Victoria Martin,
Will Keep Your
Heart Going
511'
May 19. 1999
(O m mi11e«l to Cultural Diverwty
Volume X X IX , Nu m her 20
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Opposition
Intensifies
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US Indian Tribe Kills First Gray
Whale in 70 Years
celebration in the town, where businesses were
closed so tribal members in ceremonial head­
dresses, shawls and jackets could wait under a
steady downpour for the whaling team to return.
“I didn’t think we had it in us, but the
canoers proved us wrong,” said Dan Cook.
"They are carrying out the tradition o f our
heritage and our tribe.”
The latest hunt began on May 10 as whales
clustered o ff the coast in their spring migra­
tion north. Tribal members managed to har­
poon a whale for the first time on Saturday
but failed to wound it seriously. Local au­
thorities arrested two activists who attempted
to get between the hunters and the whales in
order to prevent the kill.
The Sea Shepherd Society’s 95-foot (29-
metre) former Coast Guard cutter Sirenian
was one o f the few anti-whaling boats left on
the water. Over the weekend, the U.S. Coast
Guard confiscated four boats operated by
environmental activists and cited their op­
erators with various violations. Petty Officer
Jay Bigelow said.
The Sirenian followed the whaling crew
into the harbor and emitted a piercing siren
throughout the welcoming ceremony.
In a statem ent, tribal Chairman Ben
Johnson said he was thankful there were no
injuries in the tense atmosphere of the hunt
“We recognize that because o f differ­
ences in cultural values and knowledge, many
people do not understand our need to con­
tinue with the tradition o f whale hunting, thus
creating a conflict between them and the
Makah.” Johnson said.
The Canadian province o f British Colum­
bia vowed to block its tribes from conducting
similar whale hunts. The Nuu chah nulth
T rib a l C o u n cil, w hich re p re se n ts 13
Vancouver Island tribes, has expressed an
interest in seeking permission to hunt whales
in its ongoing land-rights treaty negotiations
with the province and Canada.
“We will not sign any agreement nor en­
tertain any discussion about going back to the
past and allowing any whale hunt in British
Columbia by aboriginal peoples,” Premier
Glen Clark said.
Clark said he felt “repulsed" by the whale
killing.
Hi V asessa M c G radv
<
Kosovo
W hite H ouse o fficials had re­
cently declared that C linton has
no intention o f deploying ground
troops in K osovo. M eanw hile,
Britain pressed NATO to consider
a ground attack. N A TO m issiles
continued their air raids which
ta r g e te d
th e
Y u g o s la v ia n
P resid en t’s key m ilitary sites.
Peace for Israel
1
P rim e M in is te r B e n ja m in
N etanyahu o f Israel will be step­
ping down after being defeated by
Ehud Barak in a statew ide elec­
tion. A fter nearly all o f the votes
w ere counted, results show ed that
Barak led w ith 55.9 percent to
43.9 for N etan y ah u . T he new
leader prom ises to secure peace
w ith the Palestinians, pull troops
out o f L ebanon in a year and heal
the deep divisions am ong Israelis.
Yeltsin Fires Prime
Minister
President Boris Y eltsin fired
P rim e
M in is te r
Y evgeny
Prim akov before Parliam ent was
to begin im peachm ent hearings
against Y eltsin. In order to im ­
peach Y eltsin, the im peachm ent
m otion m ust also be approved by
tw o-thirds m ajorities o f the upper
cham ber o f parliam ent and the su­
p rem e an d th e c o n s titu tio n a l
courts. K rem lin w arned that any
action to rem ove the president
w ould be a declaration o f w ar arid
plunge R ussia into crisis.
Gun Control
The Senate had recently voted
78-20 to require the sale o f “ se­
cure gun storage or safety devices”
w ith handguns. H ouse Speaker
D ennis H astert suggested that the
age o f handgun p o ssessio n be
raised from 18 to 21. Senate Re­
publicans are also cracking down
on the sale o f guns w ith a new
proposal to establish a system o f
background checks for all buyers
o f firearm s at gun show s.
Michigan School
Massacre
Four teenage boys in M ichigan
face adult charges o f conspiracy
to com m it prem editated murder.
Their plan was to buy and steal
w eapons for a m assacre at the Hol­
land W oods M iddle School that
would top the death toll at C olum ­
bine High School. T heir other in ­
tent was to rape girls at their
school. The arrest occurred one
day before a pipe bom b was found
near the school.
Grants for Cops
President Clinton announced a
new round o f grants that would
allow com m unities to hire cadets
and urged C ongress to support his
anti-crim e package. C lin to n is
w orking tow ards fu lfillin g his
prom ise o f paying for 100,000
new police officers. He has also
called for a renew al o f the com ­
m unity policing grants.
akah Indians killed their first
gray whale in more than 70
years on Monday, using hand-
thrown harpoons and a .50-
caliber rifle to successfully conclude a week­
long hunt tribe members said was intended to
reinvigorate cultural traditions.
Shortly after dawn, seven members o f the
Makah whaling team paddling a hand-carved
cedar canoe approached a whale in the Pa­
cific Ocean off the tip o f the Olympic Penin­
sula and began the kill by throwing the first of
two 11-foot (3.3 metre) harpoons.
Television footage showed a tribal motor-
boat circling the wounded whale as other
members o f the hunting party fired three .50-
caliber rifle shots, and within about 10 min­
utes the animal was dead.
Nearly 12 hours later, a crowd o f about
500 cheering people lined the beach near the
small tribal town o f Neah Bay, Washington,
as a triumphant procession o f five dugout
canoes towed the carcass to shore.
