Following the removal of the gray whale from the Endangered Species
list in 1994, the Makah tribe of northwest Washington State
announced that they would revive their whale hunts; their
relatives, the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation of British Columbia, shortly
followed suit. Neither tribe had exercised their right to whale--in
the case of the Makah, a right affirmed in their 1855 treaty with
the federal government--since the gray whale had been hunted nearly
to extinction by commercial whalers in the 1920s. The Makah whale
hunt of 1999 was an event of international significance, connected
to the worldwide struggle for aboriginal sovereignty and to the
broader discourses of environmental sustainability, treaty rights,
human rights, and animal rights. It was met with enthusiastic
support and vehement opposition.
As a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, Charlotte Cote offers
a valuable perspective on the issues surrounding indigenous
whaling, past and present. Whaling served important social,
economic, and ritual functions that have been at the core of Makah
and Nuu-chah-nulth societies throughout their histories. Even as
Native societies faced disease epidemics and federal policies that
undermined their cultures, they remained connected to their
traditions. The revival of whaling has implications for the
physical, mental, and spiritual health of these Native communities
today, Cote asserts. Whaling, she says, "defines who we are as a
people."
Her analysis includes major Native studies and contemporary
Native rights issues, and addresses environmentalism, animal rights
activism, anti-treaty conservatism, and the public's expectations
about what it means to be "Indian." These thoughtful critiques are
intertwined with the author's personal reflections, family stories,
and information from indigenous, anthropological, and historical
sources to provide a bridge between cultures.
Charlotte Cote is associate professor of American Indian studies
at the University of Washington.
"This work, by an Indigenous scholar who also has hereditary
rights to particular kinds of information and who shares the
traditions of her own family and community, makes a powerful
contribution to Northwest Coast Indigenous and environmental
history." -Coll Thrush, author of "Native Seattle: Stories from the
Crossing-Over Place"
"An excellent and timely book that chronicles the revitalization
of the honored whaling tradition among the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth
but also raises broader issues of eco-colonialism, identity, and
self-determination within the cultural nexus and political ecology
of modern environmentalism and indigenous hunting economies."
-Thomas Thornton, author of "Being and Place among the Tlingit"
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