Discuss: Savage Disobedience

I admire all of you here who have taken the time to articulate your views on this in a civil manner…the older I get, the more I see this as the first requirement.

Too, I think we know that our opinions won’t change or influence whatever outcome there may be, really, which makes it all the more extraordinary that we’d take the time to voice them. I guess that this is just one of those issues that hits you on a visceral level, no matter your position.

So far, the opinions seem to be running in favor of the Makah, and I agree with that view also.

What I sense in the opposite view is that the Makah couldn’t possibly know what is good for them and the whales. For peoples who are more than used to a paternalistic government…equal parts handouts and corporal punishment….this condescension can’t go unrecognized by them for what it is. I’d sure as hell resent it if I were them.

Susan, I can’t help but agree with R.R. regarding where the real violence in our industrialized food chain. We’ve externalized so many costs associated with that that we have trouble accepting food with only one degree of separation. Really, I envy the Makah for that luxury. (It is.) It is also a necessity…the best of both worlds. And the examples you cited of market hunting travesties of the 19th century just don’t have any ability to shed any light on a subsistence hunt we’re talking about here.

I grew up in a small coastal village on Vancouver Island that originally was a First Nations Village, which later incorporated non natives into it’s society. I developed a cultural awareness, affection and sensitivity to their customs, culture and art, and to this day, respect their traditions, sympathize with their suppression by the government of the day and support their self management in this new age.

When I first read/saw the first whale hunt that is mentioned in this article, I felt ill. For many years I was in the habit of spending my winters boon docking on the beaches of Baja and during these times, I was befriended by Mexican nationals who were making their living off the sea and tourism. Some were commercial fishermen in their Pangas, setting long lines and unfortunately catching Manta Rays as an incidental catch to their shark fishing. Others were taking tourists out to the lagoons to observe and often make intimate contact with the Grays. On numerous occasions I have been out on the lagoons after calving season, and tapped the side of the Panga and had the pleasure and excitement of seeing a Cow and her Calf rise to the surface only feet away, then the Cow would ease the Calf over to the side of the Panga and we would make eye contact and we would be allowed to touch and stroke the calf. This trust of humans by these exotic mammals must be held sacrosanct.

I was so angered by the actions Makah that I felt that I should go to their reserve and personally transport the key individuals to Baja and let them experience what I experienced with the Cow and Calf. I felt that there could be a Spiritual awakening within the Tribe and instead of focusing on one part of their heritage, namely the “harvesting” of a whale for symbolic purposes, they might in fact, focus on the cultural significance and share this with non natives in the form of Eco Tourism. The Makah would be the only First Nation People to legally approach whales in the wild. The rest of the world has to maintain specific distances in order not to harass the species in question. Federal Laws on both sides of the border regulate the Whale Watching Industry especially in the San Juans, Gulf Islands and Johnstone Strait. However in the situation with the Makah, they would have the opportunity to carve a fleet of beautiful canoes and take paying guests out into their traditional waters to observe the beauty of the area and to appreciate their Heritage that once was. With professional presentations in their Cultural Centers, handouts and the canoe trip, world opinion might change in favor of their culture and this recent transgression might be forgotten. The revenue from such an Eco Venture might provide the improvements that the Band requires without Government Bailout. In other words, transform the community as they envision.

Fred Howard’s cultural elitism blinds him to the integrity of the “first nations” people he claims to respect.

He calls their subsistence hunt a “transgression” and suggests that they might be spiritually enlightened by those who profess the obsenity of eco-tourism, another way to prostitute one’s culture and land for the sake of financial gain.

Is there no limit to the ignorance arrogance of the dominant culture?

I’m very anxious and excited to meet with a delegation from the Makah tribe who will be visiting our school next week here in northern California.  I will copy this article and the responses and begin a dialogue with my students and any willing tribal members and work to further educate ourselves and the wider community on the many issues within the larger contexts. Thanks Orion for the “curriculum” and thanks to the author and the responders for inspiration to pursue this further. Cheers.

I feel that Fred Howard has posted a brilliant comment as a solution to the fiasco of the 2007 Makah symbolic whale killing. Why not spiritually evolve with the whales instead of killing them because you can. Mr. Howard’s suggestion to work with the people, animals and enviroment makes much more sense to me than exercising treaty rights to prove a point.

C. Crofoot and Fred Howard make an assumption that is not supported by the article: that the Makah killed a whale to “make a point”. Such an inappropriate assumption can arise only from a cultural bias that ingores and dismisses the stated reasons for engaging in this tribal tradition.

That bias is further evidenced in the suggestion that either the dominant culture or the whales themselves are more “spiritually evolved” than the Makah hunters.

That the Makah have respect for the whales (perhaps far more than mainstream culture) is demonstrated by their long abstention from hunting when the Gray Whale was listed as endangered. It was only since the delisting of the Gray that very limited attempts to revive their hunting traditions occurred.

What the article attempted to make clear, and what both these commentators obviously missed is this:

“This isn’t just about treaty rights. It’s about people and some of their most strongly held beliefs. On both sides…it’s about how a society accommodates promises it made to protect traditions and beliefs that now conflict with its present values…especially when the traditions and beliefs that make it so squeamish happen to be what make a tribe a tribe, and go to the very core of its identity. All of which raises uncomfortable questions about how much of a right we, as that society, have to ask the tribes to behave in certain ways.”

Micah McCarty, the great-grandson of one of the last Makah whaling chiefs, said “I’m sorry that people don’t like our philosophically inconvenient rights, but they need to understand just how deep it is for us as a people.”

What the article calls for is cross-cultural understanding, not the kind of cultural elitism and cultural disdain that some here are displaying.

The laws of our land are in place for better or for worse and apply to all men, women and children regardless of ethnic background.

The harvesting of Abalone is forbidden. The trading of bear parts (gall bladder, claws and teeth) is also forbidden even though you might have legally taken the bear during hunting season with all appropriate rules and regulations adhered to, and the taking, killing or trading in Eagle parts (feathers, claws, beaks etc.) is also forbidden, yet these were all very important components of the First Nations’ culture as was the harvesting of whales.

So, I have to ask each of you to apply reason: Just because you can, is it appropriate that you do.

Fred,

You seem to confuse ethnic American citizens with Native American sovereign peoples, whose natural rights pre-dated the existence of either the States or the Federal Government.

Native legal rights are determined by treaty, and the Supreme Court has ruled that a treaty is “not a grant of rights to the Indians, but a grant of rights from them.” In other words, the “reserved rights doctrine” stipulates that Native Americans have all rights not explicitly abrogated by treaty, including the right to hunt and fish in all their traditional locations, even outside their reservations.

And the eagle feather law (Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations), stipulates that individuals of certifiable Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtain eagle feathers for religious or spiritual use.

Applying “reason” to an argument requires that one understand the historical and legal context. Once that is established then, yes, there is the question of what should be done among the options that legally can be done.

But to suggest that we European occupiers, we modern Westerners who have nearly destroyed the earth, we who engage in global warfare and who allow extremes of wealth and poverty, we who have shown utter disrespect for the web of life - that WE should teach First Nation peoples how to live honorably, responsibly, and respectfully, is the height of arrogance.