By M-J Milloy
It took the early white missionaries and explorers weeks to navigate the rugged coastline of northern Washington State to reach the Makah nation, perched on the very north-western tip of the United States. It won't take that long for Paul Watson.
Sometime next month, the veteran anti-whaling activist will make that trip with a three-ship flotilla from his Sea Shepherd Society. Their goal is to disrupt, by almost any means necessary, the first traditional whale hunt by the Makah in more than half a century.
Watson — who promises to "talk to the whales" with orca-like sonar signals, and may try to physically block the Makah vessels — is no stranger to uncompromising, and very media-savvy, direct action. Like a modern-day Hemingway hero, this not-so-old man wears his adventures on the sea like a badge of pride: jailed in Holland; rammed by the Norwegian navy; co-founder of Greenpeace; worldwide defender of the international ban on commercial whaling.
It's an image that sells, and his exploits and opinions are rabidly eaten up by many in the media and trendy liberals in Hollywood.
But when Watson's three-ship flotilla and the Makah whaling boats weigh anchor in early October, their conflict in the Juan de Fuca Strait will be about more than just the fate of some unlucky grey whales. Their clash will recall earlier battles over culture and sovereignty between the Makah and white missionaries and government agents.
And there will be more than just the spirits of the past along on Watson's armada: supporting Watson's actions are Jack Metcalf, the local Republican congressman, who has links to the US far right.
With missionary zeal, Watson has made an unholy alliance and chosen a no-longer endangered species over an endangered nation.
Indigenous view
For the Makah who support the hunt — most of the tribal elders and about 85% in a 1995 referendum, according to the tribal administration — the hunt means a chance to revive Makah traditions lost through forced assimilation and the end of the commercial hunt in the 1920s.
"Many of us believe that the problems besetting our young people stem from a lack of discipline and pride. We believe the restoration of whaling will help us to restore that", wrote the Makah Whaling Commission in a public statement. No one at the Commission would speak to Hour.
The commission also notes they are guaranteed the right to whale in their 1885 treaty with the US government, and that the Makah would take at most 20 whales by the year 2000, out of a total population of more than 20,000.
Watson is dismissive of the Makah's claim of cultural revival. All they're reviving is "pulling the trigger on a 50-calibre gun", according to Watson.
In addition, the Sea Shepherd Society has condemned the hunt as an "archaic and inhuman ritual", and claimed that traditional Makah hunting culture would include disinterring and mutilating the corpse of a Makah child.
"Progress affects everyone living in this new era of the Global Village. No legitimate argument can be made that the Makah, or any other ethnic group, can move their culture forward through ritual killing", according to a public statement from the society.
Although these words echo early Christian missionaries, who condemned aboriginal culture as savage and obsolete during colonisation, Watson isn't comfortable acting as the arbiter of Makah culture or progress. "If you want to revive culture and traditions, how do you do that by killing something", he said.
Watson's arrogance is almost more than one local observer, a professor in Vancouver, Washington, and a Blackfoot, can take. "I'm watching daily the destruction of Indian people — and culture is a central aspect of that. I see our culture ridiculed, mocked, defiled ... and all this emotion about whales and nothing said about people far closer to extinction", said Jim Craven.
For Watson, the Makah motivation is neither social good nor cultural revival, but economic gain. "This is a community that is very well off. I've not seen any poverty in their community. They've wiped out their fishery and now they want to take the whales", he said.
The hunt will only enrich part of their community, and is being supported by whaling nations — like Japan and Norway — who want to use "cultural exemptions" to restart their own whaling fleets, according to Watson.
But while Watson uses the alleged Makah connection to the Japanese whaling industry to oppose the hunt, he has entered into his own marriage of unholy convenience.
Far right connection
Congressman Jack Metcalf represents the extreme north-western chunk of Washington State which includes the Makah territory. Metcalf, like Watson, is a long-time opponent of the Makah hunt and has filed lawsuits and lobbied in Congress, even though he is a Republican.
How do you explain a Republican supporting an environmentalist, let alone the most militant of environmentalists? Metcalf's involvement in the "wise-use movement" tells most of the tale.
Sometimes called "property rights" advocates, wise-users' main concern is the defence of individuals' property rights, including the rights of individuals to own, develop and enjoy — primarily through hunting and fishing — their private property. Aboriginal treaties and groups stand in the way of unfettered enjoyment.
Metcalf has been at the centre of the movement. Before being elected to Congress, Metcalf helped start the United Property Owners of Washington, a property rights lobby group. The UPOW is affiliated with the national Citizens' Equal Rights Alliance, which has a history of opposing aboriginal treaty rights.
"I don't believe for a minute that Jack Metcalf cares about whales", said Bill Watson of the Northwest Coalition, an NGO in Seattle. "It's a way to go after the tribe. It's a way to extend his anti-Indian campaign. Believe me, if it was someone else doing the whaling, he wouldn't mind at all."
Metcalf had one of the lowest scores on environmental legislation during the last session in Congress, voting against bills for clean air and water, and for bills to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency and logging restrictions, according to the environment group the Sierra Club.
But there is also evidence that Metcalf is much more than simply anti-environment and anti-Indian, since the wise-use movement, and Metcalf, are gaining increasing support from the furthest fringe of the far right.
Metcalf's supporters include the Spotlight, a far-right newsletter published by Willis Carto. Carto — called "the most influential professional anti-Semite [in the US]" by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre — has a long history of Holocaust-denial work and links to Republican politicians.
According to the files of the Anti-Racist Action Network, there is also growing evidence that the wise-use movement is being infiltrated by white-power activists, including people affiliated with groups like Aryan Nation.
Paul Watson claims ignorance of any of the links between his anti-whaling ally and the lunatic fringe of the US right. "I haven't seen any evidence that he's anti-Indian at all", he said. "You have to agree to disagree on certain things and take your support where you can get it."
[Abridged from Hour Magazine. M-J Milloy is the news editor of Hour, an alternative news and culture weekly in Montreal, web site: <http://www.afterhour.com>.]