S moke S ignals
MARCH 1, 2016
21
13
Tribe invests in deer and elk populations
HUNTING continued
from front page
were held on the Grand Ronde
Reservation beginning in Septem-
ber and ending in early December.
Two hunts were for deer and two
were for elk.
“Those hunts were unique to the
Tribe with unique Tribal mem-
ber-only dates that were restricted
to just the Reservation, so not the
whole Trask Unit,” said Belonga.
“This is a huge step in exercising
our sovereignty to implement that
hunting season. The message is it
comes full circle with implementing
the hunts and then have the hunts
be successful for two of the deer
seasons and one of the elk seasons.
We had four hunters exercise their
right to be a leader and a role model
in terms of stewardship for hunting
practices in the field and Tribal
sovereignty.”
Fish and Wildlife Program Man-
ager Kelly Dirksen said it was
made clear to him early on in the
mid-1990s that restoration of hunt-
ing rights was going to be a Tribal
priority.
“Pretty much from the time I
started 20 years ago it was made
clear that we wanted to restore
some of the Tribal hunting rights,”
said Dirksen. “So that work really
ramped up in 2007 and then culmi-
nated in the Wildlife Management
Plan in 2014.
“It was a real conservative season
last year, but it’s the irst Tribal
season ever.
There isn’t
another re-
stored Tribe
that has had
anything
like this so
it’s pretty
exciting to
issue Tribal
tags.”
Lindsay Belonga
Dirksen
said the Tribe invested in the re-
source, something that benefits
everyone whether they are Tribal
members or not, for many years.
He said the Tribe invests in deer
and elk populations to beneit all
interested parties.
Belonga said much work has gone
into enhancing local wildlife popu-
lations and their habitat.
“Everything that we did to beneit
deer and elk populations beneitted
the entire community and not just
the membership,” said Dirksen.
“There is no way to give specific
beneits to the membership for the
Tribe’s investment.”
Providing Tribal members with
their own hunting dates turned out
to be the only way to tailor a beneit
speciically for the membership.
“This year we let folks go a little
bit early for the general season
and in other cases we let them go
a little bit later,” said Dirksen. “We
did have to be conservative, but our
hope is to get a population estimate
and then try to ramp up what we
can issue for tags.”
Belonga and Dirksen said the
real measure of success would be
if someone actually could feed their
family and that happened.
“Our real hope for this irst sea-
son was that someone would put
meat on the table,” said Dirksen.
“It was a big relief not to just put
tags out and that folks harvested
deer and elk.”
“The important thing for me is we
were successful in the ield harvest-
ing animals,” said Belonga.
Dirksen said Tribal leadership
supported Natural Resources ef-
forts to restore hunting rights
throughout the process.
“What was clear was council
wanted to see it happen,” said
Dirksen. “They were patient with
it, but they always wanted to see
it happen. They (Tribal Council)
always gave us the opportunities
to talk to the right folks, gave us
opportunities to manage and bol-
ster our claims for our management
ability so that we could make better
arguments to the state.
“They give you the means to do
what you are proposing to do. It’s
up to you to make it happen. When
it inally did happen it was a huge
moment.”
Belonga and Dirksen said that
Tribal hunters recognized the
privilege and acted accordingly. All
46 hunters who participated were
required to take a training course
that highlighted hunting steward-
ship before being issued a tag.
“I think there was great appre-
ciation for the opportunity,” said
Dirksen. “I think it was really clear
that there is some responsibility
with these tags. Each hunter was
basically an ambassador for the
program. I think they took that
responsibility very seriously. I
think they clearly appreciated the
chance to hunt outside of the regu-
lar state-sanctioned seasons.
“Folks were incredibly responsi-
ble and saw the enormous respon-
sibility of getting this thing right.
I’m really proud of our hunters for
that.”
Belonga said hunters expressed
appreciation for restoration of
hunting rights to the Tribe.
Dirksen said the membership
should know that there is an ongo-
ing push to regain and emphasize
Tribal sovereignty and rights.
“There is just a continual march
to restore and strengthen the Tribe
and this was a huge step in that,”
said Dirksen. “When we do our
work we are always looking for a
way that we can provide a tangible
beneit for the membership.”
Dirksen said the Wildlife Man-
agement Plan gives the Tribe ad-
ditional ishing rights that will be
implemented in the coming years.
“There are 17 species in that
management plan and all of them
have some level of harvest at some
point,” said Dirksen. “There is a lot
of fun stuff coming down the road.
We’ve taken some great irst steps
and we have some great people in
the program.” 
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