1988-12-07 Char-Koosta News

              Opposition greets news of hunting 'Brother Grizzly'
PABLO — The common thread at this Monday's public hearing on proposed changes to Tribal Ordinance 44D was: "It's obscene and disgusting to even be considering allowing grizzly bears to be hunted under Tribal law."
The hearing was called to discuss a number of proposed hunting and fishing policy changes, including the possibility of allowing limited taking of grizzly bears and bighorn sheep, which is now prohibited under Tribal, but not state, law.
While the 60 or so in attendance didn'thaveallthatmuchtosay about the bighorn sheep proposal ("I don't know anyone who likes mutton around here anyway," Mike Durglo commented), all but one speaker expressed intense disagreement with the grizzly proposal, either from a cultural standpoint, or based on biology.
Ron Therriault pointed out that Tribal Council sanctioning of even limited grizzly bear hunting would be a reversal of the Tribes' policy of resource protection.
The Tribes is on record, he said, as being a leader in conservation matters, as evidenced by the Mission Wilderness, the Class 1 air quality designation, its nuclear-free zone proclamation, and various hunting closures designed to protect fragile wildlife populations in
some areas of the Reservation.
It's obscene to even be thinking about hunting grizzlies, he said. "It's not man's God-given right to kill everything that moves, just for the sake of blowing something away," he asserted.
Tony Incashola, Salish Culture Committee member, agreed, and passed along the comments of elders who had met earlier in the day in St. Ignatius.
Incashola said Indians have "a great respect for this powerful animal". Three
elders — Agnes Kenmille, Agnes Van-derburg and Bud Barnaby—asked him to speak for them in expressing their disagreement.
"Agnes Kenmille said the grizzly is our king," Incashola said. "His power is like that of the eagle. Agnes Vanderburg said if people begin bothering the grizzly, there will be trouble. Bud Barnaby said there's no reason at all to be hunting for the sake of just taking trophies."
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Local governments would suffer at loss of reservations
After viewing a report prepared by the federal Government Accounting Office, Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., says that counties near reservations would suffer "enormous financial difficulty" if federal money was cut off to the tribes.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Williams said "Because of the federal deficit, there has been and will continue to be a serious effort in Washington to unload what have been federal responsibilities onto local taxpayers." Several proposals have been made in recent years by Montanans - most seriously, the National Association of Counties - to end the reservation system.
Many members of Congress have indicated to Williams that supporters of the idea are increasing their efforts.
The study by GAO was requested by Williams "to determine what the effect would be of shifting a 50-year federal burden to the localities." A 47-page report resulted from the study that shows both state and county governments would have to spend millions of additional dollars to provide services the reservations now provide.
At the request of Williams and Sen. John Melcher, D-Mont., the GAO examined funding associated with the Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Fort Belknap and (Concludes on the next page)