Makah elders who testified before the IWC said their tribal council had pushed for the whale hunt without consulting a tribal majority. We believe the hunt is only for the money. Alberta Thompson, an anti-whaling Makah elder, attended the IWC meeting to explain the elders' case. The Tribal Council raised the whaling issue on the Makah reservation four months after submitting the proposal to the US government.
Nobody knows how to hunt it anymore.
Her grandson refuted the Tribal Council's claim that whaling is necessary for the tribe's cultural and physical survival. We don't like it. The Norwegian and Japanese governments, some Makah Council members and staff, and lobbyists for whaling, oil, timber and fisheries industries have been working to suspend these requirements for several years. The US delegation has promised to present the Makah plan again at next year's IWC conference. While the US found it expedient to expend tens of thousands of dollars in an effort to hand a few Makah businessmen a license to kill five gray whales, a sincere administration concern for the Makah people would have prioritized funding a new and necessary reservation water treatment plant and sewage system.