LaDuke's prowhaling position hurts Greens

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VP HOPEFUL'S POSITION IRKS ANTI-WHALERS

 

Green Party candidate backs Makah

 

By Austin Ramzy

Peninsula Daily News

July 28, 2000

 

Ralph Nader's vice presidential running mate in the strongly environmental

Green Party says the Makah Indian tribe has a right to hunt gray whales.

Winona LaDuke's position has angered ani-whaling activists who continue to

pressure the governmen to halt permanently the Neah Bay tribe's whale

hunting.

 

The tribe hunts whales under an 1855 treaty with the United States. The

treaty guarantees whaling in exchange for lands covering much of the Olympic

Peninsula.

 

LaDuke doesn't condone the slaughter of whales, said her press secretary,

Paul Demain, but she upholds established tribal treaty rights. " She said

that fundamentally the Makah have a treaty right to hunt whales, " Demain

said. LaDuke supports the Makah " abiding by the opportunity provided by law

to hunt whales, " he added.

 

LaDuke- who will appear on the nation's ballots along with presidential

candidate Nader, the famed consumer advocate- is an Ojibway activist who

lives on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. She founded the

White Earth Land Recovery Project in 1991 to buy back lost tribal lands to

her reservation.

 

As an American Indian with treaty rights to hunt and fish in northern

Minnesota, LaDuke had little doubt as to supporting the Makah whaling,

Demain said. " It's doesn't appear that within the (national) party it's

causing great concern, " Demain said. " It is causing a great deal of concern

within Green Party groups in the Northwest. "

 

" Apparently, the slaughter of defenseless gray whales within the waters of a

National Marine Sanctuary does not rate high enough to be included in (the

Green Party's) definition of 'the web of life,' " said Dan Spomer of the

Washington Citizen's Coastal Alliance. " We are increasingly distressed at the

ability of the Green Party to even identify the facts surrounding the

ongoing slaughter, let alone make a coherent policy decision. "

 

Gray whales were taken off the federal endangered species list in 1994. The

population of migratory gray whales is estimated at 26,000.

 

Last year 278 dead whales were reported washed ashore along their migratory

route from Mexico to Alaska. This year more than 300 dead whales have been

reported. LaDuke argues that the focus of the Makah whaling debate should be

on the environmental issues that influence the beasts' survival.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION

 

LaDuke believes that the use of Navy sonar and changes in habitat and

climate should be investigated for their impact on the whales, Demain said.

 

The Green Party of Seattle discussed Makah whaling at a meeting in May 1999,

one week after the tribe killed its first whale in more than 70 years. The

Seattle group did not take a stand.

 

But it did agree on a statement decrying both racism aimed at American

Indians after media coverage of the hunt and " the alternate demonization of

animal rights activists who oppose the hunt. "

 

" As an organization that is profoundly concerned with the protection of the

environment as well as future sustainability, we recognize the importance of

the American Indian people and their cultural heritage to the rest of

society as we reverse the destruction done to the Earth by environmental

imperialism, " the statement read.

 

Makah tribal officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

 

Last month a three-member panel of the 9h Circuit Court of Appeals in San

Francisco ruled that the federal government's environmental studies on Makah

hunts were inadequate and had to be redone.

 

LaDuke " is aware of the legal status " brought by the court ruling, Demain

said, and she wants the tribe to wait until the case is resolved.

 

Makah whaling families huned a total of 10 days this spring, but did not

kill a whale.

 

 

 

 

.....................................

 

http://www.stopwhalekill.org

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