us of the whale population the Makah
             voluntarily abandoned their tribal tradition and gave up
             whale hunting (Russell, 1999). In 1969, however, the
             whale hunt was officially taken from the Makah with its
             placement on the endangered species list (Blow, 1998).
             Without the whale hunt the Makah became even more
             distanced from their traditional culture. It was a
             distance which they both resented and sought to change.
             It was a distance which environmentalist justified on the
             basis of the endangered status of the whale. One of the
             most adamant opponents of restored whaling is the Sea
             Shepherd Society, a 45,000 member organization whose efforts to protect the whale sometimes border on terroristic (Strohm, 1999; The Economist, 1998).
             The High North Alliance is also another vociferous
             opponent to restored Makah whaling (High North). They
             maintain an extensive web site on the subject which
             contrasts tradition and what they consider greed. This
             clash between the Makah view and the environmentalist
             Much has been written in recent years regarding
             indigenous rights and the Makah whale hunt in particular.
             The popular literature is replete with the subject, as is
             the environmental literature. A quick search on the
             Internet reveals numerous hits as well for web pages which
             are devoted to either the cultural plight of the Makah or
             the plight of the whale. This paper will concentrate on
             the material presented in the environmental literature and
             on the material presented on the World Wide Web.
             With the removal of the gray whale from the
             endangered species list in 1994, whale hunting is once
             again a possibility in Makah culture. It is, however, a
             possibility which is greatly resented and contested by
             environmentalists (Russell, 1999). Despite the protest of these environmentalists and the fact that the International
             Whaling Commission has yet to recognize the indigenous
             cultural ri...