WOLVES: Tribes, assert your rights

The wolf and American Indians go back together to the beginning of time. From oral history and traditional stories, the wolf and Indian people are brothers, and in some clans wolf is a member of the family.

With little or no input from Indian tribes, the federal and state governments made a unilateral decision to allow hunting, trapping and talk about poisoning wolves anywhere. It is time for the Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest to assert their sovereign authority and grant wolves sanctuary: No hunting, trapping or poisoning wolves within the exterior boundaries of their respective reservations. Each Indian tribe has a Fish and Game department with qualified biologists who can determine the health and size of wolf packs living in their reservation, and also determine whether there should or not be a wolf hunting season, and if so, the number of permits issued, and to whom.

Further, Indian tribes, state and federal governments should cooperate with each other, as co-managers, to set the rules for killing wolves inside ceded lands.

FRED W. GABOURIE SR.

Worley