The history of this relationship began, of course, a long, long, long, long time ago, when the orcas first began to share their hunting grounds with the natives of the British Columbian/Washington coast. Like the orca, these tribes relied on the water to supply their food. Because of this, all of the tribes had some sort of relationship with the killer whale.
The reactions to the fearsome predator varied. One native legend tells of a rite of passage for young Native braves: to canoe up to a sleeping orca, jump out of the canoe, run along the whale's back, and jump back into his boat.
There are many legends that tell how the orca came to exist. The most popular one tells of a young brave called Natcitlenah who was an excellent hunter. His two brother-in-laws took him out hunting one day. But the older brother-in-law was very jealous of Natcitlenah's great skills as a hunter. He threw Natcitlenah overboard and abandoned him there, despite the younger brother-in-law trying to stop him. But Natcitlenah did not die. He was rescued by the Sea Lions, who took him to their underwater cave. There, he healed their chief, and in gratitude, they gave him supernatural powers. Using these powers, Natcitlenah carved eight killer whales out of wood and made them come to life. Then he sent them after his brothers-in-law and commanded the whales to kill the older brother but leave the younger one unharmed. When the whales returned, Natcitlenah said, "Go out into the waters. I created you to kill my brother-in-law, and no other, and so from now on you shall not harm another human being." And the first killer whales never did.
This story lead to many tales about the orca's sense of revenge. Many cultures didn't dare to hurt or harm a killer whale in any way, for fear that the other whales would seek revenge. Probably also from this story, a rather imaginative horror film called Orca: The Killer Whale was created.
Other stories telling of the orca's creation include one version that says they were originally white wolves, who became whales and kept their white markings to remember their original form. There is also a tale that says whales could capture canoes and transform the occupants into orcas.
A popular myth that said orcas mate for life led to them becoming symbols of romance and love in many cultures. In other cultures, they were vicious hunters, or gentle friends. The reactions varied widely.
The natives weren't the only ones discovering the enigma of the sea's most fearsome predator. In the first century, AD, Pliny the Elder (a Roman scholar) saw a killer whale in a harbour in Rome. The emperor at the time, Emperor Claudius, and his guards speared the creature, "for to show a pleasing sight to the people of Rome."
Afterwards, Pliny, in his Natural History wrote this: "A killer whale cannot be properly depicted or described except as an enormous mass of flesh armed with savage teeth." He went on to say that it was "the enemy of other whales", and that they "burst into (other whales') retreats...bite and mangle the females and their calves....and charge and pierce them like warships ramming."

As more and more people discovered the orca, through whaling or fishing or even sighting them from land, the orca's respected reputation became that of a murderous killing machine. Instead of respect, fear took hold whenever people saw the orcas. Western civilization developed the orca into a vicious, mindless predator.
Whalers discovered the orca too. While most whale species had whaling play a large part in their history, the orca was never particularly focused on. A few were taken, a drastic amount in Antarctic waters especially, but they didn't have the blubber, oil, or meat that made the larger whales so valued. Instead, the orca became known mostly because they would follow whaling boats, taking free samples. Whalers, like everyone else, feared the fierce predators. Charles Scammon, a whaling captain, said in 1874, "In whatever quarter of the world (killer whales) are found, they seem always intent upon seeking something to destroy or devour."
In 1911, on Robert Scott's Antarctic expedition, Lieutenant Harry R. Bowers and two other men were trapped, adrift, on floating ice. Curious orcas, who probably had never seen humans before, surrounded the vulnerable men. A terrified Bowers said that, "Their huge black-and-yellow heads, with sickening pig eyes, (were) only a few feet from us."
Nothing really improved as we proceeded into 'modern times'. Fishermen in BC regularly shot whales or hit them with their paddles. There was a huge amount of 'blackfish' in BC then. One old-timer described it, "There were once so many blackfish, you could walk across the bay along their backs." Fishermen, seeing no reason to spare any whale, shot them when they saw them. In fact, they complained about the orca being a threat to fishing. In response, the Canadian government built a foundation for a machine gun overlooking Seymour Narrows in the 1960s. Plans were made to shoot any whale that passed through. Thankfully, the gun was never used. Miraculously, the whales never passed through there again.
Kids threw rocks at orcas passing from land. When they got older, they shot at the whales with BB guns....and eventually with real ones. Fishermen admitted to shooting orcas because they were bored!
And the US armed forces didn't exactly help. In 1956, after Icelandic fishermen complained about orcas causing immense damage to their fishing gear (up to $250,000), the government asked the USA for help. The United States Navy reported, in the Naval Aviation News that they had 'completed another successful mission against killer whales...Hundreds were destroyed with machine guns, rockets and depth charges.' In 1964, the United States Air Force used orcas in the Atlantic for practicing strafing runs.

In 1963, Joseph Cook and William Wisher wrote a book on orcas, that said, "Lions, tigers, and great bears are considered savage animals, but many times more powerful and far more vicious than any of these is the killer whale."
But it was around this time that attitudes began changing. People were getting bolder. When an old female was found in Newport Bay, California, a group of people set out to catch her. Evidently not completely worn out, the whale, later found to be a transient, evaded them twice before they captured her. She was moved to Marineland of the Pacific, where she died a day and a half later by ramming into the wall repeatedly.
The same people tried again later. In Haro Strait, the two men found two mature whales, a male and a female. As the female was hunting a porpoise, they lassoed her. Unfortunately, things went wrong when the female got the lasso tangled in the boat. The male and female began to attack the boat with their flukes, until finally the men on the boat decided they were in danger. They shot the male once, and he fled. Then they shot the female up to ten times, killing her, and towed her back to shore, where she became dog food. The orca's fearsome reputation had not improved.
And then, something happened. Something that is such a large part of the orca's history that it is practically the equivalent to whaling in the history of the great whales.
And it all began with an orca called Moby Doll.