They held a huge celebration on the beach, where 15 men were waiting to butcher the animal, its meat later kippered and stewed. But the protests and the television cameras "took a lot of the spirituality out of it," said Dave Sones, vice chairman of the tribal council.
McCarty said, "I equate it with interrupting High Mass."
The Makah went whale hunting, largely unnoticed, again in 2000, paddling out on a 9.6m cedar whaling canoe, but they did not catch anything.
Soon after, animal rights groups, including the Humane Society, sued to stop the hunting.
In 2002, an appeals court declared the hunting illegal, saying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had not adequately studied the impact of Makah hunting on the survival of the whale species.
Despite the strict national and international regulations on whale hunting, several tribes of Alaska Natives, subsistence whale hunters for centuries, are exempt from provisions of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, allowing them to hunt the bowhead whale.
Exemption
That species, unlike the gray whale, is listed as endangered, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the oceanic agency. Despite their treaty rights, the Makah were not granted an exemption under the 1972 act.
Last February, the tribe asked the agency for a waiver that would grant them permanent rights to kill up to 20 gray whales in any five-year period, which they insist they already have under their 1855 treaty.
The Makah's request is "setting a dangerous precedent," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist for the Humane Society.
The Alaska hunting, Rose said, "is a true subsistence hunt," whereas the Makah, who view whale hunting mostly as ceremonial, are pursuing "cultural whaling" that is not essential to their diet.
"There are too many other bad actors out there" who might try to apply for waivers too, she said. The Makah "have a treaty right, but we're asking them not to exercise it," she said.
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