NEAH BAY — The Makah tribe’s May 1999 harvest of a gray whale has come to a rafter-raising end.
The skeleton of the 30-foot, 5-inch gray whale — the remains of the tribe’s first successful whale hunt in seven decades — was installed this week at the Makah Cultural and Research Center.
Preserving the skeleton has been a project more than five years in the making.
Hundreds of Neah Bay High School students worked the first leg of the project by cleaning, numbering and repositioning the bones as part of an ongoing marine mammal biology project.
“It sparked a lot of cultural pride in the youth” said Bill Monette, the shop teacher who supervised the project.
He said students working firsthand with a part of their culture was exciting for them and that it spun off into other projects such as building canoes.
Once the whale bones were fully sealed and numbered, the skeleton was sent to Skulls Unlimited International in Oklahoma earlier this year to be assembled.
The company specializes in preparing mammal skeletons for display, and has assembled the whale to look like it is swimming.
Although the tribe has many whale bones and whale bone artifacts in its museum, this is the only skeleton completely intact.
The Makah Cultural and Research Center at 1880 Bayview Ave., Neah Bay, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults and $4 for students and elders.
For more information, call 360-645-2711.
