MAKAH MADINA 786

WHAT IS MAKAH?

Why is Mecca important to Muslims?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLETHm1F9LkMecca is important to Muslims for several reasons. The founder of Islam, Mohammed, was born in Mecca in 570 A.D. He conquered the city and announced it as the holiest city of Islam in 630 A.D. Mecca holds the Kaaba, which is regarded as the holiest structure in Islam. Muslims are obligated to take a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives to view it.

What country is Mecca in? MAKAH MADINA 786

MAKAH MADINA 786 Mecca is in the modern day country of Saudi Arabia and is located in the Hejaz province of the country. It was incorporated into Saudi Arabia in 1924 following the Battle of Mecca and the defeat of the Ottoman empire which controlled it.

Makah

People

MAKAH MADINA 786 Description

The Makah are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast living in Washington, in the north-western part of the continental United States. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Makah Indian Tribe of the Makah Indian Reservation, commonly known as the Makah Tribe.

How old is the Makah tribe?

Archaeological research suggests that the Makah people have inhabited the area now known as Noah Bay for more than 3,800 years. The ancient Makah lived in villages, inhabiting large longhouses made from western red cedar.

Introduction

The Makah Indian Tribe’s cultural and subsistence need includes an average of four gray whales per year with a maximum of five gray whales in any one year.  This level, which is based on one whale for each traditional Makah village and a calculation of the per capita amount of meat, oil and blubber that five whales would provide for the Makah community, has been approved by the IWC in 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2018.  It is essential to note, however, that the Tribe’s hunt is subject to additional domestic legal requirements and limitations imposed by the United States government.

The Makah Tribe occupies a reservation located on the remote, north-western tip of Washington State where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets the Pacific Ocean. Historically, Makah’s lived in five permanent villages – Noah Bay (Diya), Baeda (bi?id?a), Tsoo-yess (c׳u.yas), Watch (wa?ač׳), and Ozite (?use∙?if),  – with several seasonal or temporary locations situated to access a wide variety of traditional foods. Since time immemorial, the Makah people have depended on the reliable and abundant resources from the ocean for their subsistence, culture and economy.  Hunting whales, seals and other sea mammals and catching halibut, salmon and other marine fish have always been integral and essential to Makah life.

The centrality of marine resources led the Makah Tribe to insist on retaining a perpetual right to harvest whales, seals and fish when it signed a treaty with the United States in 1855.  During the negotiation of the Treaty of Noah Bay, a tribal leader declared, “I want the sea. That is my country.” This statement is a testament to the inherent connection of Makah’s to the ocean and reliance on its bounty for their survival.  The treaty is unique in another way – of the hundreds of treaties the United States made with tribes, it is the only one that expressly secures the right to hunt whales.

The Makah Indian Reservation is approximately 47 square miles and is more than a four-hour drive from Seattle and an hour from the nearest stoplight. Makah culture and traditions, in conjunction with the remoteness of the reservation, make the Tribe especially reliant on subsistence resources, with 99% of households relying on fishing and hunting for a portion of their diet.

The Tribe has 3,349 enrolled members, with 1,471 members living in the reservation community of Noah Bay. Life on the reservation presents many challenges for Makah’s, including high rates of poverty and unemployment due to limited economic opportunities and the seasonality of fisheries and tourism, alcohol and drug abuse, and crime. 

Although the Tribe’s traditional whaling, sealing and fishing areas in the Pacific Ocean and Strait of Juan de Fuca (see map above) are part of a highly productive ecosystem that has sustained the Makah people for thousands of years, changing ocean conditions, freshwater habitat degradation, and variations in international and domestic management requirements have affected the reliability of and access to the ocean resources on which the reservation community depends. 

Makah’s have hunted whales for subsistence purposes for at least 1,500 years.  The historic, ethnographic and archaeological record conclusively demonstrates that whale products formed a central – and likely the dominant – component of Makah’s’ traditional diet for over two thousand years.  Makah whale hunting was disrupted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the devastating effects of European diseases, forced assimilation, and the near extirpation of grey, humpback and other whales by non-Native commercial whalers. 

