Makahs prevail!

The judge also found that the only harm the ARAs might suffer was 'aesthetic' and 'emotional.'

Judge rules in favor of Makah whaling 05/17/2002

NWCN.com

TACOMA - A federal judge in Tacoma, Wash. has ruled against animal rights activists and in favor of Makah Indian whalers. The judge has reportedly decided against ordering a halt to the whaling.

On May 3rd, U.S. District Court Judge Franklin D. Burgess issued a temporary restraining order telling the Makah Indians not to hunt gray whales for at least 10 days. The order was issued at the request of the Fund For Animals, which is suing to stop the whaling permanently.

The organization also requested a hearing for a preliminary injunction, which would last longer than a temporary restraining order. It seeks to prevent the Makah from hunting whales while a lawsuit challenging the tribe's right to whale makes its way through the courts.

The hearing was held for May 15.

It was a fairly extensive hearing with both sides very passionate about this issue. Even before the judge walked into the court, both sides reportedly exchanged angry words.

Three attorneys were allowed to make oral arguments for a half-hour each. The main issues include public safety during the hunt, the impact of the hunt on resident whales, and whether allowing the hunt would set precedent for other forms of whale hunting - not only for the local tribes but also internationally. And also, whether the Makah Tribe and the Federal Government satisfied all legal and procedural qualifications to permit a hunt. The Makah's right to whale is outlined in their 1855 treaty. The tribe moved to resume the hunt when the whales were taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994.

After making their case to the International Whaling Commission, Makah whalers were allocated 20 whales through 2002 - no more than five per year. They killed one, on May 17, 1999, their first in more than 70 years.

Let us not forget, this is not the end of the case.

Nor is it the end of the war.

Richard Hayduke Lives! 'Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.' Thomas Edison (inventor)

Great News. The flights of fancy of racists cowering behind 'environmental activism' will always be shown for what they are, bigots intolerant of any culture they do not understand.

Let us not forget, this is not the first time the Makah have won a ruling, or the last.

Hi TJ

Thats true, and they will keep winning because the law is on their side. They don't harass children, try to run down people, or go onto other peoples homes and tell them how to live.

Then you don't object if ARAs cause emotional harm to the Makah, right? That is only fair.

There is child abuse, animal abuse, abuse of elderly, abuse of spouse, abuse of alcohol and abuse of drugs, abuse of law and order and environmental abuse on the Makah rez, as many people have pointed out.

Not all Makah do all of the above, some do none of the above but they are all suffer the effects.

The intelligentsia among them feel that turning a huge amount of abuse on whales will solve the problem. Sort of takes out the mystery as to why such abuses are part of Makah lives.

I hasten to add that none of the abuse types, except that delivered to whales, is part of Makah culture. All of it is perpetrated by individuals acting outside of any cultural directive or action. Except the abuse of whales that is.

There is an old saying thats true. Clean up your own back yard and leave others alone. You live in an other Country, and you don't know anything about any Native America except what someone wrote and whats in your own little dirty mind.

You really are a contrary arn't you. Is this how you justify harassing children, trying to do harm to people.

'Physician, heal thyself.' Luke 4:23

Your activists are all-too-willing to kill Makah. I've heard the slogan: 'Save a whale, harpoon a Makah.' Fact is, the Makah only kill five whales a year. By contrast, Big Business will make a species extinct every day. And that's only known species.

That's what they are doing Mike. They have to justify all the harm they have done to children, somehow. And it is not just stalking them at canoe practice. It is calling in bomb threats to schools and daycare centers. It is creaming 'Whale Killers' at tiny children, to young to even know what whaling is. It is blocking the road, the only one into Neah Bay, while the children are tired and hungry and just wanting to be home. It is trampling through the cemetary where their relatives are buried and stomping on flowers and plants placed lovingly on those graves. Rich and his ilk have been causing emotonal harm to the people of Neah Bay all along, now they want to justify it.