Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

I just returned from Seattle, giving a guest lecture at University of Washington (UW), in AmInd Studies, and a drama workshop with a youth group called Red Eagle Soaring. New slogan abounds "Save a Whale - Harpoon a Makah."

The tension for *any* Indian in Washington is thick right now. Just walking down a nearby University street, I received glares and under the breath "friging Indian" comments. But the press has been *excellent* is helping diffuse racial tensions over a non-racial issue. One young Makah man was attacked by three white men on a ferry and is still on the critical list. There were several bomb threats at the Makah Elementary School.

The venom is appalling! Emails to the Seattle Times (which they printed with permission) more than once spit out "drunken Indian" stereotypes, etc.

"Publish this but please don't use our last names. We wouldn't want to lose our scalps." "It's their 'tradition'? My forefathers helped settle the west. It was their tradition to kill every Redskin they saw, so I also want to keep faith my ancestors. I'm anxious to know where I may apply for a license to kills Indians." (and that's just a couple of examples!)

Then a research sociologist at UC-Berkeley wrote: "When you start hearing language that its time to hunt Indians again, you have to realize its the language of genocide. You don't hear people saying its time to hunt white people when a couple of white men drag a black man behind a truck in Texas."

Ted Kerasote ("Bloodties: Nature, Culture and the Hunt") said "The reaction to the Makah hunt reveals a particular hypocrisy in American culture. Many Americans publicly espouse diversity and multiculturalism, and even mouth support for the renaissance of indigenous cultures. But the moment a native community does something that 'doesn't fit into our preconceived notions of who we want aboriginals to be,' we threaten our wrath - the wrath of the majority."

Sherman Alexie also spoke in the same class at UW last week. The professor informed me "He [Alexie] doesn't agree with the whaling, though he does say he totally defends their treaty rights (???) But he thinks they shouldn't have whaled, and brought down all this racist anger on us Indians. A couple of Makahs were sitting right there in the class." Since Sherman was not paid for his lecture (which was to focus on American Indian images in literature and film,) the American Indian Studies Department at UW said to those who complained they could do nothing, having no control over guest speakers. It seems one guest speaker needs to pay more attention to the larger picture, let alone "speak with a tongue in his head," as my uncle frequently said.

Regardless of one's personal position in this issue, recognition of *any* Treaty Rights is of benefit, *not* detriment, to all Indian people.

Just my $.02 from what I saw and experienced in Seattle.

Diane Way