TRIBAL MEMBERS INDICTED

HUNT

Nine members of the Makah tribe of the Seattle area, have been indicted on charges in the illegal whale hunt.

In 1994, the Federal gov't removed the California gray whale from the endangered species list. In 1999, the tribe gor a permit through the National Marine Fisheries Service, to kill one whale, which would provide the tribe with a year's worth of whale meat. They killed their first whale in over 70 years. Although the Government allowed that first hunt, there were negotiations to allow the tribe to continue the hunts. Nothing was final.

The man who lead this illegal hunt was the same man who lead the first whale hunt in 1999, in which they are allowed to hunt as their ancestors did, with harpoons. The tribals elders say that these men did not have permission from the tribe and they used high powered rifles this time.