Nez Perce want to expand hunt
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
The Nez Perce tribe of Idaho wants to expand its bison hunt in Montana, especially because state and federal officials are killing hundreds of bison this winter anyway.
State wildlife officials, however, said the tribe is struggling to properly manage its current hunt, and that makes it difficult to agree to any expansion. Besides, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said, Indians are already allocated as many bison as non-Indian hunters.
“It’s going to get complicated,” said FWP Chief of Staff Chris Smith.
Both sides in the growing dispute said they’re aiming for fairness, but the issue could wind up in court.
Tribal members also have been killing elk in the Gardiner area this winter under tribal permits, and FWP said that isn’t allowable.
“FWP will be pursuing legal action for over-harvest of bison and for harvest of species other than bison,” FWP Director Jeff Hagener wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to tribal chairman Samuel N. Penney.
Smith said those actions could include citing individuals or seeking a restraining order in civil court.
FWP maintains the tribe can take no elk and a maximum of 41 bison.
The tribe maintains it can take 70 to 110 bison and an undetermined number of elk. Members have killed about 14 elk so far, a tribal official said.
Meanwhile, Yellowstone National Park officials and the Montana Department of Livestock are shipping hundreds of animals to slaughter. The state doesn’t consider that hunting; it’s considered disease management.
Penny maintains that if the government is killing that many animals, the tribe should have a chance to take some.
“This harvest must be accounted for in calculating the treaty allocation,” Penney wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to Gov. Brian Schweitzer. “Any other result would be inequitable.”
FWP told Penny bison being hazed or rounded up for brucellosis control “are not available” for hunting by state or tribal hunters, largely because of safety and “fair chase” concerns.
Penny counters that if the bison weren’t being hazed, they would reach areas where the tribe could hunt them.
Smith said the tribe’s lawyer recently called and requested a teleconference to try to work out the issue. “At this point, I wouldn’t say we’re in a legal showdown,” he said.
Aside from the size of the harvest, the manner of the Nez Perce hunt also is a matter of dispute.
“I’m very bothered and concerned with some aspects of the Nez Perce hunt,” Sam Sheppard, FWP’s warden captain in Bozeman, said this week.
The Nez Perce have a 19th-century treaty that grants them the right to hunt on “open and unclaimed” land in the Yellowstone National Park area. That term has been defined to mean national forest land outside the park. The state of Montana does not dispute the Nez Perce right to hunt bison, but has issues with how the hunt has been conducted.
Sheppard ran through a list of problems his staff has encountered over the three winters the Nez Perce have hunted in the state. He said they include 12 events that likely would fetch people citations if they were hunting under state licenses: seven cases of wasting meat or carcasses; two of shooting without permit; two of shooting from a road; and one of littering. The most recent events occurred this week, Sheppard said, when one bison was left in the field for 24 hours without being field dressed and another was shot five feet from the Jardine Road near Gardiner.
Some tribal hunters have left unsightly messes along roadways, such as gut piles, boned carcass heads and hides, and some chased bison from Gardiner to a designated hunting zone, running them through a woman’s yard, Sheppard said.
While such events might not be illegal, they’re “not helpful,” Sheppard said.
All of those potential violations have been turned over to tribal officials for possible prosecution, Sheppard said, but there has been little action.
“We’ll be reviewing such cases,” said Joseph Oatman, chairman of the tribe’s Fish and Wildlife Commission. “We are very ... serious about issuing citations if tribal members do violate the tribal regulations.”
He said rules call for all tribal hunters to obtain tribal permits in advance and to take an orientation class that focuses on safety and being respectful and mindful of other hunters.
“We have worked very hard in that regard,” Oatman said. Some people “may have violated our tribal regulations and we’ll deal with that appropriately.”
He said penalties for any violations would be up to a tribal judge and prosecutor.
Tribal game wardens often make the 14-hour trip to the Yellowstone area to oversee the hunt, but they aren’t there all the time. During their absence, Shepperd said, FWP acts as “their eyes and ears.” For most alleged offenses, FWP doesn’t have the authority to cite the tribal members. Rather, they turn their reports over to tribal wardens.
Any misbehavior in the field makes it harder to work out a deal that allocates the Nez Perce more bison, Smith said.
Sheppard also said Nez Perce hunters have been killing large numbers of bison in the Jardine-Eagle Creek area near Gardiner, the only place in the state where wild bison are allowed to wander year-round without being hazed or harassed.
“Every time the Nez Perce come, there’s no bison left on the landscape” in that area, Sheppard said. “All that come out are being killed.”
Montana has recognized the hunting rights in Yellowstone area for only one other tribe n the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes of Montana. That tribe exercised those rights for the first time this year, staying within agreed upon limits and running a clean hunt, Sheppard said.
“It was a seamless transition,” Sheppard said. “It couldn’t have been better.”
