S'tassawood of the Cheaba family of the Makah nation to the International Whaling Commission

Commissioners:

I am a 74-year-old Makah elder. These are my words.

I attended the 1996 and 1997 meetings of the Commission when the Makah Tribal Council attempted to gain exemption from the worldwide ban on whaling. I came to make the Commissioners aware of deliberate attempts to mislead that were contained within the "needs statement" submitted by the Council.

Since that time, I have been vilified and slandered on the Internet and in newspapers. Three tribal members libeled me in an issue of the British Columbia newspaper George Strait. Two others called me a "slave." [Alberta is rumored to be descended from slaves formerly traded by the Makah.]

Active attempts to silence me include the Makah Tribal Council's request of local newspapers that they print only news from the Makah Tribe that is sent to them over the Chairman's signature. On August 21, 1996, the Tribal Council created an ordinance called Large Crowd Control directed solely against me. If anyone gathers in large crowds, they are subject to jail time for the safety of the tribe. Chief of Police Kenny McKenny delivered a copy of the ordinance to me personally. I asked if anyone else was being given the ordinance. He said, "no."

In the pages of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Tribal Council speculated that perhaps they should have me removed from the tribal rolls (banished). I have been harassed and threatened by the current chief of police.

After working in tribal administration as Senior Citizens program clerk for 15 years, I was fired for supposedly making a phone call on work hours to a whale protection group. The council said I jeopardized the tribe. The two people who made the call attested that I had nothing to do with it, but the firing was upheld anyway and my appeals denied.

My daughter formally appealed the firing to the Tribal Council. They responded by ordering her evicted from her home.

The tires of my car were slashed with a knife while I was shopping at the grocery store.

While I was away last August, my six-year-old dog was found dead one and a half miles outside of Neah Bay. She was an indoor dog, and never ventured further than across the street.

Last year, the council attempted to cut off my senior citizen's monthly stipend. The Chairman directly stated that this was done because I opposed the whale hunt. My benefits were restored after widespread public protest when the council realized it had gone too far.

Thus has the tribe dealt with any who speak the truth about this whale hunt.

The claims that this hunt is being carried out as a matter of tradition are false. The hunters were paid to go to the meetings of the Makah Whaling Commission and whenever they got into a canoe until the Whaling Commission ran out of funds.

The hunters are supposed to spend an entire year physically and spiritually cleansing themselves, yet one was recently found guilty of driving under the influence; another is on probation for assault and has routinely sworn at me, indicating that he is far from a cleansed spirit.

From the moment it was proposed, this has never been a traditional hunt. The failure of the International Whaling Commission to formally rule on the Makah's aboriginal subsistence need to hunt whales has been the cause of much strife, confusion, and ill feeling. The Commission should so rule at this meeting.

Thank you.
Alberta Thompson