuck. From a nearby support craft, the modified elephant gun roared three times. 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 Pacific coast, harpooner Theron led his crew in prayer, thanking her for offering herself to his people. Surrounded by a small fleet of canoes, the Hummingbird towed the whale ashore at Neah Bay about six hours later. The crew beached the whale at low tide, and Theron sprinkled eagle feathers on the whale’s head as the tribe welcomed the whale to their nation. This was the first successful Makah whale hunt in the last seventy years.1 Coming at the close of the twentieth century, the actions of the whalers drew a variety of impassioned responses. Indigenous peoples throughout the world supported the hunt, and it has inspired their own struggles for self-determination.2 Many non-Natives also supported the hunt because they know that whaling is a treaty right Makahs reserved for themselves in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, which they signed with the United States. However, a vocal minority did not support the 163 164 Joshua L. Reid hunt because they see whaling as barbaric and out-of-step with today’s more enlightened views. Echoing criticisms levied against Washington State’s American Indian nations during the fishing wars of the 1960s and 1970s, much of the anti-Indian rhetoric exhibited racism.3 Using phrases such as “Red” necks with rifles and accusing Makahs of “playing Indian,” local non-Natives revealed strong anti-Indian sentiments still present in some sectors of mainstream U.S. society. For example, in a letter to the editor of the Seattle Times, a critic wondered, “[W]here I can apply for a license to kill Indians. My forefathers helped settle the west and it was their tradition to kill every Redskin they saw. The only good Indian was a dead Indian, they believed. I also want to keep with the faith of my ancestors.”4 Critics failed to understand why the revival of whaling is important to Makahs, asking why the tribe cannot “get with the twentieth century.” As one opponent stated, “with their supermarkets and cars, [Makahs] no longer need to kill a being as sentient as our mammoth whales.” Even supporters of the Makah right to hunt see this as a tribal effort to “return to [a] whaling past,” as one headline proclaimed.5 Critics and some supporters alike see the revival of whaling as an effort by the Makah nation to turn the clock back, to live in the past. We should see the Makah effort to revive whaling from a different perspective: through whaling, today’s Makahs are articulating a traditional future instead of grasping at a long-lost, static past.6 Whaling illustrates that this American Indian nation is living in the present and moving into the future while retaining their best traditions. Moreover, this marine practice defines their identity as a people distinct from mainstream U.S. society. This chapter demonstrates that Makahs, similar to many indigenous peoples, have continually sought a traditional future. Their location at Cape Flattery has encouraged Makahs to rely upon the sea. The upwelling of colder water offshore nourishes plankton, the foundation for a rich marine environment of shellfish, sea mammals, fish, and seabirds.7 Calling themselves the qʷidiččaʔa·tx ̌ , “the People of the Cape,” Makahs have always been a maritime people.8 Due to their prime location along the Pacific Coast, Makah traders were middlemen in maritime, indigenous commercial networks extending north to Alaska, south to California, and east across the Cascades.9 They harvested unique marine resources from whales, halibut, and seals, which enabled them to trade for staples such as salmon and cedar—resources scarce to the mountainous Cape Flattery area—and status goods like slaves, dentalium, and art. Makah mariners understood the currents and weather of their marine space and the species living within it. Generations...