GNWT, Metis reach deal on caribou
North Slave leader says settlement could trigger Metis land claim
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, April 6, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The North Slave Metis Alliance says a new relationship has been forged with the territorial government after the latter agreed to allow Metis to hunt from the Bathurst caribou herd - should a ban on hunting from their decimated numbers ever be lifted.
The agreement comes after the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement on
a lawsuit filed by the Metis over its rights to be included in the Bathurst caribou hunt.
The GNWT restricted the hunt to only 15 bulls - allowable only by special permit for ceremonial purposes - earlier this year after estimates showed the herd at only 15,000 animals.
"There is a harvesting ban now on the herd except for 15 bulls only for ceremonial harvesting purposes," said alliance president Bill Enge.
"The North Slave Metis Alliance will qualify for some of those 15 ceremonial-only tags but beyond that if and when the minister (of Environment and Natural Resources) opens up a limited aboriginal harvest on the Bathurst caribou herd again the NSMA will be included as one of the aboriginal groups that will be provided with harvesting cards.
The NSMA does not expect a full third of the 300 tags which were being split between the Yellowknives Dene and the Tlicho.
"We suggested to the minister that an equitable share to us means a division on a per capita basis," said Enge.
"Their membership numbers are greater than ours, so we expect to get less tags," said Enge.
He did not give an exact number he expects the Metis alliance should receive.
"We think that it's too late in the season to be included in the ceremonial hunt this year and the organization has yet to determine what the criteria is for a ceremonial hunt," said Enge.
Michael Miltenberger, the minister of Environment and Natural Resources, imposed a ban on Dec. 19
of last year. Estimates suggest that there may be only 15,000 caribou in the herd, down 97 per cent from an estimated 460,000 animals in 1986.
The new agreement is just part of a larger issue, Enge said.
"The Government of the Northwest Territories has now recognized that the North Slave Metis people have an aboriginal right to harvest on their traditional lands north of Great Slave Lake and that changes the dynamics of our relationship," Enge said.
"That doesn't just apply to caribou. It also has to do with the conservation of the lands the caribou are on."
For example, Enge said there are wider implications now if a mining company wants to plunk a diamond mine on their traditional lands.
The government will have to consult and accommodate the North Slave Metis, along with other aboriginal groups when that occurs, he said.
The legal ball really got rolling on this issue after a meeting Enge said
he had with bureaucrats from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources where he was told the GNWT was fulfilling its mandate by telling the Metis that they could harvest from another caribou herd, some 1,000 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife.
"I requested those department officials who came to see me to put it in writing which they did and we saw fit to challenge that position in court," Enge said.
"They eventually came around to recognizing our position and that led to the out of court settlement and agreement."
The other aspect to all of this is the fact that the North Slave Metis people are the only aboriginal people in all of the NWT that have been excluded from the land claim negotiation table, said Enge.
"This denial of a negotiation table is based on the notion that the North Slave Metis people do not possess section 35 aboriginal rights on the north side of Great Slave Lake," Enge said.
"If they've now given us the right to hunt caribou on our traditional land then the next step for us is to get the federal government to include us in land claim negotiations."
