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Tribes Oppose Wolf Hunt

Photo courtesy of Friends of Seney National Wildlife Refuge

http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/Wolf_Hunt%20.mp3

An animal that’s a symbol of the wild, and once nearly exterminated, has repopulated the upper Great Lakes region. In fact, the gray wolf exceeded recovery goals, times ten, over the last decade.

And now wolves are doing so well, states that manage them are opening hunting seasons on them. Some say there are just too many to coexist with people.

But a few Indian tribes argue that their treaty rights call for wolves to fill every niche in the landscape.

Wolf Brother
In the upper Great Lakes, Indian tribes still have rights to hunt, fish and gather plants in wide swaths of territory that go back to treaties signed in the mid-1800’s. Usually it’s pretty straightforward for the tribes and the states to agree on how many fish or deer to take.

But with wolves, tribal officials say, it’s different. Their creation stories tell how the wolf was sent as a companion for the people. Tribes of the Great Lakes consider the wolf as kin. And the Creator told them the fate of wolves and the people are intertwined, as one goes, so goes the other.

“As we see the wolf returning or gaining strength, just as we Ojibway, Anishinaabe people have, we see that relationship,” says Kurt Perron, chair of the Bay Mills Community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “So that’s what concerns us with the hunt.  It’s almost like you’re hunting our brothers.”

Now maybe that’s mostly symbolic, but not entirely. Because Perrin thinks if top predators are removed from the ecosystem, the effects will cascade through other species. And eventually humans may be affected.

Too Many Wolves
But those who favor hunts say there are so many wolves now that people and their property are in jeopardy. Several thousand roam across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

And there are ongoing incidents of wolves gobbling up dogs or attacking and killing livestock. Wildlife agencies say those incidents typically involve a small fraction of the wolf population.

But George Meyer, director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, thinks, at least in his state, it’s getting out of hand. “Last year, the Department of Natural Resources had to come in and kill two full packs because of threats, not just to animals, but of threats to humans,” Meyer says.

Meyer thinks wolves are becoming so acclimated to living near people that the animal is losing its natural fear of humans. He argues that a hunt will restore that instinct.

The tribes don’t have any problem with killing wolves that are causing problems. What they object to is hunting wolves for sport.

Kurt Perron of the Bay Mills tribe says if a wolf has to be killed it’s done in a certain way. “With a prayer said, with tobacco given, and with the entire animal being used for the welfare of the entire tribe, he says. “It wouldn’t be stuffed and stuck on a wall.”

New Claim
Wisconsin officials are using the hunt to drastically reduce wolf numbers. They’re allowing as many as two hundred to be killed.

The tribes’ portion of that would be 85. But they’re not planning on taking any.

In fact eleven tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan sent a letter to the head of Wisconsin DNR opposing the hunt. They agree the state has full authority to manage wolves. But they argue that taking so many in effect diminishes their reserved treaty rights. These are rights that have been upheld by federal courts.

“The tribes are concerned that the wolves have not been restored to their fullest extent to occupy all the niches in the landscape and ecosystems where they have a very important role to play,” says Jim Zorn who works for the tribes as director of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. “And that, if anything, the tribes certainly want at least as many wolves on the landscape as there are now.”

But preserving live wolves in every niche in the landscape is a new interpretation of treaty rights.

The Response
Wisconsin DNR sent a letter back asserting those rights apply only to harvesting not to preserving wildlife.

George Meyer of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation is a former head of the DNR. And before that, he was the agency’s lead negotiator in dozens of treaty agreements. He says the time is long past due for the tribes to be asserting this claim. “The tribes never brought this issue forward. And literally the agreement has been in place twenty-five, nearly thirty years now.”

Meyer says the tribes could try to go back to federal court to get their interpretation sanctioned. But he thinks there isn’t much chance of that succeeding.

Meyer says he understands and respects that the wolf is fundamental to Indian culture. But he doesn’t see how the issue of the hunt can be resolved in that context.

“This is a gap or chasm I don’t know how you bridge. It’s so fundamental in their culture and it’s clearly not fundamental or even a value that can be recognized under state law,” Meyer says.

Inconsistency
Tribal members in the Great Lakes region haven’t decided how to proceed.

Kurt Perron, chair of the Bay Mills tribe, agrees maybe their objection to a wolf hunt is futile. But he expects it to come up again as Michigan debates how many wolves could be taken in a hunting season.

And Perron sees an inconsistency in how wildlife managers treat another top predator that’s recently escaped a brush with extinction. The bald eagle has rebounded far beyond numbers set for its recovery. And it also has symbolic importance to people. 

“So it’s not just about protecting the numbers and saying the ecosystem can handle us licensing a few hundred to be killed for sport. I don’t see them doing that for the bald eagle,” Perron says. “It’s the same symbolic relationship with the wolf to us.”

The Wisconsin wolf season is set to open mid-October and run through the end of February. Minnesota opens a limited hunt this fall. And a bill to set a hunting season in Michigan has been introduced in the state House.