"I come from a whaling family, on my grandmother's side and my grandfather's side"

The "I'm not ashamed" angle to the unsanctioned whale hunt perpetrated by members of the Makah Tribe over the weekend hit the papers this morning.

"I'm not ashamed. I'm feeling kind of proud. ... There is only a few guys in Neah Bay that can get a whale and bring everyone home safely.

This blog seems to have the extended remix version of the quotes that Johnson gave the Seattle Times--Maybe it's an earlier edit that was online for awhile or something:

"Sunday morning, Johnson, sporting his trademark. 50-caliber-shooting-club jacket and a big bump on his forehead from a fall on the boat during the hunt, said he had no regrets. Except maybe that he had already waited too long to exercise his tribal treaty right to hunt. Tired of more than eight years of wrangling in the courts over permission to once again hunt whales, Johnson said: 'The time just felt right. I got a hair up my ass and just said, 'Let's go.' 'I'm not ashamed. I'm feeling kind of proud. At least I attempted to do something. I have nothing to be ashamed about. 'There is only a few guys in Neah Bay that can get a whale and bring everyone home safely. You think one of the only whaling captains in 77 years could give it up? I should have done it years ago. I come from a whaling family, on my grandmother's side and my grandfather's side. It's in the blood. 'We have songs and dances around it. It kind of separates us from the rest. Not everyone in Neah Bay is a whaler.' The tribe needs to whale to keep its culture alive, Johnson said. 'The time is now, when the people are still interested. And the whales are robust.'"

We wonder if Johnson considers the hunt a success. A gray whale was killed, and obviously it's a big story, but the whale wasn't retrieved by the hunt. A friend's neighbor was regaling Seattlest with hunting stories at a BBQ over the weekend, with particular emphasis on getting a 900lb elk back to the truck after it had been shot. "The work really starts once you've got a kill," he said.