Dene leaders back caribou hunter in no-hunt zone

Dene leaders in the Northwest Territories are supporting an aboriginal hunter who wasgiven a warning ticketby the territorial government for huntingBathurst caribou in a no-hunting zone.

The warning Jonas Sangris received this past weekend marksone of thefirst such incidents since the Northwest Territories banned all caribou hunting by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal hunters in the Bathurst caribou herd's winter range.

The ban took effect on Jan. 1, as the government tries to curb the herd's sharply declining numbers.

On Saturday, wildlife officers stopped Sangris and three other members of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation as they were returning from a hunt.

The hunters had eight caribou, but officers seized six of them and wrote Sangris a warning ticket for hunting without a licence in an area closed to caribou hunting. The hunters were not fined.

Issue could go to court

Leaders with the Dene Nation accused the governmentof stepping beyond its authorityin this case, which they warn could wind up before the courts.

"We're going to stand up. And if it takes the next level, it has to go legally, that's the route we'll have to take," Chief Ted Tsetta of N'dilo, N.W.T., told reporters in Yellowknife on Monday.

"No one is going to take our rights away especially the government of the Northwest Territories."

Among the leaders who joined Tsetta on Monday were Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus, Chief Edward Sangris of Dettah, N.W.T., and former Yellowknives Dene Chief Fred Sangris.

Edward Sangris said seizing meat from someone is a serious crime against Dene traditional law.

"If we put the restrictions on this, are you going to compensate all my people? Give them money to put food on the table until this ban is over," Sangris said. "Let's compromise here."

Government officials confirmed to CBC News that meat was seized from some hunters around Gordon Lake this past weekend.

Officials are investigating the case, and the meat is currently being held as evidence. Distribution of the meat will be determined by the courts.

Did not consent, chiefs claim

The no-hunting zone includes most of the central and eastern part of the Northwest Territories, from the north shore of Great Slave Lake to the N.W.T.-Nunavut boundary.

The zone covers the traditional lands of the Yellowknives Dene and the Tlichopeoples.

Tsetta said neither he nor any of the Dene chiefs were consulted about the no-hunting zone, nor did they consent to it.

"We've never agreed with the [Northwest Territories government] to have restrictions on our people," Tsetta said.

"There is no way in the world that any First Nation will give up their right to the government of the Northwest Territories."

The chiefs say they will discuss their concerns at the Dene Nation's leadership meeting, which will take place later this week in Fort Simpson, N.W.T.

According to the government's latest count, the Bathurst caribou herd declined from 186,000 animals in 2003 to just 32,000 last year.