Environmentalists have for years peddled the romantic myth of the noble Indian as nature's high priest. It was a strategy advantageous to both parties. It provided a spiritual cloak to the greens' anti-development campaigns, while the Indians received organizational support and muscle for their land claims. But scratch a sentimentalist, and you will find a cynic. After American Indians killed a single whale last month, Canadian greens responded with racist vitriol not heard in public for decades. The Vancouver Province compared Indian whale-hunting to female genital mutilation in Africa; to others, Indians were simply "savages."

Editorialists loud in their demands for generous treaty settlements suddenly had second thoughts. As B.C. Indians reasserted their traditional right to hunt whales, Premier Glen Clark announced that while he was perfectly willing to have the province carved up by First Nations, First Nations carving up whales was intolerable.

On May 17 the 50-foot beast was killed just off the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, about 60 miles west of Victoria. As tribe members watched, the Makah (reserve population, 1,200) harpooned a gray whale for the first time in 70 years. It was dispatched using a combination of traditional and conventional methods and supplies including a cedar canoe with hand-carved paddles, harpoons, .50-calibre rifles and motor boats.

A seven-man crew stalked it under misty skies about 250 yards offshore, steering the canoe's long, narrow bow, carved to represent a wolf's head, directly above the mammal. Animal rightists hurled themselves between the harpoons and the whale in an effort to save its life. Shortly after dawn, blood surfaced on the water after hunters stabbed the mammoth mammal.

The whale tried to swim away but ended up dragging the canoe behind it. Hunters in powerboats then surrounded it and shot it at least twice within 10 minutes of the initial hit. When news of the kill reached the Indians on the beach, they organized a celebration at their community centre seven miles away. Four thousand Makah and members of other bands feasted for two days, stripping the meat from the carcass and then consuming it as tribal drums were beaten.

"The whole thing brought the tribe together," says Makah band member Kirk, who wishes to be known only by his first name. "We view this as having cultural significance and is in a way part of religious freedom. People who don't understand us call us savages. I call them extreme missionary zealots." Zealotry was certainly in the air. B.C. newspapers printed hundreds of letters from the outraged, who referred to the whale as a "gentle, peaceful giant," "completely trusting" and "sentient." The hunt was described as "disgraceful," "sick" and "disgusting."

Telephoned death threats poured into the reserve. Kirk relates that one fanatic told him he hoped that all the Makah, adults and children, died "just like the whale." Members of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee hosted a "wake for the whale." In Vancouver they presented U.S. Deputy Consul Ken Fairfax with a petition, signed by 535 people, demanding an end to "this obsolete and cruel 'traditional' hunt." Protester Anna Hall, of the Victoria whale-watching company Prince of Whales, was on the water weeks before the kill scouting the Makah. Enraged by the kill, she told the Victoria Times Colonist, "It was devastating beyond belief. They call this humane, but it is an atrocity."

The Makah began planning the hunt four years ago. Interest in reviving the hunt had grown after an archeological dig at the nearby village of Ozette in 1970, which uncovered thousands of artifacts bearing witness to a 2,000-year whaling tradition. Many Makah believe health problems on the reserve are the result of the loss of their traditional diet of seafood and sea mammal meat. They also believe that delinquency among the band's young people stems from a lack of discipline and pride which the hunt could restore.

Commercial whaling of the western Pacific gray whales did not begin in earnest until the animal's calving location off Baja California were discovered in 1847. By the 1920s grays were almost extinct, prompting a hunting ban in 1937. The population gradually increased. and the species was removed from the endangered list in 1994. Its numbers are now estimated at 26,000. Only subsistence hunting of 140 a year by Indians in Alaska, Siberia and Washington is permitted by the International Whaling Commission.

An 1855 federal treaty, the only one in America, allows the Makah to hunt whales. The tribe is authorized to take up to five per year over a five-year period. The hunt is sanctioned by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the IWC. Canada imposed a moratorium on the commercial whale hunt in 1972 and pulled out of the IWC in 1982, arguing there was no further reason to remain a member since the commission's mandate is to ensure the orderly development of the commercial whaling industry.

University of Calgary anthropology professor Milton Freeman argues the Makah have a cultural right to their hunt, which is no threat to the gray whale species. He points out that Norway has a sustainable whaling industry (they take 760 minke each year) and that Canada is the world's third-largest whaling nation in the world, with 47 communities killing whales for food and ceremonial purposes.

That the gray whale is no longer endangered is completely irrelevant to animal rightists. To them whales are not just another species—they are deeply spiritual, even sacred creatures, equal to, if not superior to, human beings. The urban environmentalist fascination with the whale (and sea mammals in general) began in the 1960s. Many of the various species were then endangered, and sensitive folk were sickened by pictures and descriptions of these prehistoric survivors butchered by commercial whalers. Greenpeace, founded in Vancouver at that time, took up the "save the whale" cause and en route was transformed from a band of eccentrics to a multinational and hugely profitable charity.

By the 1990s killing whales—for any reason—was seen as inexplicable. In 1993 Free Willy, a low-budget film about a 12-year-old's quest to free a captive killer whale, became the surprise hit of the year, spawning two sequels and a television series. Ironically, "Willy" was a captive Mexican whale, and the movie led to a protracted, and ultimately successful, campaign to return it to the wild.

