yes, a happy day -Reply

[Tony Johnson]

Kanawi-Laksta,

>>> Mike Cleven <ironmtn at BIGFOOT.COM> 05/20/99 10:02pm >>>
At 09:21 PM 5/20/99 -0700, terry glavin wrote:

--Some points of clarification, buy a guy who came up knowing, and
continues spending time with whale-eating Indians.

I actually saw your article when it came out, thanks to the Globe's
"national edition".  I've made a separate reply to one person (Nadja)
who
wrote me privately rather than continue this discussion in the CHINOOK
list, but for the moment it's "out in the open".

My reaction about how the whale felt remains on point; it's not an issue
of
whether or not the grey whale is still officially "endangered" (a
"white"
designation, in fact) nor whether or not a return to whaling is what
Neah
Bay needs to feel good about itself again.  From what I've heard both
verbally and in the non-mainstream press, the return to whaling has
sharply
divided Neah Bay, but that, too, is another matter.  My reaction was to
the
"it feels so good....as it should be" sentiment.  As if only people
mattered!  Native or not.  Whales don't have to be endangered for their
killing to be wrong, whether "culturally mandated" or not.

--If a division exists at Neah Bay it is maybe 1% or 2% of the
population.  The joy in the voices and faces of all of my friends from
Neah Bay cannot be measured.  I believe the argument can, and should, be
made that killing cows, pigs, etc. is wrong when not a single thought of
respect is accorded to them, but killing anything with the amount of
prayer, discipline,  preparation and understanding that the Makah
approach killing whales with is not wrong.  You cannot have a Makah
culture without this.  What the media is not being allowed to show, or
in many cases know, is what's happening behind the scenes.  These people
are strong in their culture, and the families of these people are
following the taboos dictated to them.

It is now known that whales are extraordinarily intelligent, with
complicated family structures and advanced learning behaviour, and
obvious
emotions and sentience - and a language and musical lore so complicated
it
has yet to be deciphered, if it can be deciphered and as if "whale
consciousness" were accessible to human understanding.  This is why my
comment "I'm sure that's how the whale felt" is relevant - because
whales
_feel_, whales _think_.  Worse yet, since the worldwide ban (more or
less)
on whaling, whales in some areas (especially ours) have come to
_trust_humans_ (of all the stupid things another intelligent species
might
do!).  That poor whale (yummy!) was probably accustomed to being cruised
by
whale-watching boats.  Some hunt; like killing a puppy.  And hopefully
you
don't have to "be white" to understand that.

--This understanding of Whale's intelligence may be new to non-Natives,
but whales are credited with bringing an amazing amount of knowledge to
our Native peoples.  These are not just stories, they are considered to
be our true history.  I have heard many of these stories from the elders
of Neah Bay.  They credit whales with some of the most important aspects
of what is considered "human nature" today.  The intelligence of these
animals is not lost on the hunter.  Much of the spiritual work done by
the families of the hunters is to get the whale to do just what it did,
stop, and give itself to the hunter.  This is not considered a
coincidence, or the product of people whale watching.  The desire to
communicate in this way with the whale clearly shows that its
intelligence is not underestimated.

That the reinstitution of Makah whaling will be used (and it will) by
Norwegian and Japanese whaling interests to lift the ban on grey whales
worldwide is a further issue; why else would they have supported the
Makah
cause?  It's certainly not because they are interested in native
culture,
that's for sure!  And once full-scale whaling resumes (as it may), the
number of grey whales will again dwindle to "officially endangered"
levels,
as if the numbers back in the sea after several decades of moratorium
were
anything like what had existed before.  It's like saying - "OK, we've
got
elephant poaching under control again, so let's open up the ivory trade"
(and elephants turn out to be similarly intelligent and socially
complex).

--They may simply support it because they see themselves as "whaling
cultures," also.  This is not to excuse the misguidedness of commerical
whale hunting however.

But this isn't alt.whaling or alt.native or SUSHI-L, it's CHINOOK-L,
isn't
it?  I know this topic is a political hot potato just as much as (for
some)
it appears to be a sacred cow; there were a few posts on this subject
which
I'd ignored as off-topic, but since it kept on being said it seemed
necessary to remind people that "quanice tumtum, quanice kumtux.  Kahta
mamook memaloose yaka?"

--I also feel a need to address the issue of hunting methods.  People
are critical of either the inhumaneness of the harpoon or of the modern
technique of the rifle, it is a no-win situation for the Makah.  It must
be pointed out however, that the Makah asked to conduct this hunt
entirely in a traditional way, i.e. just harpoons, but the IWC and the
Feds insisted on their using a high powered rifle.  The desire to hunt
"traditional" was considered inhumane for the whale.  So ,for those who
criticize the Neah Bay for their techniques, you might want to direct
your criticism elsewhere.

--I have many friends going home to Neah Bay this weekend, and I for one
hope that a piece, or a can, of that whale meat makes it back to my
home.  I have a baby on the way and I can't think of anything I would
rather feed it.

--Oh, and what about the seals?  Why is no one worked up over them?  In
fact I have a good jar of seal oil just waiting for me in an elders
cupboard right now.

--Adi:, I guess I feel pretty strongly, about this.  So, while I take a
deep breath here...I should say I appreciate the opportunity to talk
about this, and I hope everyone can respect the opinion expressed from
all sides of this issue.  There are just some things we can't all agree
on.

LaXayEm--Tony
Grand Ronde, OR