The Tribe resumed exercising its treaty right to hunt gray whales in the late 1990s after the Eastern North Pacific stock had recovered from commercial exploitation and landed its first whale in seventy years in 1999.  Consistent with international and domestic law, the Tribe’s hunt is for subsistence and cultural purposes only and prohibits the commercial sale of edible whale products. 

Whaling remains essential to Makah culture, identity, ceremonies and subsistence and is, simply put, part of who the Makah are.  Grey whales are a predominant component of the ocean resources that have always sustained the Tribe and cannot be replaced by other resources.  In addition to providing for the Tribe’s subsistence needs, whale hunting and the associated activities of physically, mentally, and spiritually preparing for a hunt and processing, preparing, and eating whale products had – and continue to have – important ceremonial and social functions in the Makah community. 

The central importance of whaling to Makah’s over time is illustrated and confirmed by the pervasive presence of whaling in Makah life:  songs and dances specific to whaling; basketry, carving and other artwork featuring whale images; deeply spiritual ceremonies; and the Tribe’s historical and contemporary whaling practices reflected in displays at the Makah Cultural and Research Center.  The cultural and social aspects of whaling benefit households and extended families and can provide the reliable community structure and cohesiveness necessary to overcome societal challenges present on the reservation.

  The Makah people continue to express strong support for the Tribe’s pursuit of whaling in the 21st century, and the vast majority of Makah’s want whale meat, oil, and blubber as well as bone and baleen in their households on a regular basis. Information on the History, Culture, and Nutritional Significance of the Hunts 

The Makah people are the southernmost of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribes and are the only member of the Wakashan-speaking people within the United States. The traditional name for the Makah Tribe is which means “People who live by the Rocks and Sea Gulls.” The name “Makah” was given by neighboring tribes and means “generous with food.”

The relationship between the culture and subsistence of Makah people and whales is one of great antiquity.  For at least 1,500 years, whale hunting and the associated activities of processing, preparing and eating whale products have had important ceremonial and social functions in the Makah community, in addition to their more obvious subsistence benefits.  The Makah whale hunt established a social order for Makah society, governing wealth, status, marriage preferences and ceremonial displays.  Makah whalers, or headmen, were at the top of the social order because they could offer prestige, protection and resources to kin and non-kin members of their longhouses. 

Their prominent role in Makah society was fortified by the rigorous physical and spiritual preparations necessary to successfully hunt a whale.  The community-at-large also contributed to the success of the hunt by processing, preserving and preparing whale products for use by the Tribe.

On January 31, 1855 the Makah Tribe entered into the Treaty of Noah Bay with the United States. In the Treaty, which is the “supreme law of the land” under the U.S. Constitution, the Makah Tribe reserved its inherent sovereign rights to natural resources and cultural practices in exchange for ceding 469 square miles (1,215 km²) of Makah territory to the United States. The Treaty reaffirmed Makah’s’ longstanding cultural tradition of resource ownership and of stewardship of the ocean by reserving, in Article IV, “the right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds and stations.” 

The Makah Tribe continued whaling, and whales continued to provide a substantial portion of Makah subsistence after the Treaty and into the early 20th century when non-Native commercial whaling nearly extirpated gray whales. The depletion of gray whales necessitated a harmful and disruptive hiatus in Makah whale hunts from the 1920s to the 1990s.  When the Eastern North Pacific (ENP) gray whale population had recovered sufficiently to be removed from the U.S. Endangered Species Act list, the Tribe immediately sought to resume whaling and worked with the United States government to obtain IWC approval of a gray whale catch limit based on the Tribe’s cultural and subsistence need. 

Through joint requests submitted by the United States (on behalf of the Tribe) and the Russian Federation (on behalf of the Chukotka Natives), the IWC has approved five aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW) catch limits covering the period 1998-2025 and reflecting the cultural and subsistence needs of both Makah’s and Chukotka’s to hunt gray whales.

