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Dene to hold caribou summit

Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Friday, July 27, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The Dene Nation will hold a First Nations' caribou summit this year, Ndilo Dene Chief Fred Sangris announced at the Dene National Assembly last week.

With the Dene lifestyle so dependent on caribou, Sangris said that sport hunting should be the last concern when discussing the declining population.

"The First Nations people are the only people who should be doing hunting if the caribou numbers go down," Sangris told the assembly in Behchoko July 19, speaking as chairman of the chiefs committee on caribou.

Sangris said he wasn't satisfied with the caribou summit held in Inuvik at the end of January. He said there wasn't enough representation from artists, craftsmen, and sustenance hunters, who make use of harvested caribou.

"I'm not really interested in hearing from sports hunters," said Sangris. "I don't believe in big game, I don't believe in sports hunting."

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus said the territorial government had "particular interest" in setting up the last caribou summit, which led to representation from sports hunters.

Erasmus said the First Nations' caribou summit will focus more closely on First Nations' concerns over caribou.

At the assembly, Sangris spoke out against any commercial sales of caribou.

He referred to a decision many years ago to harvest 500 caribou to sell commercially to the south. He said that those caribou ended up wasted in a warehouse somewhere.

"No one should commercially sell caribou. This is our food," said Sangris.