This has been an ongoing commercial adventure strictly forbidden by the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. But they have been allowed to continue for decades.
The carcass is sold to the Japanese for upward of $1,000,000, all of which goes to the ruling families - the actual hunters are from those families.
Ordinary Makah are keep in drugs and booze with just enough tribal money from the tribe to keep them happy, along with their government forest logging checks, their halibut and salmon checks. They usually keep the money in cash dressers, not banks. Not uncommon to have one of them pull out a drawer stuffed with $100 bills.
A friend of mine was in Alaska....There were checks from the government piled up in every home. Every home also had a new jeep and snow vehicles.
Looks like the Biden administration admired that enough to make it the plan for the whole country
—” They usually keep the money in cash dressers, not banks.”
John Barleycorn and a lot more...
“The highest level of mercury ever detected was 204 ppm in the liver meat of a whale, exceeding the “safe” level by 400 times.”