A US tribe wants to resume whale hunting. Should it revive this tradition?

NEAH BAY, Wash. - Each year at this time, gray whales begin the roughly 6,000-mile journey south from their summer feeding grounds in Alaska to their calving and breeding lagoons in Mexico's Baja peninsula.

This year, an administrative trial in Washington state could dictate whether the Makah tribe can resume hunting the whales during future migrations.

The Makah, who live in the Olympic Peninsula's northwest corner, Neah Bay, have asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act so they can restart their traditional whale hunt, harvesting up to 20 animals over the next 10 years.

They are supported by the federal government and tribal communities around the globe, who point to an 1855 treaty specifically granting the Makah the right to hunt whales. In return for $30,000, and the ceding of 300,000 acres, Washington's then-Gov. Isaac Stevens granted the Makah "the right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing."

The Makah are the only U.S. tribe with whaling specifically mentioned in its treaty.

For Patrick DePoe, an aspirational whale hunter and treasurer of the Makah tribe, the law is crystal clear: "Nobody has to like it. But they do have to respect it. It's the law."

The trial highlights a contentious and emotional rift