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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2019)
B5 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2019 Mother unable to Tribe hopes to hunt whales again forgive and forget By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press Dear Annie: My daugh- healthy person doesn’t say the ter recently passed from com- things she has. I hope she seeks plications of myasthenia gra- help and recognizes the impact vis. She died unexpectedly she’s had on people, especially one evening after she stopped you and your daughter. breathing during an MG crisis. In the meantime, you are Myasthenia gravis is a chronic under no obligation to be autoimmune neuromuscular friends with her. I’m not advo- disease that causes weakness cating hostility: A neutral, in the skeletal muscles, matter-of-fact atti- which are responsible tude will do just fi ne. DEAR for breathing and mov- If she fi nds that offen- ANNIE ing parts of the body, sive, she shouldn’t including the arms and have said what she did. legs. It’s not about harbor- My problem is ing a grudge but rather with her mother-in- respecting your own law. While my daugh- boundaries and needs. ter was receiving treat- Focus on you and ment for this disease, ANNIE LANE honoring your daugh- Creators her mother-in-law ter and your loss right Syndicate Inc. told her she was mak- now. The work of grief ing up the symptoms is demanding enough. and actually went so far as to Dear Annie: My wife and accuse her of having Mun- I and four friends went out chausen syndrome. Mind you, to dinner at a new restaurant. this was after a weeklong stay They had a ladies’ room and in the ICU. This is just one a men’s room visible from example of her dislike for my where we sat. After the meal, daughter. She did not approve I needed to go. The men’s of my daughter’s marriage room was locked (it was a sin- to her son and was not very gle-stall situation). I walked happy about their relationship around for a bit and came from the beginning. back after nearly 10 minutes. My question is this: How The door was still locked, and can I ever be friendly to I continued to wait. Finally, I this person again after she couldn’t last any longer. The made these horrible accusa- women’s room was unlocked tions toward my daughter and and vacant, so in I went. When treated her with such disre- I came out, everyone said that I spect? It was hard enough to was rude and out of line. I said be cordial with her and her that they were being overly husband at the funeral. Since sensitive! What should I have we live in the same town and done? — Almost Up a Tree share a grandchild with them, Dear Almost Up a Tree: I’m trying to forgive and for- You did your due diligence in get. But I am having a really waiting for the men’s room. hard time with this. She gave Next time, I’d caution you not my daughter a lot of stress, to wander around the restau- and stress is one of the things rant, in case the person emerges that can trigger a crisis when and you miss your opportu- you have MG. So every time nity. And I’d encourage you I see her, I can’t help but feel to go to the restroom preemp- she played a contributing fac- tively, before it’s an emer- tor in my daughter’s passing. gency. That said, I don’t think — Missing My Daughter anyone can fairly call you rude Dear Missing: I am so sorry here. It was a single-stall bath- for your loss. Your daughter’s room, and you ensured that it mother-in-law is heaping addi- was empty before entering. tional pain onto your already If your wife and friends fi nd unbearable load. Her behav- that so uncouth, I’d ask them ior goes beyond the realm of what the other options were meanness: It sounds as though in that moment. Sometimes, she might suffer from a men- when nature calls, you have no tal disorder herself. A mentally choice but to answer. SEATTLE — Patrick DePoe was in high school the last time his Native American tribe in Wash- ington state was allowed to hunt whales. He was on a canoe that greeted the crew towing in the body of a gray whale. His shop class worked to clean the bones and reas- semble the skeleton, which hangs in a tribal museum. Two decades later, he and the Makah Tribe — the only American Indians with a treaty right to hunt whales — are still waiting for gov- ernment permission to hunt again as their people historically did. The tribe, in the remote northwest cor- ner of Washington’s Olympic Pen- insula, hopes to use the whales for food and to make handicrafts, art- work and tools they can sell. The tribe’s plans have been tied up in legal fi ghts and layers of sci- entifi c review. The next step is a weeklong administrative hear- ing that began Thursday in Seattle. Whatever the result, it’s likely to be stuck in further court challenges, with animal rights activists vow- ing to block the practice they call unnecessary and barbaric. “It shouldn’t have taken 20 years to be where we’re at now,” said DePoe, a tribal council mem- ber. “People ask how it makes me feel. I want to ask, ‘How does it make you feel that this is the pro- cess we’re having to go through to exercise a right that’s already been agreed upon?’ It’s a treaty right. It’s settled law.” In 1855, the Makah, a tribe that numbers about 1,500, turned over 470 square miles of land to the U.S. under a treaty that promised them the “right of taking fi sh and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds.” They killed whales until the 1920s, giving it up because commercial whaling had devastated gray whale populations. By 1994, gray whales in the east- ern Pacifi c Ocean had rebounded, and they were removed from the endangered species list. Seeing an opportunity to reclaim its heritage, the tribe announced plans to hunt again. The Makah trained for months in the ancient ways of whaling and received the blessing of federal offi - cials and the International Whal- ing Commission. They took to the water in 1998 but didn’t succeed until the next year, when they har- Elaine Thompson/AP Photo Makah Tribal Council Member Patrick DePoe before a federal court hearing in Seattle to help determine whether his small American Indian tribe can once again hunt whales. pooned a gray whale from a hand- carved cedar canoe. A tribal mem- ber in a motorized support boat killed it with a high-powered rifl e to minimize its suffering. The hunts drew protests from animal rights activists, who some- times threw smoke bombs at the whalers and sprayed fi re extinguish- ers into their faces. Others veered motorboats between the whales and the tribal canoes to interfere with the hunt. Authorities seized several vessels and made arrests. After animal rights groups sued, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned federal approval of the tribe’s whaling plans. The court found that the tribe needed to obtain a waiver under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. Eleven Alaska Native communi- ties in the Arctic have such a waiver for subsistence hunts, allowing them to kill bowhead whales — even though bowheads are listed as endangered. The Makah tribe applied for a waiver in 2005. The process repeat- edly stalled as new scientifi c infor- mation about the whales and the health of their population was uncovered. Some of the Makah whalers became so frustrated with the delays that they went on a rogue hunt in 2007, killing a gray whale that got away from them and sank. They were convicted in federal court. NOAA Fisheries has proposed regulations allowing the tribe to harvest 20 whales over a decade, with limits on the timing of the hunts to minimize the chance of killing endangered Western Pacifi c gray whales. The population of eastern Pacifi c gray whales, which number about 27,000, is strong, despite a recent die-off that has resulted in hundreds washing up on West Coast beaches, federal scientists say. The hearing that began Thursday will focus on highly technical argu- ments about whether the tribe meets the requirements for a waiver. “There isn’t a big conservation issue here,” said Donna Darm, a retired NOAA offi cial who began working on the issue in 2005 and still does as a contractor. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Animal Welfare Insti- tute oppose the hunts. They argue that NOAA’s environmental review has been inadequate, it’s not clear to what extent the whales’ recent die-off has hurt the population and the Marine Mammal Protection Act may have voided the tribe’s treaty right. They say the tribe cannot claim a subsistence or cultural need to hunt after so many decades. “The Makah’s family and tribal traditions and rituals associated with its whaling history can con- tinue without the resumption of whaling,” the Animal Welfare Insti- tute said Thursday. “The Makah could, if it chooses, attract and educate untold numbers of visi- tors to its lands by promoting non- lethal use of whales through whale watching.” DePoe chafes at outside groups dictating what his tribe’s culture requires. He recalled the pride he felt when the Makah crew suc- ceeded, the joy of sharing the feast and the taste of the whale meat. “I have a little brother who’s in his 20s,” DePoe said. “He doesn’t remember it. I’m hoping one day he can experience that.” Classifieds SELL YOUR VEHICLE HERE! If it Drives or Floats... GARAGE SALE Searching for Employees? SEASON IS HERE! 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