Darkness had fallen and the tide was rolling in, lapping at the heels of the team of people who were quickly disassembling the big whale , piece by piece, bone by bone.

The young humpback, 26 feet long and 20,000 pounds in all (roughly the size of a small school bus), had become entangled in crabbing gear and had beached itself along the central Oregon coast over the weekend. After two days of efforts to save the whale failed, it was euthanized. After that, it was up to the Siletz tribe to take the whale carcass apart.

Lisa Norton, who works as the chief administrative officer for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, helped organize the harvest and was a member of the team who worked for nearly 12 hours on the beach Tuesday.

This was the first time in generations that the Si

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