The Makah Tribe held a final hunt in 1999, but has not since practiced its whaling rights.

A proposal out Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would allow the Makah Tribe to hunt between one to three gray whales annually in their historic hunting range. The Makah live in and around Neah Bay, at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula.





"This gives us hope that we're actually moving forward in the right direction, and that the process is actually beginning to start working for us," says Patrick DePoe, a tribal council member.

The Makah Tribe has treaty rights to hunt gray whales, and did so until the 1920s, until it voluntarily ceased the practice due to concerns over the whales population decline.