Similarly, the Vancouver Aquarium has long been targeted by activists furious that it keeps whales for display, although the publicity these beasts have received has raised public consciousness to an untold degree. The Pacific Northwest is now whale country. The company that owns the Vancouver Canucks is called Orca Bay and rumours persist the Canucks will soon be renamed the Orcas. Whale watching is now big business, to the extent that some claim that all the attention is traumatizing the objects of this affection. Peter Hamilton, administrator of the radical Vancouver animal rights group Lifeforce, speaks for many on the West Coast when he says that its proximity to whales "is a beautiful experience to people living in a city between concrete walls. When you come so close to such a sentient, intelligent animal, it's an immense pleasure."

"Whales are obviously intelligent. They have had a place in the hearts of people for three decades," declares Steve Lawson, a spokesman for Vancouver Island's First Nations' Environmental Network, a coalition of several Indian bands and non-Indian greens. "People have in a sense become much closer to them...Many people have a connection with whales and I believe they have something to teach us. That's why I feel the [Makah hunt] has struck such a cord with people around the world. It's not a matter of numbers and science. It's more on a heartfelt level. It is part of our human energy."

White environmentalists claim their erstwhile Indian allies have betrayed them. Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter wrote in the Georgia Straight, "So much for one of the abiding myths of the environmentalist movement, namely that the natives could be counted on to treat nature with more respect than the white man. Some activists have long argued that environmentalists should support all native land claims because the aboriginals will automatically do a better job of preserving the wilderness than the rest of us...Oh well, another lovely hippie fantasy bites the dust."

Judith Stone, president of the Animal Advocates Society of B.C., goes so far as to call the Makah "savages that threw the harpoon." She says she now realizes that "No spirituality is superior to another—especially when it requires killing the helpless and the innocent. It was so untrendy to tell the truth—that natives are just humans, warts and all. They were never superior in any way, at any time." She warns, "No more innocents sacrificed to money and power. If it is necessary to take up arms to protect the innocents, then how many are ready?" The Makah have distanced themselves from their former allies and call the preservationist campaign a "steady stream of propaganda designed to denigrate our culture and play on human sympathy for all animals."

Prof. Freeman argues an approach based on animal rights rather than science is irrational. He says that whales have been studied for decades and there exists no strong evidence they are particularly more intelligent than other species. In response to the "savages" charge he contends the best society can hope for in killing animals is that death is as quick and as painless as in the food industry that kills billions of cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens ever year. The anthropologist characterizes the outrage at the Makah hunt as "cultural imperialism." He says of animal rightism, "It's grown into an urban movement that tends to attract people who are culturally insensitive. They are basically saying, 'We don't eat whale meat and therefore you can't.'"

North America's horrified reaction to the Makah hunt is seen elsewhere as hysterical sentimentalism. There exists a growing worldwide demand for a resumption of commercial whaling. and this was heard at last month's IWC annual meeting in Grenada. Japan and other countries called for the ratification of a 1994 plan that would set strict catch limits and allow observers on whaling ships. They were disappointed. The IWC decided to maintain its 13-year-old ban on commercial whaling. Pro-whaling countries responded they might simply ignore it.

Prominent at the meeting was Indian Tom Happynook, chairman of the Vancouver Island-based World Council of Whalers. He was denounced by greens as a shill for the Japanese. Noted radical Paul Watson, president of Sea Shepherd, cited his presence as evidence B.C. Indians intend to imitate their Makah brothers.

This is quite plausible, says Prof. Freeman, as Indians have a constitutional right to hunt whales for ceremonial and food purposes. He insists there is no reason to prevent them from doing so, considering the abundance of gray whales and the limited catches that would be imposed on them. Nonetheless, Premier Clark has vowed the province will not sign any Indian treaty that includes the right to hunt whales. Days after the Makah kill, Mr. Clark said the province would use "whatever leverage we have at the bargaining table and the treaties to ensure there is no whale hunt in British Columbia."

Peter Smith, assistant to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gordon Wilson, explains, "The government is saying, 'We don't want to return to whaling, but we want conservation.' We are at the table representing the interests of all British Columbians and it seems pretty clear they are not interested in engaging in harvesting at this point." Earlier, however, Mr. Wilson seemed to contradict Mr. Clark when he mused that Canadian legal precedent would likely make it impossible to prevent Indians from whaling.

If they try they will face ferocious opposition and continued racist attacks, says Bill Burke, a University of Washington law and marine affairs professor. He notes that anti-whaling campaigns raise great sums of money. He concludes, "The Makah may very well take more whales and B.C. tribes are clearly going to push for it. You can bet [the anti-whaling lobby] is not going away. There's going to be a lot of yelling and screaming. Paul Watson is going to make millions." And the greens will plot their revenge. Mr. Hunter has warned, "The Makah have thrown a whale-sized monkey wrench into ongoing treaty negotiations in B.C."

The Makah remained determined to practise the ways of their ancestors. Spokesman Kirk pleads for acceptance. "What people need to do is research their facts," he says. "But I know no matter what happens with whaling in the future, they will blame us. It will always be our fault. But whaling is our right; all we want is a little tolerance." BCR

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