Even when the Tribe wasn’t whaling, the spiritual connection between the Makah and the whale spirits was kept alive in the form of sacred whaling songs. “Chiefs obtained their whaling songs through a ...

The Makah, a tribe of 1,500 people on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, is the only Native American tribe with a treaty that specifically mentions a right to hunt whales.

The long wait is over. A federal official has given the green light for members of the Makah tribe to resume exercising their treaty right to whaling, based on a request first made in 2005. Their ...

FILE - Wayne Johnson, the captain of the Makah Tribe whaling crew from a 1999 hunt, looks on during a federal court hearing to help determine whether his small American Indian tribe can once again ...

Two Makah tribe members stand atop the carcass of a gray whale after helping tow it close to shore in the harbor at Neah Bay, Wash., in 1999. The United States granted the Makah Indian Tribe in ...

It allows the tribe to hunt up to 25 Eastern North Pacific gray whales over 10 years, with a limit of two to three per year. There are roughly 20,000 whales in that population.

The Makah, a tribe of 1,500 people on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, is the only Native American tribe with a treaty that specifically mentions a right to hunt whales.

The Makah Tribe has a longstanding cultural practice of whaling, but it's had just one approved hunt in the past century. Now it has a waiver that allows it to hunt and kill up to 25 North Pacific ...

Some of the Makah whalers became so frustrated with the delays that they went on a rogue hunt in 2007, killing a gray whale that got away from them and sank. They were convicted in federal court.

The Makah tribe in Washington state will be able to resume their longstanding tradition of whaling, after NOAA Fisheries decided Thursday to give them a waiver for a hunt.