Aboriginal stewardship: a better way to save the Mountain Caribou.

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The original environmentalists are the indigenous peoples, who have thousands of years' worth of traditional knowledge. They are stewards of the environment, the land, animals, and water systems. The First Nations in Canada all seem to share the same fundamental notion that environmental stewardship has belonged to them since time immemorial, as a God-given aboriginal right. There are indigenous laws related to this notion and those laws are legally and constitutionally to be accorded respect, as any other valid law in Canada.

When Section 35(1) of The Constitution Act 1982 was made, it provided for the constitutional protection of aboriginal and treaty rights. Since then, a number of aboriginal rights cases have been decided at the Supreme Court of Canada. While self-government has not been fully realized, it is recognized that pre-existing indigenous legal systems are ah inherent right based on the fact that aboriginal people were living in organized societies with their own traditional laws and customs in place long before first contact with Europeans. One such First Nation, the Kmnaxa who live in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, Idaho and Montana, has its own self-governing natural law of stewardship embedded within its oral history.

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The story goes that the Ktunaxa made a sacred covenant with the Creator that they will be the stewards of all the land and resources within their traditional territory, and in return, that they shall be given all of the necessities of life. Most other First Nations share similar stewardship obligations. In 1997, the Ktunaxa, through the Kootenai Culture Committee in Montana, published in a book titled Ktunaxa Legends with mention of the Sacred Covenant:

      For thousands of years the Ktunaxa have honored a covenant
   with the Creator to protect their extensive homelands by
   serving as the true guardians of the region. In exchange for
   this service the Ktunaxa were granted sustenance through the
   use of the abundant resources in the area.

      Since time immemorial, the Ktunaxa people have
   coexisted with Mother Earth 's creations in their natural
   habitat. Even today, Ktunaxa stewardship requires the
   utmost respect and protection for all elements of the natural
   world. As guardians, Ktunaxa people believe that life has
   little value without a true appreciation of the integrity of
   the environment and a genuine regard for all that is sacred.

The Ktunaxa are mountain people who traditionally traveled vast distances to practice their aboriginal rights and also, their stewardship responsibilities. There is much evidence of Ktunaxa stewardship practices, including:

* the use of the land on a semi-nomadic basis so as to not deplete the resources of degrade the environment within an area;

* the use of tire to control vegetation and timber growth;

* pre-historic tobacco cultivation with the use of fish fertilizer;

* participation in range management by extirpating the wild horse herds;

* the operation of a native plant nursery to rehabilitate the landscape with native plants;

* the establishment and operation of a white sturgeon fish hatchery to assist in sturgeon reproduction;

* the building of a bat roost in an historic building at the St. Eugene Mission Resort; and

* the creation of the Ktunaxa Nation Land Use Plan and associated territorial maps which are all stewardship practices.

Within the Ktunaxa Nation Land Use Plan, mountain caribou have been identified as being driven to the brink of extinction as a result of human impact, primarily logging. Logging roads open up the mountains for predators to travel upon.

The "Mountain Caribou" are not unique; they are genetically the same as other caribou, which are also known as reindeer in other countries. Since 1995, in British Columbia, approximately 25% of this species of caribou has been eliminated due to predators such as cougars and wolves.

The Alberta government approach in conserving mountain caribou is to go after the predators by culling and sterilization. Chris Genovali, executive director of Raincoast Conservation Society, stated that, "the Alberta government's proposed 'experiment' to control wolves (by capture, euthanasia and sterilization) [is] in great part, [to] bolster elk numbers for humans to trophy hunt."

The government has been criticized in its ability to manage threatened species and there is a need to incorporate traditional knowledge. Dr. Faisal Moola, director of science at the David Suzuki Foundation, said in relation to the BC government that, "they haven't succeeded in protecting species in the past". Moreover, Dr. Lee Harding, formerly with Environment Canada but now working for environmental group ForestEthics said "the latest plan by the Canadian government to save the species, had so far shown no positive results". Dr Harding claimed that two previous projects over the past 20 years had also failed to halt the decline in caribou numbers.

