Six years ago, the Makah Tribe killed its first whale in nearly 70 years. Tonight federal officials are holding a public meeting in Seattle to ask people for their thoughts about the tribe hunting another.

The meeting is the first step in a long process the tribe must undergo to get a federal waiver to allow the hunts. The requirement for a waiver was won by animal-rights activists in a 2002 decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Makah Tribe is the only one in Washington with an explicit whaling right, but it now faces years of regulatory review before whalers can hope to be back on the water. If the tribe hunts without the waiver, it could face legal sanctions.

And that worries Native Americans all around Puget Sound who have treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather shellfish.

"Where does this leave our treaty rights?" said David Sones, vice chairman of the tribal council for the Makah, which reserved the right to whale in its 1855 treaty with the federal government.

"A treaty right is a treaty right," said Michael Grayum, executive director for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. "To treat this particular treaty right different from fish or shellfish — the concern the others tribes would have is, someone could attack their treaty right, too."

In 1995, the Makah chose to work with federal agencies to get permission to hunt whales. Now some wonder whether that deference backfired.

Public meeting on Makah whaling

The meeting will be from 6:30 to 10 tonight at the Naval Reserve Building, South Lake Union Park, 860 Terry Ave. N., Seattle. The public will be able to gather in small groups with National Marine Fisheries Service staff members to review a proposed whale hunt, discuss whale biology, and talk about alternatives and other issues that should be considered in an environmental review. More public hearings and opportunities to comment are planned.

For more information:

www.nwr.noaa.gov/mmammals/graywhales/index.html

"If they had gone out and just gone whaling, that would be allowed," said Bob Anderson, director of the Center for Native American Law at the University of Washington. "By doing something they didn't have to do, they triggered this federal action, and that resulted in the 9th Circuit ruling. Now the Makah are bound."

Gray whales were taken off the federal endangered-species list in 1995. The species' current population, estimated in 2002 at about 17,000, is deemed sound by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Even so, it won't be easy for the tribe to get the waiver. It would be the first waiver ever granted to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. A full federal environmental-impact statement also is required.

And animal-rights activists want the waiver denied.

"We are worried about the precedent this would set," said Kitty Block, director of treaty law for The Humane Society of the United States. "This law has saved millions and millions of animal lives.

"We don't want to come across as anti-tribal. And I am not denying their treaty right. But what does this do to our marine-mammal protection? And it is not just conservation; it is a humane issue. There is no humane way to kill a whale."

In 1999, Makah hunters used a .50-caliber slug to kill a whale, as required by agreement with federal officials, and it took about eight minutes for the mammal to die. Traditional Makah hunting methods often took days to kill a whale. But Block remains concerned.

Eight minutes, "for a marine mammal, an intelligent being, it must have felt like a lifetime," she said. "We care about the suffering of these animals."

The kills are particularly troubling now that whale watching has become popular, Block said.

"We have developed relationships with these animals," she said. "It's like a bait-and-switch: We go out there to see them — I've seen footage where people are leaning over and touching them — and now they are leaning over with a harpoon. It breaks a trust relationship."

The Makah are proposing to hunt up to 20 gray whales over five years, with no more than five whales killed per year.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com