It all started (or should I say, ended) back in 1998 when the Makah tribe was preparing to hunt a grey whale off the Washington coast. Like many people who grew up during the 1960s and ‘70s, I was taken with the idea of returning to a more primitive lifestyle, in “harmony with Nature” as I believed the American Indians surely were. I even spent a summer in the southeast Oregon desert, studying “Aboriginal life skills” of the Paiute people of the Northern Great Basin. It was the same survival course (taught by the same instructor) that Jean M. Auel later took as research for her “Clan of the Cave Bear” book series.
But I began to think that not all tribal people are cut of the same loincloth as the Makah made preparations to kill their NMFS quota of five whales to use for ceremonial and unspecified “commercial purposes.” You may remember the media frenzy surrounding the issue and the animal activists, including Captain Paul Watson at the helm of a Sea Shepherd ship, as well as devoted land protesters whom my wife and I supported and joined whenever we could. Unfortunately, despite months of protests and pleading, the tribe’s rag-tag whaling crew (aided by the federal government) was successful in killing a young female whale with a bullet from a highly untraditional high-powered 50 caliber rifle.
Sadly, “Yabis” (as a Makah elder and lone whale hunt detractor named the whale) could not be saved. The media, of course, defended the kill to the death, comparing the tribe’s right to shoot a whale with their own right to eat unlimited hamburgers. They did their darnedest to convince readers that the road to political correctness was through backing the tribe’s revival of their cultural tradition of killing whales. And besides, who wants to give up their hamburgers anyway?
Well, I for one. I finally saw the hypocrisy of objecting to hunting while continuing to eat farmed animals. From then on we vowed not to be complicit in the unnecessary taking of lives—150 billion a year, at last count. Up until then I had been a meat eater and an occasional fisherman. But from that moment on, I hung up my rod and reel and swore off meat and dairy, never once looking back.
Yet, I know dyed-in-the-faux-shearling vegans whose solid anti-animal abuse stance melts away like a sno-cone on a hot summer day at the first hint that an animal abuser is of aboriginal decent (not that any human being is really “native” to the America’s—some just arrived sooner than others). I may seem obstinate, but I don’t believe a prayer, a chant or any other song and dance makes an animal suffer less or end up any less dead if they were killed by a Native American.
Yet, some people buy into the notion that the mistreatment of a non-human by a native is some sort of spiritual event. Whether elk or bison, fish or whales, a killing that would normally be frowned upon is a joyous occasion when perpetrated by a tribal member. While anyone who holds to their ideals is somehow considered a “racist,” it’s the animal advocate who looks the other way as certain people do the killing who’s the real discriminator.
Shocking as it sounds, the Yellowstone bison are equally exploited fenced-in on a ranch on reservation land as they would be anywhere else in Montana; a deer or elk ends up every bit as injured or dead when shot by a tribal hunter as by the average American sport hunter; tribal gill nets do as much damage to a struggling salmon as those set out by non-Indian commercial fishermen, and a 50 caliber bullet rips into a whale with the same destructive force, no matter who pulls the trigger.
Yes, I used to be a meat-eating fisherman. I changed my ways after allowing myself to absorb facts like, “humans slaughter 6 million animals per hour!” and “20,000 more will die in the time it takes you to read these sentences!” That’s a Holocaust of farmed animals every 60 minutes! And that’s not counting fish, lobsters, shrimp, oysters, clams, krill or other sea life.
Call me a zealot, but when you realize there’s an apocalypse of animals happening right now, you want it stopped, once and for all, and by all—no exceptions.
Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved
Exposing the Big Game 
Most “traditions” are barbaric. Tradition is never an excuse to continue anything. Yes, guilty liberals can “excuse” so-called “subsistence hunting” under the guise of political correctness–all at the expense of non-humans. When is such activity finally not acceptable? When the last two Bowhead whales are left? How about maybe 10, 20? On a very human- overpopulated planet, more denuded of Nature everyday, what non-human life isn’t endangered now? Even so-called “subsistence” people have snowmobiles, rifles, electronics, and other gadgetry.