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
The Nez Perce tribe of Idaho wants to expand its bison hunt in Montana, especially because state and federal officials are killing hundreds of bison this winter anyway.
State wildlife officials, however, said the tribe is struggling to properly manage its current hunt, and that makes it difficult to agree to any expansion. Besides, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said, Indians are already allocated as many bison as non-Indian hunters.
“It’s going to get complicated,” said FWP Chief of Staff Chris Smith.
Both sides in the growing dispute said they’re aiming for fairness, but the issue could wind up in court.
Tribal members also have been killing elk in the Gardiner area this winter under tribal permits, and FWP said that isn’t allowable.
“FWP will be pursuing legal action for over-harvest of bison and for harvest of species other than bison,” FWP Director Jeff Hagener wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to tribal chairman Samuel N. Penney.
Smith said those actions could include citing individuals or seeking a restraining order in civil court.
FWP maintains the tribe can take no elk and a maximum of 41 bison.
The tribe maintains it can take 70 to 110 bison and an undetermined number of elk. Members have killed about 14 elk so far, a tribal official said.
Meanwhile, Yellowstone National Park officials and the Montana Department of Livestock are shipping hundreds of animals to slaughter. The state doesn’t consider that hunting; it’s considered disease management.
Penny maintains that if the government is killing that many animals, the tribe should have a chance to take some.
“This harvest must be accounted for in calculating the treaty allocation,” Penney wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to Gov. Brian Schweitzer. “Any other result would be inequitable.”
FWP told Penny bison being hazed or rounded up for brucellosis control “are not available” for hunting by state or tribal hunters, largely because of safety and “fair chase” concerns.
Penny counters that if the bison weren’t being hazed, they would reach areas where the tribe could hunt them.
Smith said the tribe’s lawyer recently called and requested a teleconference to try to work out the issue. “At this point, I wouldn’t say we’re in a legal showdown,” he said.
Aside from the size of the harvest, the manner of the Nez Perce hunt also is a matter of dispute.
“I’m very bothered and concerned with some aspects of the Nez Perce hunt,” Sam Sheppard, FWP’s warden captain in Bozeman, said this week.
The Nez Perce have a 19th-century treaty that grants them the right to hunt on “open and unclaimed” land in the Yellowstone National Park area. That term has been defined to mean national forest land outside the park. The state of Montana does not dispute the Nez Perce right to hunt bison, but has issues with how the hunt has been conducted.
Sheppard ran through a list of problems his staff has encountered over the three winters the Nez Perce have hunted in the state. He said they include 12 events that likely would fetch people citations if they were hunting under state licenses: seven cases of wasting meat or carcasses; two of shooting without permit; two of shooting from a road; and one of littering. The most recent events occurred this week, Sheppard said, when one bison was left in the field for 24 hours without being field dressed and another was shot five feet from the Jardine Road near Gardiner.
Some tribal hunters have left unsightly messes along roadways, such as gut piles, boned carcass heads and hides, and some chased bison from Gardiner to a designated hunting zone, running them through a woman’s yard, Sheppard said.
While such events might not be illegal, they’re “not helpful,” Sheppard said.
All of those potential violations have been turned over to tribal officials for possible prosecution, Sheppard said, but there has been little action.
“We’ll be reviewing such cases,” said Joseph Oatman, chairman of the tribe’s Fish and Wildlife Commission. “We are very ... serious about issuing citations if tribal members do violate the tribal regulations.”
He said rules call for all tribal hunters to obtain tribal permits in advance and to take an orientation class that focuses on safety and being respectful and mindful of other hunters.
“We have worked very hard in that regard,” Oatman said. Some people “may have violated our tribal regulations and we’ll deal with that appropriately.”
He said penalties for any violations would be up to a tribal judge and prosecutor.
Tribal game wardens often make the 14-hour trip to the Yellowstone area to oversee the hunt, but they aren’t there all the time. During their absence, Shepperd said, FWP acts as “their eyes and ears.” For most alleged offenses, FWP doesn’t have the authority to cite the tribal members. Rather, they turn their reports over to tribal wardens.
Any misbehavior in the field makes it harder to work out a deal that allocates the Nez Perce more bison, Smith said.
Sheppard also said Nez Perce hunters have been killing large numbers of bison in the Jardine-Eagle Creek area near Gardiner, the only place in the state where wild bison are allowed to wander year-round without being hazed or harassed.
“Every time the Nez Perce come, there’s no bison left on the landscape” in that area, Sheppard said. “All that come out are being killed.”
Montana has recognized the hunting rights in Yellowstone area for only one other tribe n the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes of Montana. That tribe exercised those rights for the first time this year, staying within agreed upon limits and running a clean hunt, Sheppard said.
“It was a seamless transition,” Sheppard said. “It couldn’t have been better.”
