Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Fort Providence (Nov 19/01) - It's an image some Americans expect, maybe from watching too many spaghetti westerns: Cowboys and Indians and Bisons and bows and arrows.

Whatever it takes to bring tourists North. The latest idea is to draw in American bow hunters who want to bag bison around Fort Providence.

It's more than a cliche, says Fort Providence economic development head Douglas Bryshun. There is genuine appeal to using bow and arrow, because the weapon is more natural and fair to the hunted, compared to firepower.

Add to that, the enormous testosterone appeal of using mechanical means to bring down the largest land mammal found anywhere in North or South America.

Bryshun is CEO of Deh Gah Got'ie Betterment Corporation, which runs Deh Cho Wood Bison Safari. One thing holding back the company and bow hunter bookings, is United States law. One prevents stuffed Bison trophies from being shipped stateside.

It's the same law stopping imports of polar bear trophies. Bryshun expects the law to change soon, since it's a simple matter of updating the U.S. endangered species list, to reflect recovered bison and bear populations.

Another thing holding back bow hunting is lack of local knowledge.

"We have to get an archery expert up here," says Bryshun. The band just received a bow hunting bison tag from the government, on a trial basis.

Guides armed with a minimum 306-calibre rifle will accompany archers, in case an injured bison charges. To make a good strike with a bow, a hunter has to get within 32 to 46 metres

Those who think bow hunting is far removed from Northern aboriginal culture would be mistaken. Elder Daniel Sonfrere says that Dene, before the arrival of firearms, used to fashion willow saplings into hunting bows. Arrows had stone heads attached.

It was also common "way back," Sonfrere says, to "chase bison down to the river. If the ice wasn't strong enough they'd drown."

Territorial archaeologist Tom Andrews says before the arrival of muskets, aboriginal hunters were "ingenious," in adapting the bow and arrow and an earlier weapon called a throwing tool.

It's unclear how the 20,000 year-old bow technology spread here from as far as Australia.

But "there were extensive trade networks" well before the arrival of Europeans, Andrews said.

Scant bow hunting evidence was found at high elevations in the Yukon, away from the North's acidic soil which disintegrates wood.

It's not hard to find Bison around Fort Providence. This time of year, they wander right in town, and into controversy. Some like their presence. Others think a child could be hurt if a moody, snorting bison rushed after one. Another worry is stray bullets from tag-holders who sometimes pop-off bison near homes.

"Nobody is exploring the tourism potential" of bison in town, laments Bryshun. He points out that Banff residents put up with a lot from more temperamental members of a large elk herd. The herd shares the town with residents, and are one of the main reasons thousands of visitors are drawn to the area.