Makah Tribe

(Runtime 3:53)Reporting by Lauren Gallup and Lauren PatersonInternet inequality across the country has spurred the Biden administration to invest in…

For over 30 years, Native American Heritage Month has been federally recognized. Northwest Public Broadcasting reporters are interviewing Indigenous people from throughout the region to learn what they think about the month and what they want people to understand about their culture and who they are. Lauren Gallup spoke with TJ Greene, Chairman of the Makah Tribe.

The tribe’s plans have been tied up in legal fights and layers of scientific review. The next step is a week-long administrative hearing that began Thursday in Seattle. Whatever the result, it’s likely to be stuck in further court challenges, as animal rights activists have vowed to block the practice they call unnecessary and barbaric.

A proposal out Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would allow the Makah Tribe to hunt between 1-3 gray whales annually in their historic hunting range. The tribe last held a hunt 20 years ago.