The Makah Tribe of Neah Bay, Washington State conducted a whale hunt in 1999 – the first one since the early 1900s. Since then, the Makah have continued to struggle with state and federal authorities over whether the Makah can or cannot whale and how many gray whales they would be able to hunt per year. Whaling was the very first point of negotiation between European colonizers and the Makah in the Treaty of Neah Bay, written and signed in 1885. Much of the Makah’s cultural and spiritual coherence comes from the long tradition of whaling. From both oral and archeological evidence, it is clear that the Makah have been hunting whales for at least 2,000 years. As the Makah website puts it, “It is so important to the Makah, that in 1855 when the Makah ceded thousands of acres of land to the government of the United States, they explicitly reserved their right to whale within the Treaty of Neah Bay.”1“The Makah Whaling Tradition,” Makah Tribal Info, Makah Nation, accessed July 29, 2020, https://makah.com/makah-tribal-info/whaling/.
