Dene taking N.W.T. caribou hunting ban to court

Dene leaders in the Northwest Territories plan to take legal action against the government's ban on caribou hunting in an area north of Yellowknife, arguing that it violates their treaty rights.

Chiefs with the Dene Nation said that as of Monday, 17 harvested caribou have been taken from Dene hunters in the no-hunting zone, an area extending from the northern shore of Great Slave Lake to the N.W.T.-Nunavut boundary.

The territorial government imposed the non-hunting zone on Jan. 1, barring both aboriginal and non-aboriginal hunters from hunting Bathurst caribou in the herd's winter range, citing a decline in the herd's numbers. According to the territorial government's latest survey, the Bathurst herd declined from 186,000 in 2003 to just 32,000 last year.

But leaders from affected Dene communities say the territorial government has no right to control the aboriginal hunt.

Showing 'who is the boss'

Ted Tsetta of N'dilo, N.W.T., one of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation chiefs, said Monday that he and the other chiefs intend to go to court to guard their members' treaty rights.

"We have to show [the N.W.T. government] who is the boss, who owns the land, who has the right here," Tsetta told reporters in Yellowknife.

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus said they will go before a justice of the peace on Tuesday to try to get the seized caribou meat back.

Erasmus said the Dene Nation will also ask federal Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl to meet with them this week so they can ask him to intervene on the issue.

National Chief Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations supports the Dene chiefs and has thrown his support behind their opposition to the hunting ban.

Extensive consultations: minister

Officials with the N.W.T. Environment and Natural Resources Department could not be reached for comment late Monday. Late last week, the minister, Michael Miltenberger, said the government has consulted extensively with aboriginal groups in the region where the no-hunting zone is in effect.

"We have to do something, we are going to do something, becuase if we have one more season of uncontrolled hunting, there's a good chance that the Bathurst herd may suffer the same fate as the Beverly," Miltenberger said. The Beverly caribou herd has been in drastic decline in recent decades.

"I don't think anybody wants that," Miltenberger said. "And they don't, because the majority of people, I believe, support the measures that we're taking."

Miltenberger said his government has received a letter of strong support for the ban from the N.W.T. Métis Nation.

The government the been offering support to hunters in communities that are affected by the ban, in part by allowing those hunters to harvest caribou from neighbouring regions.