Makah leaders, whaler offer insight

A week after five Makah whalers illegally hunted a gray whale off Neah Bay, some of the tribe's leaders have begun to say that while they disapprove of the hunt, they understand why the whalers did it.

Friday, with the help and permission of the head of the tribe's whaling commission, whaler Wayne Johnson sent out a lengthy written statement defending his actions and expressing frustration with the system that has held up a legal whale hunt for the tribe.

And though Makah tribal leaders have uniformly denounced the hunt, many now are also saying they appreciate the frustration that drove the whalers to their motorboats.

"You could see this as an act of civil disobedience," said Micah McCarty, a member of the Makah tribal council who trained in the whaling canoe alongside some of the same men who legally hunted the tribe's first whale in more than 70 years in 1999. "It's not like they were rebels without a cause."

Still, McCarty remains resolute that the men should be punished.

The illegal hunt came as the tribe has been trying to get permission from the federal government to legally hunt gray whales again under its 1855 treaty with the U.S.

Some wildlife and animal-rights groups have demanded that the tribe be forever banned from whaling because of the rogue hunt. But federal officials are continuing their review of the tribe's request for an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Makah Nation must obtain a waiver under the act before it could hunt whales again.

Keith Johnson, the president of the Makah tribe's whaling commission who helped Wayne Johnson with his statement, said Friday he also understands the whalers' feelings.

"There are two ways you can look at it," Keith Johnson said. "Yes, it was absolutely wrong; they didn't have a permit. But it doesn't say in the treaty you have to have a permit.

"I see it both ways. These guys certainly wanted to exercise their treaty right, and they want to bring traditional foods home; we want subsistence; the freezers are low, and they want whale meat for the wintertime, and I am sympathetic to them when they say that."

Keith Johnson said he remains committed to pursuing further hunts through the legal process. But that process has been aggravatingly slow.

The hunt can be looked at as "a signal to the U.S. government, and all the hoops we have to jump through," he said. "I am saying we need to have this expedited, or looked at with more seriousness in terms of our treaty right to hunt whale."

Wayne Johnson issued a statement Friday in which he said he remains proud of what he did.

"The way I was raised, there's nothing wrong with what I did," Wayne Johnson said in a separate interview Thursday. "I've always been raised to stand up for what I believe in. There was nothing wrong in my family with hunting for your own food instead of getting it out of the store."

He also acknowledges that the hunt shocked his tribe — it was supposed to be a surprise, he said.

"Our parents didn't know, our uncles and aunties didn't know," he said in the interview. "We have a small circle of friends that are always ready to go when the time is right. It's been in the works for quite some time."

Friday, he added that the hunt had been prompted by a recent briefing by a tribal lobbyist, who had informed the tribe that it would probably be two more years before the tribe gets its permit to whale legally.

"To me, I have the treaty to fall back on," he said. "That should be the supreme law. We ain't farmers out here. We are fishermen."

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