P
ington State to hunt whales off the coast of Neah Bay.
The tribe’s 1855 treaty with the United States gave
them the right to continue their traditional whale
hunts, but in 1926 a ban on whaling in the region
was imposed by the commission due to overhunting
by whites. News that the commission is permitting
the Makah to take five California gray whales a year
for five years immediately comes under harsh criti-
cism by animal-rights groups and whale-watching
organizations. (See also entry for MAY 17, 1999.)
“They want us in a museum.
They’d rather we just said, ‘Oh,
the Makah were great whalers,’
and leave it at that. They want
us to have a dead culture. But
it’s been our way of life. We
look to the ocean and we feel
we not only have a legal right
but a moral right to whale.”
—tribal elder George Bowechop
on animal-rights groups’
opposition to Makah whaling1998February
The Environment Protection Agency plans a
pollution study of Coeur d’Alene lands.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) an-
nounces that it will investigate the extent of the
pollution of northern Idaho caused by silver min-
ing. The area to be studied includes the reservation
of the Coeur d’Alene Indians, who are attempting
to sue several mining companies for $1 billion to
fund an extensive cleanup (see entry for 1996).
The EPA project will assess the damage
done to the people and wildlife of the region and
determine whether it will need Superfund monies
beyond the $150 million allocation already made
to clean up a small area near Kellogg, Idaho (see
entry for 1992). The investigation will cover an
area of 1,500 square miles, extending across Idaho’s
borders into Washington State and Montana. The
project’s scope is unprecedented and could cost as
much as $1 billion.February 11Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is
investigated in Indian casino scandal.
Attorney General Janet Reno announces that she
will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate
allegations that Secretary of the Interior Bruce
Babbitt perjured himself before Congress in testi-
mony about the department’s rejection of an Indian
casino project in Hudson, Wisconsin. In 1994,
three Wisconsin Chippewa tribes proposed estab-
lishing an off-reservation gambling casino on the
site of a dog track. The project was opposed by a
group of Indians in Minnesota, who feared it would
compete with their own casino. After the depart-
ment decided to reject the Chippewa application,
Babbitt allegedly told a pro-casino lobbyist that the
Minnesota Indians were favored in the dispute be-
cause they were large contributors to the Democratic
Party. After a lengthy investigation, independent
counsel Carol Elder Bruce will announce in Octo-
ber 1999 that there is insufficient evidence to indict
Babbitt on any charge.MarchCoyote Tales premieres.
Coyote Tales has its world premiere in Kansas City,
Missouri. An original work commissioned by the
city’s Lyric Opera, the opera recounts five traditional
Indian stories featuring the character of Coyote, a
trickster whose foibles comment on human behav-
ior. With noted Acoma poet Simon Ortiz serving
as an adviser, the work is produced in collaboration
with the Haskell Indian Nations University (see
entry for SEPTEMBER 1, 1884). Ortiz calls the opera