Following IWC approval of the Tribe’s first catch limit in 1997 (for the period 1998-2002), the Tribe conducted its first successful hunt in seventy years when a Makah whaling crew landed a gray whale in Noah Bay on May 17, 1999.  The Makah community joined in celebration of this event and welcomed the use of whale products back into their homes, communal ceremonies, and daily lives. More detail on the history of Makah whaling from pre-contact times through the 1999 hunt can be found in the 2018 Needs Statement, Ranker, A.M. 2018, Whale Hunting and the Makah Tribe: A Needs Statement, IWC/67/ASW/03 (p. 16 (History), p. 36 (Pre-contact), and p. 48 (1998-2002 Quota Period)).

The Tribe’s resumption of hunting whales was short-lived due to legal challenges from animal welfare NGOs and complex administrative processes under United States law.  Soon after the 1999 hunt and notwithstanding the express “right of … whaling” in the Makah Treaty, a United States federal court ruled that the government must issue a waiver from the moratorium on taking marine mammals in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and, before issuing such a waiver, must complete a comprehensive environmental review of the hunt.

  The domestic legal processes for issuance of a waiver and completion of the required environmental review are complex, impose exacting standards for the protection of marine mammals and other resources, and entail extensive scientific review and opportunities for public input and participation.  The Tribe has been working diligently with NOAA to comply with these requirements since 2005, but, as a result of the protracted bureaucratic process it has been unable to undertake a hunt for more than 20 years.

Makah elders and professional anthropologists trace the decline of the social and physical health of the Tribe to the elimination of the whale hunt and its associated ceremonial and social rigors. The revitalization of the hunt in the 1990s provided Makahs with an additional mechanism to connect traditional tribal values about health and spirituality to modern life.

  This was particularly important after generations of Makah’s had been subjected to government policies – commonly implemented through boarding schools – designed to separate tribal members from their community, language, culture, traditional foods, and ceremonial and subsistence practices.  The restored hunt helped to reestablish and strengthen the connection between Makah’s and their traditional foods, ceremonies, and way of life and assisted young and old in dealing with the challenges of modern life. 

Whaling remains an integral part of Makah life on the reservation even though the last hunt occurred in 2000, nearly twenty-five years ago.  Whale images are everywhere on the reservation. They are the dominant icon in Neah Bay and adorn T-shirts, jackets, jewelry, and signs. A good deal of the public art in the village, including images inside and outside of the public school and tribal buildings, depicts whales. People adorn their homes with photos of their whaling ancestors and whaling canoes full of gear.

This connection between Makah people and the Tribe’s whaling traditions is an enduring one. Parents, grandparents, and extended family sing Makah songs to infants, tell family histories and stories, and bring children to potlatches and other Native gatherings. If children do not learn any Makah language from their family members, instruction in school begins in their preschool years and continues through high school.

Lessons on Makah language and culture in the public school include learning the terms for whales and whaling equipment. Children also learn about the Tribe’s whaling practices, personalities involved in historic whaling activities, and in middle school and high school learn about the treaty right to hunt whales as well as the IWC and domestic legal processes.

Field trips to the Makah Cultural and Research Center are common, where the Tribe’s historical and contemporary whaling pursuits are on display for Makah’s and the many other visitors to this facility.  More information on the cultural and ceremonial aspects of Makah whaling is found in the 2018 Needs Statement, IWC/67/ASW/03 (p. 15) 

Makahs have drawn their subsistence from the ocean since time immemorial.  Gray whales are a predominant component of the ocean resources that have always sustained the Tribe and cannot be replaced by other resources.  This was true for thousands of years and, if anything, is even more true today.  For example, halibut, salmon and other ocean fisheries fluctuate in abundance and are subject to national and international management restrictions and the demands of other harvesters. 

The increasing variability, and in some cases long-term declines, in catch limits diminishes the reliability of these and other marine resources on which Makahs have always depended.  Other environmental pressures, such as changing ocean conditions (ocean acidification, hypoxia, and temperature increases), harmful algal blooms, pollution, increasing vessel traffic (and the associated increase in noise and risk of a catastrophic oil spill), and other factors beyond the control of the Tribe exert additional pressure on the ability of the ocean to meet the Tribe’s subsistence, economic and cultural needs.  And, for many in a community suffering from high unemployment rates, alternative sources of subsistence remain limited. 

