Washington Tribe Waits to Resume Whaling

On Jan. 21, 1855, Makah villages in what is now the northwest coast of Washington made a deal with the U.S. government-a treaty-where tribal representatives ceded the title to 300,000 acres of tribal land to retain certain pre-existing rights into the future. Among them was a right to education, health care, and the explicit right to hunt seals, fish and whales.

Then, for nearly 80 years beginning in the 1920s, tribal whaling crews abstained from their cultural traditions in response to dwindling grey whale population sizes. The federal government listed the gray whale as an endangered species, but delisted it in 1994 when the group returned to healthy population sizes.

"It wasn't until the gray whale was making a comeback that we then started to pursue it," said tribal member and cultural bearer, Polly McCarty.

https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/washington-tribe-waits-to-resume-whaling