-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.24/pageone.html ----- Laissez Faire City Times June 14, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 24 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------- Save the Whales? by Peter Topolewski In May the Makah Indians of Washington State finally killed the gray whale they�d been after. Actually, it was the first gray whale they had a shot at. But this was no Ahab versus Moby Dick. They isolated a three-year old gray whale (that�s a young one) from its pod, harpooned it, shot it with a .50-calibre rifle, floated it with compressed air, and towed it ashore with a diesel boat. A whale was dead, the Makah cheered, a butcher was flown in, and the world cried. The world cried because all whales live in a fragile and threatened environment, and their numbers are, if not falling, always on the verge of doing so. The world cried because, although the US government sanctioned the hunt under the justification that the Makah never surrendered their right to hunt, international conservation laws that forbid such hunts should logically apply to the Makah also. The Makah�s blatant contravention of those laws set a precedent welcomed in Japan and Norway, where whalers are eager to resume their commercial enterprise despite the danger, perhaps likelihood, of extinction for many varieties of whale. Those were the technical reasons for opposing the Makah hunt. The outcries of disbelief and outrage that preceded and followed the hunt reverberated with a much different tone, however. It seemed that most who opposed the hunt � and if media coverage provides any hints that would include everybody except the Makah � expressed their opposition by attacking the Makah�s motives. The Makah proposition that they needed to hunt a whale for sustenance did not hold much water, seeing as how they�ve survived about 70 years without whale meat. Critics attacked the Makah�s spiritual reasons for hunting by calling the entire practice savage or crude or archaic. Most especially, the idea that the Makah were resurrecting a very meaningful and traditional cultural practice was promptly dismissed with sarcastic remarks like, "Yeah, those motor boats and rifles are really traditional." Indians vs. Environmentalists Amidst the public relations war waged since the hunt, one of the lamest tales emerges from certain (but certainly not all) quarters of the environmental movement. In the press and before the cameras they are acting like they�ve just awoken from a dream to find that their ideological brethren � the Indians � have betrayed them. They say they were naive and "collectively innocent", and now are shocked to learn that some Indian bands have all along been cutting backroom deals to begin commercial whaling projects. In British Columbia, not far from the Makah hunting waters, some environmentalists feel so duped they have even said that BC coastal Indians currently in treaty negotiations don�t deserve their sovereignty if they include whaling rights in their treaty demands. This is all so much whining, and no one should buy it for a moment. To implement their political agenda, environmentalists long ago allied themselves with Indians, especially because Indians do have historic spiritual, religious, and practical ties to the land, the sea, and the creatures that roam them � ties unlike any that urban man would fathom. The environmentalist movement has both taken advantage of, and helped propagate, the depth of this relationship between Indians and their environment. If environmentalists did not invent the term "First Nations" to describe Canada�s Indians, they were among the first and the most enthusiastic people to use it. Yet, in light of the Makah whale hunt, many of these same people are now making rather horrid generalizations that the Indians pulled the wool over their eyes. As coincidence would have it, a few years ago I spent nine months in Terrace, BC, the nearest town to the site of the province�s first modern treaty with an Indian band. My experience there erased any illusion that race dictates how one treats nature. I saw evidence in abundance that Indians in that area routinely made a mockery of their claims to "a special respect for wildlife" or "hunting strictly for sustenance". Indian fishing nets stretched across a river to catch salmon (and anything else swimming by) were often left submerged for weeks on end while the captured salmon rotted by the hundreds. Similarly, I found it frighteningly common to drive down logging roads marked on their edges with moose carcasses untouched but for their missing dewlap � a body part with spiritual value to some Indians. Only Indians are allowed to stretch nets across rivers, and only Indians can hunt without licenses, but locals merely shrugged off both the abuse of these privileges and the sheer waste as a rather everyday occurrence. And so too did the environmentalists who, if the offense did not involve a whale or a spotted owl, were apparently willing to ignore any evidence that could tarnish the reputation of their prized Indian compatriots. The environmentalists who have supported the most liberal treaty settlements for Indians � and that�s most of them � are kidding themselves if they think that granting Indians control of huge land tracts and the resources on them will somehow protect and preserve nature. Independence is the ultimate goal of these treaties, and independence costs money. Spirituality and respect cannot cover the expenses of living. Once the treaties are in place, expect wholesale logging, mining, and development � more than likely by some outside party, and most of it executed without being subjected to environmental concerns. This, of course, all remains to be seen. But, in the meantime, criticism of the Makah�s whale hunt � which they hold to have profound meaning to them � smells like typical white-man missionary work. Once more the world judges the Indians, seeing in them only stupidity and barbarity desperately in need of our enlightenment. Their religion must be wrong because it calls on them to kill whales�those demigods who, by virtue of their supposed intellect and puppy-dog eyes, are inherently and indisputably more valuable than the cows, chicken, fish, and all other manner of creature most of us chomp on every day. So easily have these views dismissed the Makah�s spiritual practice, re-instituted in the 90s with modern contrivances after it was banned 70 years ago. It took this long for them to overcome our regulation of their religion, delivered with cutting edge precision via our bullets, alcohol, small pox, and modern-day reservations. But somehow they�re the barbarians. And in our upright nobility and self-righteousness we tell them with a smile how much better it would be for us to watch them practice their pagan religion in some watered-down, homogenized form that hurts no one but yet preserves some semblance of their culture � whatever that is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Peter Topolewski was born in Canada in 1972. Against the odds that seem stacked against everyone at birth, he is just now beginning to learn that the society and system of authority one is born into is not the society and system of authority one must accept. He lives and works in Vancouver, where his corporate communications company is based. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 24, June 14, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------- Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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