Gray whales are an abundant and reliable resource that have provided substantial nutritional benefits for millennia and that cannot now be replaced by other traditional marine resources.

Regular availability of whale products would provide significant nutritional benefits to Makah’s.  For at least 2,000 years, Makah’s have relied on whales to provide the cornerstone of their diet, with whale meat, blubber and oil constituting a significant percentage of their food in pre-contact and historic times. Whale oil in particular was extensively utilized with dried fish, other traditional foods, and, after contact with Euro-Americans, for dressing and dip on potatoes, bread and processed foods.  As James Swan observed from his time with the Tribe in the mid-1800s, “all their other food is usually greased with a plentiful supply of whale oil.”

Whale products can help Makah’s, many of whom have low incomes and struggle to provide food for their families, ensure that more of their fundamental nutritional needs are met with a traditional, local food source.  A combination of whale meat, blubber and oil will assist Makah families (including their non-Makah household members) in meeting caloric and nutrient requirements with a healthier food source that costs them less than the western foods they would replace.  This nutritional benefit also has profound implications for Makah identity and culture, as it allows Makah’s to connect with their ancestors’ food traditions and fulfill the guarantee secured in the Treaty of Noah Bay of continued utilization of whales.

Whale products also provide a natural means of combating many of the health problems linked to diet that have plagued Makahs and other Native American populations since the American government introduced processed western foods such as refined sugar and flour, beef, and lard to reservations in the historic period and interrupted their traditional pattern of food use heavy in fish and marine mammal oils.

  Research has indicated a genetic link between Native people and their traditional diet, and this may be a contributing factor to many of the diet-related health issues facing Makah’s in the 21st century. Reintroduction of whale products, particularly whale oil, presents an opportunity to improve health results because marine mammal oil is high in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (also called omega-3 fatty acids), which have been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health.  More information on the nutritional benefits of Makah whaling is in the 2018 Needs Statement, IWC/67/ASW/03 (p. 81). 

When they are available, Makahs utilize whale products such as meat, blubber, and oil rendered from blubber for food and non-edible parts like bone for carving and other artwork. Modern Makahs have rediscovered their ancestral appetite for whale products, expressing a strong desire for more access to whale products in a 2018 survey of Makah Reservation households:  80.4% of surveyed households would like whale oil on a regular basis; 85.7% would like whale meat on a regular basis; and 88.1% would like access to whale bone on a regular basis.  Most Makahs also indicated they wanted more information on preparing meat, blubber, and oil and working with whale bone.

  The most recent household whaling survey, conducted in 2018, also demonstrated that Makah’s overwhelmingly view whaling as having positive effects on culture and language, sense of community, pride in being Makah, and interactions with other Native people.  Therefore, it is unsurprising that, overall, nearly 96% of Makah’s surveyed in 2018 support the Tribe’s continuing efforts to hunt whales and secure the subsistence and cultural benefits that would accompany more frequent gray whale hunts.  More information on the 2018 household whaling survey (and previous surveys) is in the 2018 Needs Statement, IWC/67/ASW/03 (p. 74). 

Despite not being able to hunt for more than two decades, the Makah Tribe has also remained committed to responsible management of and scientific research on gray whales and other marine mammals in its traditional ocean territory.  In 2003 the Tribe established a Marine Mammal Program (MMP) with a goal of developing scientific expertise and obtaining the scientific information necessary to conduct Makah whale hunts in a sustainable manner.

  The MMP conducts research on most cetaceans and pinnipeds in the Tribe’s traditional hunting area, manages a stranding network for the area, is a responder for large whale entanglements as a member of the NOAA West Coast Region Large Whale Disentanglement Network and assists the Makah Fisheries Management Department with studies of non-marine mammal species.  This work has resulted in more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and numerous unpublished papers presented to the IWC‘s Scientific Committee or NOAA. 

The MMP’s marine mammal biologists have actively engaged in intersessional, plenary and sub-committee meetings of the IWC Scientific Committee since 2004.  More detail on the research and other activities of the MMP can be found in the 2018 Needs Statement, IWC/67/ASW/03 (p. 54).  A list of research papers and publications can be found here.