Thanks right, “tradition” usually stands for something cruel which should be relegated to history.
Rosemary – how did this become a liberal sin? I suspect conservatives are far more supportive of this behavior than most liberals.
I’m assuming she means liberals are more likely to be concerned with being PC in the first place?
” I may seem obstinate, but I don’t believe a prayer, a chant or any other song and dance makes an animal suffer less or end up any less dead if they were killed by a Native American.” AMEN. This essay states what I have LONG felt. Thank you.
Thanks Annamarie, I’m glad you can relate.
it is so true – wanting this violent system to end straight-away
ASAP
Why is it that we are comfortable with watching a pride of lions take down a water buffalo on National Geographic? That buffalo suffers no less and ends up just as dead. Life is life and oftentimes it’s harsh. Suffering is a part of our existence – all living creatures will experience it. But our intent and our approach to obtaining foods for our survival is the key. (And personally, whenever I’ve tried to go completely vegetarian over the years, I become anemic within 3-4 weeks, as my body needs the nourishment only meat can provide.)
You make many valid points that I have pondered often throughout my carnivorous life. However, I am a firm believer that our species is omnivorous by nature, but the sheer OVER-CONSUMPTION and WASTE of animals meats is downright disgusting (consider how much is tossed out by each and every supermarket here in the U.S. on a DAILY basis). I believe in taking only what one (or a family) needs. That means eating LESS amounts of meat (portion sizes and total purchase) and adding more vegetables, fruits, and grains to the diet. That means buying locally whenever possible to reduce the transportation costs that find its way into your foods. It means keeping the farm-to-table ratio as short as possible.
You missed out on the fact that when Native peoples hunted, they took only what they needed to feed their families and villages, unlike many modern hunters. Back then, the human population was not as nearly as large as it is now (over 7 billion – scary), so the survival of many species back then were not “threatened,” as they are now. Hunting was a necessary way a life for nomadic peoples (little hard to grow your own food when you’re always on the move). Respect for the spirit of each and every animal was included in the hunting process, beginning with the prayers recited before the hunt, and ending with the prayers and celebrations after the hunt. This is where Native peoples and modern “white” cultures diverge.
As I said in this post, prayers and celebrations mean nothing to the victims. Otherwise, the way native people hunt is often pretty much the same as how white people do it: modern weapons to kill the animal and gas powered vehicles to haul away the carcasses. And as far as taking only what they needed, the even a large tribe of coastal Indians could never eat an entire whale before the meat spoiled. The celebrations after a successful whale hunt included boastful whalers spitting mouthfuls of whale oil onto the fire in a display of pride never emulated by non-human predators. (personally, I don’t watch National Geographic or other wildlife snuff films. I accept that predation happens, but I don’t revel in it.) The traditional “buffalo jumps” practiced by the plains Indians were nothing if not wasteful–reminiscent of their earliest ancestors running herds of horses off cliffs or hunting so many other species of large mammals to extinction on this continent.
I understand your reluctance to accept that your ancestors may have ever been anything other than completely admirable. My relatives were still in Scotland when white Americans nearly wiped out the bison, but I still live with the shame of that kind of behavior. European Americans are repeatedly reminded of their wasteful, reckless behavior, yet Native Americans would have to go out of their way (at the risk being accused of being a traitor to their people) to learn the history of how Paleo-Indians 13,000 years ago over-hunted 70% of this continent’s megafauna (more on that in an upcoming post). The point is, human behavior should be looked at as a whole. Pointing fingers with a my culture’s barbaric behavior was better than yours attitude isn’t necessarily the answer.
