Are you outraged yet?

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===== A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list =====

 

FROM WASHINGTON CITIZEN'S COASTAL ALLIANCE

----------------

 

Sekiu, WA: 10:25am PDT

 

We are pleased to bring you the results of the investigation launched by

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), a 600,000 member, private,

non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to educating Americans about

the waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in the federal government.

 

It is our opinion that the following article may be one of the most

important ever generated on the Makah whaling issue, and we encourage you to

contact CAGW to thank them for their involvement! (www.cagw.org) Be SURE to

contact your congressional representatives with this information and DEMAND

they halt any further hunting NOW! Further information is available at

www.stopwhalekill.org

 

As taxpayers, you will be less than amused with what you are about to

read...

*****

 

 

 

HARPOONING A FISHY TRADITION

---------

By Kerrie N. Rezac

(June, 2000 'WasteWatcher,' CAGW's official newsletter)

 

 

Whether you are Tevye, the lead in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, or a

member of an American Indian tribe trying to resurrect a long forgotten

hunting custom, you have to know that some traditions just aren't worth

keeping. Especially if they cost the taxpayers $5 million.

 

While cutting back on normal operations (such as ticketing drunken boaters

and arresting drug smugglers) due to increasing oil prices, the Coast Guard

is spending $11,550 an hour to help the Makah Indian Tribe of Washington

resurrect a " tradition. " Ironically, Coast Guard spokesman John O'Dell has

remarked, " If it is not a life-threatening situation, we have to ask how

much involvement from the Coast Guard there should be. " Apparently the

rules change if the Clinton-Gore administration wants something.

 

In Neah Bay, Wash., the federal government has doled out almost $5 million

to help the Makah Indian Tribe resurrect the " tradition " of hunting gray

whales. But the Makah hunt is not a tradition at all. Unlike 21st century

Makah, earlier Makah did not wear Nikes and Adidas and use automatic rifles

on their hunts. The early tribesmen certainly did not get government

funding for their hunting. Their sense of pride came from having conducted

the hunt themselves.

 

The current situation no doubt has the Makah's ancestors rolling in their

burial mounds. The federal government spent $200,000 just to obtain

permission for the hunt from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Uncle Sam also spent $735,000 to show members of the tribe how to kill and

eat their prey. And then there are the Coast Guard escorts who watched the

" hunters " do cannonballs off the sides of their canoe for three hours. All

in order to restore a sense of " culture " in the tribe's children.

 

After the gray whale was taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994, the

Makah requested the government's assistance in resurrecting their

" tradition. " The tribe made their appeal under an 1855 treaty in which the

U.S. government agreed not to interfere with Makah tradition. So far, no

one has stopped to consider whether a federal handout is, by its very

definition, government interference and a violation of the 145-year-old

pact.

 

Further, the Makah accepted the wampum despite the fact that the tribe had

voluntarily given up whaling early in the 20th century and, in the 1970s, a

tribal council decided against resurrecting the whaling tradition. Many of

the tribe's elders (including one woman who was fired from her job after she

spoke out against whaling) still believe the hunt is unnecessary.

 

In order to kill the whales legally, the Makah first had to gain permission

from the IWC. And so a federal spending spree began (despite the fact that

43 congressmen signed a petition against sanctioning the hunt). The tribe

received $200,000 for 15 tribesmen and their lawyer to attend the 1997 IWC

conference in Monaco. The IWC limits whaling rights to cultures that

depend on the whale for subsistence or that have a long, unbroken whaling

tradition. The Makah needed to convince the IWC that they fell into one of

these categories.

 

The Makah and their lawyers failed in this endeavor. The Oct. 23, 1997, IWC

decision, which supposedly allows the Makah tribe to kill four whales per

year, never mentions the tribe by name. The IWC decision not to sanction

the Makah hunt makes sense, since the tribe does not depend on the whale for

subsistence and their cultural " tradition " was voluntarily abandoned twice.

But the intrepid Makah whalers had no need to worry - the pale faces in

Washington would cook up a deal.

 

The government struck a understanding, outside formal IWC discussions, with

Russian and American aboriginal tribes. (The tribes' practices have long

been sanctioned by the IWC because the whale is the main source of food and

income for these tribes.) In a deal with these tribes, the Makah were given

4 of the 120 whales that the tribes are allotted annually by the IWC. It is

this agreement, and not the language of the IWC decision, that gives the

Makah the permission for their hunt.

 

Spending on the Makah did not stop after the pow-wow in Morocco. The

government also gave the Makah:

 

$300,000 for a grant to " prepare " for the hunt, because the tribe had given

up whaling almost a century earlier and there was no one left in the tribe

who actually knew how to hunt whales;

 

$435,000 for a grant to teach the tribe how to eat the whale meat;

 

$335,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the

National Marine Fisheries Service to ensure that domestic and international

whaling laws are followed (although it appears that the government has

already skirted around the IWC law);

 

$87,000 directly from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the hunt; and

 

$13,910 from the U.S. Marshall's Office for Operation Harpoon.

 

Nor did the federal government's spending spree cease when the Makah entered

 

the water, even though almost $1 million had already been spent. The

federal and local governments also dipped into taxpayers' pockets to make

sure the Makah were not disturbed by protesters. Therefore:

 

$751,295 was spent for the National Guard and FBI to monitor anti-whalers at

the 1998 Makah Days celebration (not one anti-whaler showed up, so the

federal delegation watched ceremonial dances);

 

Approximately $50,000, including a $10,000 grant from the federal

government, was used by the Clallam County Sheriff to prepare for the

whaling events and the phantom anti-whalers;

 

$924,000 was used for Coast Guard escorts for the spring 2000 hunt at

$11,550 per hour (the fall 1998 and spring and fall 1999 hunts were also

provided Coast Guard escorts; and

 

$44,800 was spent on legal fees during Metcalf v. Daley, which questioned

the environmental impact of the hunt.

 

While the government was being so generous with taxpayers' dollars, two

Clallam County Prison workers, who also happen to be Makah Indians, were

arrested for using prison equipment to make whaling tools. One female

protester was run over on her jet ski while the Coast Guard was patrolling

the waters with the Makah.

 

The tribe, whose members do not pay taxes, is having a whale of a time with

federal tax dollars. They have hired a Beltway-based public relations firm

to help with the tribe's " image. " It shouldn't be difficult for the Makah

to find the means to pay for these services since the government has already

given them millions. The tribe spent $100,000 of their government funds for

a potlatch party to celebrate their 1999 catch. Who would throw a $100,000

party for less than 70 people? The same people who would spend $640 on a

toilet seat: the federal government.

 

As Tevye learned in Fiddler on the Roof, traditions disappear. But in this

particular case, it is our tax dollars that are disappearing - far faster

than any whaling tradition of the Makah.

*****