Barrenground caribou cross the narrows between Maufelly Point and Fairchild Point near Fort Reliance on Great Slave Lake earlier this month. The Yellowknives Dene, along with the Tlicho Government, are resuming talks with the territorial government to discuss harvest limits on Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou. Please see page 9 for columnist Libby Whittall-Catling's observations on how caribou seem to be faring near Fort Reliance this year. - photo courtesy of Libby Whittall-Catling |
First Nations face reduced caribou harvest
Yellowknives chief says he was told only 75 tags for Bathurst herd will be allowed if ban is rescinded
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 12, 2015
NORTH SLAVE
The political poker game over caribou continues this week as the territorial government tries to bring aboriginal groups onside with a management plan to protect herd numbers while First Nations seek guarantees that their treaty rights to harvest them will be honoured.
Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger, citing plunging caribou numbers, announced a total ban Dec. 19 on hunting from the Bathurst herd after being unable to secure a harvest agreement between the GNWT, the Tlicho government and Yellowknives Dene.
The territorial government is also proposing a limit of 1,500 animals harvested from the neighbouring Bluenose-East herd to the west of the Bathurst herd, currently estimated at 68,000 caribou.
Negotiations failed before Christmas but there have been renewed efforts in recent days to reach a deal.
The Yellowknives were to meet with officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) on Friday in hopes of hammering out an agreement on the Bathurst herd, which estimates say likely number only 15,000 animals – a 97 per cent drop from the 460,000 caribou counted in 1986.
The department had been issuing 300 tags per year to aboriginal hunters for Bathurst caribou inside a 70,000-square kilometre hunting zone north of Yellowknife since 2010. One-hundred-and fifty tags were given to the Tlicho while the other half went to the Yellowknives.
Dettah Chief Ed Sangris said he was told by officials with the department that the quota may be reduced to 75 tags each this winter should Miltenberger rescind the ban.
If an agreement is reached, Sangris said the 75 tags will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis from the Yellowknives band office with a maximum of one tag per household. If hunters are unsuccessful, they're expected to return their tags so someone else can try.
"Three-hundred-and seventy-five people want to go hunting," said Sangris. "We'll only get 75 so we got to give other people the chance."
In the meantime, Sangris said he's been telling community members to avoid hunting caribou in the Bathurst zone.
"We've been telling our members that until we do get the tags, and an agreement, they're encouraged to go hunting some place else," said Sangris.
Grand Chief Eddie Erasmus was keeping his cards closer to his chest last week, saying he couldn't discuss the Tlicho government's position on the interim hunting ban imposed by Miltenberger. He said the Tlicho expect to meet with department officials this week to discuss whether the Tlicho will be able to hunt Bathurst caribou any time soon.
"We have a meeting set up with the ENR representatives coming next week," said Erasmus on Jan. 8. "I can't say now what the position will be on those issues."
Brenda Norris, a media liaison officer for cabinet, said she couldn't confirm when the meeting with the Tlicho would be held as Miltenberger is away from his office, but did say a meeting between the Tlicho and the GNWT is indeed planned.
Erasmus said the matter is of great importance for the Tlicho, who depend on caribou as a source of food and cultural sustenance.
"We are harvesters of the caribou," he said. "The caribou has always sustained us, and our language, culture, and way of life ... our people are impacted."
He said elders who grew up on a traditional diet of caribou are not pleased with having to subsist on processed store-bought food, and that "any traditionalist will tell you they might be worried about that."
"There's no doubt that our elders depend on caribou meat," said Erasmus.
"The Tlicho government is very concerned about the numbers that the reconnaissance survey (of Bathust caribou) show. But it is more complicated than that. We need to get the GNWT resource board involved here as well. We are ... interested in the recovery of the herd."
– with files from Mike W. Bryant
