Tribal Grizzly Bear Treaty Redefines Recovery of the Great Bear

Tribal Grizzly Bear Treaty Redefines Recovery of the Great Bear
October 11, 2016
by Louisa Willcox


Last weekend marked the signing of an historic tribal grizzly bear treaty in Canada and the US. Entitled “The Grizzly: A Treaty of Cooperation, Cultural Revitalization and Restoration,” the treaty was carried from Ottawa to Jackson Hole, where it was signed by traditionalists and supporters of all generations.

The treaty marks a new chapter in the battle for native rights and environmental protection.

“Within this struggle to protect the grizzly and see the Great Bear reintroduced to tribal nations from the Rockies to the Pacific where biologically suitable habitat exists, we find many of our struggles – the struggle to defend our sovereignty, our treaty rights, consultation mandates, and our spiritual and religious freedoms,” explained Chief Stan Grier, Chief of the Piikani Nation, in Jackson Hole last Sunday (link).

The treaty movement comes as the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is poised to strip federal protections from the grizzly in Greater Yellowstone, which will unleash state-sponsored trophy hunting for the first time in over 40 years. Tribes across North America revere the grizzly as sacred. Some fifty federally recognized Indian tribes, as well as Canada’s Assembly of First Nations (some 640 tribal bands in Canada), have formalized their opposition to delisting the grizzly from the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Speaking to a crowd of over 200 in Jackson Hole, numerous tribal leaders linked the conflict over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to the fight for the threatened grizzly bear.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/11/tribal-grizzly-bear-treaty-redefines-recovery-of-the-great-bear/