Makahs Seek Right To Rove For ‘Chitapuk’ Tribe Seeks International Whaling Commission’s Ok To Hunt Gray Whales, Sign Of ‘Religious Patriotism’

It has been more than 70 years since the men of the Makah tribe of Washington state last put to sea in their sleek, hand-hewn cedar canoes in search of what they know as “chitapuk” - the Pacific gray whale.

Now, bankrolled with $200,000 from the U.S. government, 15 members of the tribe and a lawyer flew to this exclusive Mediterranean resort to petition the International Whaling Commission for permission to resume the hunts of yore.

The question - to whale or not to whale - has torn the 1,800-member tribe apart, alienated U.S. friends at the IWC and generated protests by environmentalists, who see the petition as a thinly disguised attempt to resume commercial whaling.

The Makahs, who live on a 25-square mile reservation at the northwestern tip of Washington, want to catch and kill up to five gray whales a year. The hunt, some Makah say, is crucial to the cultural survival as well as the physical health of the Makah.

“It is a historical responsibility, a kind of a religious patriotism,” explained Micah McCarty, 26, who wore a traditional headdress, a woven garland of cedar bark.

Dave Sones, the tribe’s natural resources director, says the Makah must resume its 1,500-year practice of whaling to supplement a catch of salmon and other marine resources devastated by urban sprawl, clear-cutting of the reservation’s timberlands and the weather disruptions wrought by El Nino.

Other, dissenting Makah, who have been brought to Monaco by save-the-whales groups, call these arguments high-sounding hogwash.

“We’ve lived without it for over 70 years,” said Alberta “Binky” Thompson, 73, a bespectacled grandmother. “If it were really necessary, would be we here today?”

Though the Clinton administration opposes ending an 11-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling, it is backing the Makah’s proposal on both legal and environmental grounds, U.S. delegate Will Martin said.

An 1855 treaty with the Makah is the only federal compact with an Indian tribe that specifically gives the tribe the right to hunt whales, he said. Moreover, the species, also known as the California gray whale, is now said to be flourishing. In 1994, it was removed from the U.S. endangered species list.

The U.S. proposal, however, has run into deep trouble here, with even traditionally friendly nations expressing reservations or flat opposition.

Chris Puplick of Australia accused the Americans of trying to use parliamentary sleight-of-hand to compensate the Makah for “the demolition of the U.S. welfare system” and the tribe’s “poor timber practices.” Mexico’s Santiago Onate was dubious about whether residents of the “richest country in the world” needed to hunt whales to eat.

Evidently stunned at the scale of the opposition in the 39-nation IWC, U.S. delegates met Wednesday night with some of their critics.

U.S. officials said they hope for agreement on a compromise by Thursday.