“It went like clockwork— how we prayed,
how we dreamed it would," said Eric Johnson,
part of the support crew. “ It was a nice,
numane kill.”
The whaling team was expected to butcher
the whale and distribute meat and blubber to
the tribe’s 2,200 members.
The Makah, who claim U.S. treaty whal­
ing rights dating to 1855, had not killed a
whale since the 1920s when the practice was
banned after gray whales had been hunted
nearly to extinction by whalers.
But the species has grown to more than
20,000, and in 1994 gray whales were re­
moved from the federal endangered species
The Makah Indian tribe butchers the first gray whale they’ve caught In 70 years Monday. May
list. In 1997 the International Whaling Com­
1 7 ,1 9 9 9 , In Neah Bay, Wash. Hundreds of Indians from the Makah and other tribes gathered
mission granted a quota permitting the Makah
on the beach to celebrate the kill.
to harvest up to 20 whales over five years.
Environmental activists, who had tried
the beach proved too difficult for an army
Tribal leaders were unapologetic.
hard to disrupt the hunt, said they were
surplus truck drafted into service. After 20
“W
e're
going
to
do
it
all
over
again,”
outraged by the kill.
minutes o f failed attempts, about 50 people
tribal
Chairman
Ben
Johnson
said.
“There is nothing traditional about what
waded into the water and grabbed hold o f the
First,
though,
is
the
task
o
f
butchering
the
they’re doing out there,” said Paul Watson,
whale’s barnacled gunmetal-gray skin and
animal,
variously
estimated
at
between
25
feet
president o f the Sea Shepherd Conservation
hoisted it past the high-tide mark.
long
and
50
feet
long
(7
metres
to
15
metres).
Society. “I think their ancestors would cer­
The beaching culminated a day of festive
Just
dragging
the
heavy
animal
up
onto
tainly be ashamed o f what they’re doing."
M
Star Wars’ To Premier at Midnight
B$ MICHAEL FLEEMAN
© T hi A amociatsd Pwsa
Arriving in a m eteor show er o f
hype and dodging reviews from the
Dark Side, the new "Star W ars”
movie was set to open, appropri­
ately, when the stars are out, at m id­
night screenings around the country
early W ednesday.
"This is the best place to be right
now in the whole world," said Chris
Chaplin, 30, who had a ticket to the
midnight show at M ann's Chinese
Theater but was waiting in line hours
before the doors swung open to get a
good se?t.
It ’ s a foregone conclusion that “Star
Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Men­
ace" will be one o f the biggest films o f
all time. The only question is whether
it will get enough repeat business to
approach the $600 million “Titanic”
collected in North America.
“It’s going to kill in that opening
week and do just huge, unprecedented
business,” said Paul Dergarabedian.
'i„iu u
y
visual spectacle. Roger Ebert wrote
in the Chicago Sun-Times that the
movie was “an astonishing achieve­
ment in imaginative filmmaking."
Produced, directed and written
by Lucas, who also bankrolled the
entire $115 m illion-plus budget,
"The Phantom M enace" begins the
back story o f “ Star W ars." It is set
a generation earlier, when Darth
V ader was still a cute blond kid
named A nakin Skyw alker, who
would grow up to become L uke’s
absentee father.
The m erchandising cam paign
for “The Phantom M enace” is so
far-reaching that it includes not
ju st the usual action figures and
video games but special Pepsi cans
that you can collect for reasons
beyond recycling.
E ven a C o lo n e l S a n d e rs
lookalike was brought back from
the dead for a “ Star W ars" chicken
t i e - i n commercial.
Die hard fan s get in line hours, almost a day, before the show starts. These Jedi Knights in training are Brian Inmon,
Mike Valdez' Andrew McCorkindale and Ralph Hockel
president o f box office tracker Ex­
hibitor Relations Co. “But beyond that you’re
in a very competitive release period.”
Best estimates are "The Phantom Men-
ace” will reap more than $100 million in its
five-day opening frame o f W ednesday
through Sunday, putting it on a pace to beat
“Lost World: Jurassic Park” for the film-
opener crown. “Lost W orld" made a record
$90.2 million in a four-day Memorial Day
weekend in 1997.
“The Phantom Menace" also will be com-
peting against its ancestors The original "Star
W ars" is the No. 2 movie o f all time. Count-
ing its various re-issues, it has sold $461
million in tickets domestically. “ Return of
the Jedi" has grossed $309 million, for No. 7
on the all-time list, and “The Empire Strikes
Back" has made $290 million, for ninth place,
Because o f the intense adoration for the
first three “Star Wars” movies, the new in­
stallment is considered critic-proof. Which is
a good thing for “Star Wars" creator George
Lucas. The reviews mostly have been some-
where between negative and vicious.
The harshest had to be The New Yorker's
Anthony Lane, who likened “The Phantom
Menace” to excrement.
More typical was Kenneth furan o f the
Los Angeles Times, who called it a “consid-
erable letdown," a “ponderous and plod-
ding" movie that is “noticeably lacking in
warmth and humor.”
T h o se who liked the movie focused on the
>
The first o f the hard-core “ Star
Wars" fans started lining up weeks
ago, and when advanced tickets be-
came available last week, there was a buying
frenzy, with the midnight shows selling out
almost immediately.
At Mann’s Chinese, where the original
"Star Wars" premiered 22 years ago, more
than lOOpeoplewerelinedupatmidmoming
Tuesday One was Analisa Siemsen, 21, an
aspiring screenwriter.
“1 never camped out for anything before,”
she said, “but there’s no Woodstock, so you
have to come to t h e ‘Star Wars line.
♦