Russian natives join Makahs' celebration

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Timofey Tymneve with Ergyron, a dance troupe from Chukotka in the Russian Far East, performs Yup'ik and Cukchi songs and dances for the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay.

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The Makahs offered homage to the spirits of the four seasons. The Russian guests donned long, fur-lined robes to celebrate the reindeer that helped feed native people in the northeast Russian province of Chukotka. And they both honored the gray whale, which the Russians hunt, and the Makahs — now blocked by federal court rulings — hope to hunt again.

"I never saw so much energy in the dancing. It was awesome," said Ben Johnson Sr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council. "It gave me goose bumps."

The Chukotka dance troupe that joined in the Monday evening celebration is called Ergyron, and its journey this week to Neah Bay reflects strengthening ties between the Makahs and Russian native people. Earlier this year, a Chukotka whale hunter visited Neah Bay as part of a cultural exchange. Next summer, a group of Makahs is planning to travel to Russia to observe the Chukotka hunts.

The Chukotka natives played a key role in launching a modern era of Makah whaling.

	At the end of Monday's celebration, the hosts thank the visiting dancers by placing gifts in a blanket given to the troupe.

At a 1997 Monte Carlo meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the Chukotka natives ceded a share of their gray-whale quota to the Washington tribe. Under the arrangement, the Makahs would be able to take as many as 20 grays over five years. This international allocation gave the Makahs the green light to resume their hunts, a right already affirmed in the tribe's treaty with the U.S. government. At the Monte Carlo meeting, the Makah representatives performed a celebratory dance to thank the Chukotkans for their help.

The gray whales winter in Mexican calving grounds and then head north, traveling up the North American coast before crossing the Bering Strait to feed each summer in Chukotka coastal waters.

Since gaining the quota, the Makahs have killed one gray, which was dispatched with two shots from a high-powered rifle in May 1999.

The Makah hunt drew outrage and lawsuits from animal-rights advocates. The litigation reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has prohibited a resumption of whaling until federal officials complete a lengthy environmental review and issue a waiver for the hunt from the Marine Mammals Protection Act.

The review likely is to take several years to complete, and tribal officials say there is no clear road map for gaining the required waiver. They say they're determined to try to move forward and yesterday held a meeting with federal officials in Neah Bay to discuss how to proceed.

"Whaling is an important part of our culture and our treaty rights, no different than when we started this whole effort," said Keith Johnson of the Makah Whaling Commission.

	ALAN BERNER /THE SEATTLE TIMES Cei'j Gagnon, 2, of Neah Bay, crawls past an exhibit of Chukotka photographs by Arkadiy Rudol'fovich, who accompanied the Russian native dance troupe on its U.S. visit.

"We would like to be able to see the United States honor the treaty rights," said Tom Eagle, a federal fisheries biologist who attended yesterday's meeting. "But we have to do that with the conservation standards we now have in place. And we don't see that as mutually exclusive."

The Makahs plan to learn more about whaling by observing Russian hunts. At least one Makah hunter may follow up on an invitation from the Inupiat, an Alaskan native group, to go along on a spring hunt for a bowhead whale off Barrow.

But the Makahs who joined in the 1999 hunt are eager to pursue another gray off the Olympic Peninsula. "I'm looking forward to the day when I can get back in the water again," said whaler Arnie Hunter.

Monday evening, Hunter gave an encore performance of the 1997 dance in Monte Carlo, which required him to don a series of carved wooden masks.

The Chukotka dance troupe represents several Russian native cultures, including the Cukchi, who largely dwell inland and herd reindeer, and the Yup'ik , who live in coastal villages and hunt whales, walrus and other sea life. The troupe was founded in 1968 and offers both traditional and modern interpretations.

Through the early years of post-Soviet Russia, Chukotka was one of the most isolated and destitute of Russian provinces, with strict travel restrictions imposed by a regional governor wary of opening to the West. But in a 2000 Russian election, a rich, young oligarch, Roman Abramovich, was voted into the governor's office. In recent years, Chukotka has changed as Abramovich reorganized government, invested part of his personal fortune in the province and encouraged exchanges with the West.

The dance-troupe members now often travel abroad but say that Monday's celebration was special.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2510 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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