Yes, for most of Homo sapiens’ history (100,000 years+/- a heartbeat geologically speaking) we were omnivores. But the fact is we’re primates first and foremost and for the vast majority of our primate past we were primarily vegetarian. I’m sorry to hear your experiments with a plant-based diet haven’t worked out yet. Don’t give up; have you tried green leafy vegetables, molasses, enriched whole grains, legumes or lentils (the list goes on and on) to get your iron and protein? Gorillas (genetically, one of our closest kin) don’t need to eat meat. Millions of healthy vegetarians and vegans are living proof that humans can make the change for the good of all.
Jim: A superb (and very amusing) post and response! Speaking truth to myth has never been a popular stance but I would rather be, a thousand-times over, politically incorrect than a hypocrite. And only the most shameless hypocrites try defending the indefensible by pulling-out the old, dog-eared race-card or purported sensitivity to superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
Thanks Geoff for standing with me in seeing through the superstitious mumbo-jumbo and speaking up for non-human animals in all cases.
Agree, Geoff and Jim!
Those of us who are members of 269 Life believe the Holocaust never ended, it changed victims.
http://269life.com/#&panel1-1
I can no longer count on both hands how many times people have told me they have either tried to be a vegan or vegetarian but had to return to animal protein because they became anemic. Give me a break. I have been a vegan for 3 years now with no sign of anemia. If you’re anemic, then you must be doing something wrong as I don’t see how a vegan/vegetarian could become anemic eating a diet high in green leafy vegetables and grains such as quinoa.
If you Google “omnivore bingo” (as I’m sure you have), it figures prominently!
Yes I have seen it. Free From Harm posted it once not long ago.
As I’ve learned no culture or ancestral background is more deserving then the next. My ancestry is viking, so I guess I should go out a pillage some towns and rape there women to keep close to my ancestral roots? I fucking hate it when someone plays the “Native American” card, like watching “Dances with Wolves” actually depicts the proper image. My hero Rod Corando is native American, and that dude kid so much ass in the name of others that most of these morally inconsistent vegans could never do in a lifetime. Read his books “Operation Bite Back” and “Flaming Arrows”. Why are so many ARAs so fucking liberal about things? For god’s sake pick a side sometimes. Discrimination is either all bad or it isn’t. Fuck your traditions if it causes intentional harm to others human or non. Sorry for all the “fucks” Jim
No problem, I know where you’re fuckin’ coming from.
Agree, Dwayne. Might I have the cultural option of feeding certain members of the extreme right to the lions? Based on some of these arguments, I think I do. When people support violence against animals in the name of “culture”, I also assume that they support violence against women in the name of culture (female circumcision, honor killings, denying education, etc.), which I point out to them. If they say they are NOT in favor of these things, then I simply point out that the truth is they are OK with torturing animals, but not humans — because that’s the bottom line. Allowing an animal to suffer in e.g., a ritualistic killing is basically saying that our very whims — based entirely in superstition — take precedence over the very right of that animal to breathe and be free of pain from intentional harm in the name of a belief he / she does not share (and in fact has no knowledge of). It IS bullshit — period. And nothing wrong with the word “fuck”, either. 😉
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.
Not all Makah are in favor of murdering pilot whales. The first link I posted here is to an article about a Makah elder who had this to say:
“Yes, my people once killed whales and yes the whale is important to us. But now it’s time to repay the whales for what they gave to us in the past, now is the time to protect them, not to kill them. The whale was once the salvation of the Makah. We now need to be the salvation of the whale.”
http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/2012/04/12/memorial-for-a-brave-and-inspirational-makah-elder-1361
http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2012/05/10/the-case-for-mass-murder-in-the-faeroe-islands-535
http://savejapandolphins.org/blog/post/on-the-right-side-of-history-in-the-faroes
https://www.facebook.com/groups/204214106321615/
There are murderous psychopaths in every country and every culture that just want to kill for the sake of killing, and will use any excuse to do so.
Alberta Thompson (quoted in the Sea Shepherd link you posted here) is the Makah elder I mentioned who named the gray whale “Yabis.” The pilot whales slaughter goes on in the Faeroe Islands in the Atlantic. Different whales and, as you mentioned, a different culture with their own murderous psychopaths.