Makah elders rally on eve of federal court appearance
Makah tribal members Dotti Chamblin, left, and Gail Adams hold signs in support of tribal whaling rights as they stand in front of the Port Angeles office of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks on Thursday. -- Photo by Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
By Randy Trick, Peninsula Daily News
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Dotti Chamblin, 65, and Gail Adams, 67, both of Neah Bay, waved signs at passing motorists on the corner of Peabody and Fifth streets in Port Angeles - the intersection in front of a satellite office for Dicks, D-Belfair, who represents the 6th Congressional District.
"We grandmothers got together and decided to do some peaceful rallies," Chamblin said.
"As grandmothers, we can't do much else."
Chamblin said six Makah women plan to be in Seattle today, rallying in front of the offices of U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, and Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace.
They also plan to attend a federal court appearance of five men who hunted and killed a gray whale last month.
The men involved in the unauthorized hunt will be arraigned at 2:30 p.m. today in U.S. District Court of Western Washington in Tacoma.
The women said that the federal government is violating an explicit part of the Makah 1855 treaty, which grants them whaling rights.
"Those boys did nothing wrong, according to the treaty," Chamblin said.
Dicks, who sits on the Appropriation Subcommittee for the Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was not in Port Angeles.
Relay a message
Chamblin wanted his office staff to relay a message to him.
When he took the oath of office, he vowed to uphold the Constitution, Chamblin said, which says in Article VI that "all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land."
Chamblin and Adams said the federal government has done a poor job of living up to the agreements made with the Makah and other Native American tribes.
It's been a series of broken promises, they said.
"In our treaty, we have health care, hospital, doctors and schools, and that is a broken trust."
Chamblin pointed around her.
"We ceded this land for a peace treaty," Chamblin said, "to have guaranteed rights to health care, safety, economic development . . . and subsistence.
"We eat from the land and the ocean."
The right to whale was included in the tribe's 1855 treaty because whale was a key part of the Makah diet, they said.
The tribe voluntarily stopped hunting whales in the 1930s.
Tribal members hunted and killed a gray whale under federal supervision in 1999.
A federal appellate court has ruled that the tribe must obtain a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act before it can hunt a whale again.
"Now our people are having obesity, cancer and diabetes," Chamblin said, "because our subsistence has been taken away."
Arraignment in U.S. court today
TACOMA - Five Makah men are scheduled to be arraigned today in federal district court on misdemeanor charges in connection with a Sept. 8 hunt of a gray whale in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The arraignment is scheduled at 2:30 p.m. in today in U.S. District Court of Western Washington in Tacoma.
Theron Parker, Wayne Johnson, Andy Noel, Billy Secor Sr. and Frank Gonzales Jr. have been indicted on charges of conspiracy and violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the federal Whaling Convention.
They face fines of up to $100,000 each and jail terms as long as one year.
The 30-foot whale was harpooned and shot in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in an hunt that was not authorized by the federal government.
The Makah Tribal Council said it was not authorized by the tribe either.
The whale died several hours later.
The Makah tribal prosecutor has prepared five misdemeanor charges, she said, but those have not been filed.
At today's hearing, the five are slated to enter a plea in response to the indictment and pretrial conditions are likely to be discussed.
Last modified: October 11. 2007 9:00PM