Whale Hunting From a Makah Perspective: A Way of Life

Guest article by Richard Markishtum

On the northwestern tip of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, is the small village of Neah Bay where the Makah Indian Nation resides. Now, the Makah people have been here since the beginning of time. Our five villages consist of Bahaada, Tsoo-yess, Osett, Wa-atch, and Dia-ht, and our tribal symbols consist of the thunderbird and the whale. My grandfather, the late Frank Thomas Ward, was a whaler when he was a young man, and he shared and passed on to me many stories about whale hunting.

A very long time ago, only the chiefs' families from the villages were permitted to go whale hunting. In whale hunting, each person in the canoe had a responsibility, and there were usually six men in a canoe. These men were instructed by the chiefs and Makah Elders that it was time to prepare to go hunting. Prayers were offered for the men and they were encouraged by the spiritual leaders to go to the mountains to pray for three to six months before a whale hunt.

As the men prayed, they sang canoe songs and whale songs that some of the families received from the whale itself. They took spiritual baths in a creek nearby and wiped themselves with the limbs of trees so that their legs and arms would be strong like the tree. They asked the Mighty Creator to give them a vision or a message about when it was time to go on the hunt, and would then head for the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

The men sang to the whale to let it know they were coming. Understanding the cycle of life, they would select a certain whale that was older and ready to be hunted. I was told as a young boy that the more barnacles the whale had on its body the older it was. When it spewed water, its blow hole was often encrusted with barnacles, so it could not spurt high, thus signifying that it was ready to die. So, the men sang to it. Sometimes when it was harpooned it would drag them around for days, but they kept on singing to give him thanks as we consider the whale our brother.

Now the process of hunting the whale was extremely dangerous. Sometimes the whale would break up the canoe with his tail and destroy it and sometimes men were injured or killed. That is why they had to be very careful to not harpoon the whale in the wrong way.

The Makah people took only one whale a year and it was taken because at that time it fed our whole village. None of it went to waste. They used it for food, with the chiefs' families first to receive out of respect by the tribe. They made oil to trade with other tribes in the area, and made necklaces cut of the bones for ceremonial purposes.

After the whale was brought into our Makah bay, the people from all five villages greeted the whalers with a traditional potlatch and gave thanks to the whale people for feeding our people. They celebrated with traditional dances and songs and had giveaways for days and weeks at a time.

Then, in 1936, despite treaties that we had with the United States government, we were ordered to stop whaling because the whale population was dropping due to overharvesting by whalers around the world. For 60 years now, the Makah Nation has not been allowed to hunt whales, even though there is now no shortage of whales.

Lately there has been a lot of media attention about the Makah Nation wanting to resume their treaty rights to whale hunting. They have written that we want to take as many as five whales a year, but that is untrue. We have no need or desire to take five whales a year. All we want is one whale a year, which will still feed our entire villages. We only want to feed our people. Fishing and whaling have been our way of life since the beginning of time.

We are not the ones who overharvested whales or salmon. Too many whales were hunted by the Europeans and Japanese. Our sacred salmon have gone away due to pollution, the Ballard Locks, and the dams that have been built. They need to be dismantled so the salmon can come home. Clearcutting of forests has filled the rivers and streams with silt and the salmon eggs will no longer hatch. They are suffocated by the silt.

Personally, I feel we have the right to whale hunt because it was stipulated in our treaty that we could resume our way of life. Since our old growth forests have been robbed and the salmon have gone away, what do we Makahs have left?

Richard Markishtum is a Makah Indian and the Director of Native American Programs for Northwest Folklife.

We'll conclude this three-part series on the Makah whaling in the next issue of Stump Talk. If you want more info contact NW Forest Action Group, 206-632-1656, e-mail can@scn.org.

Correction to the last Stump Talk: Slade Gorton was state Attorney General in 1974 when he refused to enforce court decisions concerning native fishing rights.