The Province of BC defines stewardship as, "caring for land and associated resources and passing healthy ecosystems to future generations." This seems to be on the same lines as Ktunaxa stewardship. The Ktunaxa Nation Council has within its vision statement under the Department of Land and Resources that, "All lands and resources in the Traditional Territory are to be managed according to the natural law given to the Ktunaxa Nation by the Creator." There is a clear pattern of Ktunaxa stewardship of other resources where species have become at risk, including the Kootenay River White Sturgeon, and Townsend's Long Eared Bats.

The British Columbia approach to mountain caribou is closer to a stewardship model but there is a "hands-off" attitude in terms of any kind of commercial gain within its moratorium areas.

Rightfully so, the Province of British Columbia has acknowledged Ktunaxa stewardship rights in the development of the Mountain Caribou Implementation Plan. In background documents to the Plan, the British Columbia government stated, "The plan commits government to augmenting the southernmost mountain caribou herds as well as working co-operatively with First Nations to develop maternity pens for the southernmost herds, protecting mountain caribou newborn and calves from predators."

The Province is planning to augment the smaller, more vulnerable herds of mountain caribou with new transplants from other areas and to establish maternity pens and a captive breeding program. While the BC Government has made a funding commitment to construct maternity pens, consultation with First Nations is taking place concerning the implementation of this Plan. Some of the First Nations people consulted are concerned that augmentation is not a good idea. On December 2, 2007, Chief Chris Luke Sr. of the Lower Kootenay (Ktunaxa) Band, stated that the Band opposes the transfer of mountain caribou from the Tsilhqotin Aboriginal Title Lands to the jurisdiction of the Lower Kootenay Band and that the Tsilhqotin also oppose the transfer of mountain caribou from their territory.

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Given that Ktunaxa traditional knowledge has established that mountain caribou enjoy the company of humans, an indigenous stewardship approach to them should involve a close relationship, including captive breeding, maternity pens, and feeding. The aboriginal right to use the caribou as beasts of burden complete with sleds or saddles would not be out of the reach of cultural evolution because Ktunaxa used both horses and dogs in their practices, customs and traditions, as beasts of burden in transport. Also, caribou were present within Ktunaxa hunting camps, as tame as cows.

On May 29, 2008, the BC Government held its first reading of legislation (the Environmental (Species and Public Protection) Amendment Act, which amends the Wildlife Act) that includes the criminalization of the feeding of wildlife with extensive fines and jail times. This law is contrary to BC's very own Mountain Caribou Implementation Plan, which calls for a captive breeding program and it is also contrary to the Ktunaxa traditional law of stewardship.

Given that section 35(1) of the Constitution Act 1982 recognizes and protects aboriginal rights, these governmental infringements should not be applicable to those First Nations peoples who have such bona fide aboriginal rights of stewardship. While it is important to save species at risk, the seemingly complete hands-off approach for a species that is friendly to humans and easily habituated, perhaps could be better protected under the stewardship of the Ktunaxa.

Since Ktunaxa caribou hunting was an individual practice, perhaps the Province should be requesting individual Ktunaxa citizens to step forward with aboriginal rights-based mountain caribou stewardship plans. This would be in line with the collaborative approach BC is touting with regard to mountain caribou restoration.

It should be up to the individual aboriginal people to decide on how and where they would implement such a mountain caribou stewardship program. This would mean that if a Ktunaxa citizen decided that she wanted to capture some mountain caribou and develop a captive breeding program while at the same time starting a tourism operation for the public to enjoy as an unique participatory learning opportunity, that it should be well within her constitutionally protected aboriginal rights to do so because it is about stewardship.

The Ktunaxa have a responsibility to preserving nature, mountain caribou and old growth forests. However, there must be a balancing of interests, including economic interests. Indigenous oral history and traditional knowledge of the caribou must be given due consideration in the Mountain Caribou Implementation Plan and any other laws or regulations established by the various governments.

Troy Hunter is a citizen of the Ktunaxa First Nation. He is a graduate of UVic's Cultural Resource Management program and is currently completing his second year of law at the University of Victoria. Additionally, he is the proponent of the Stagleap Mountain Resort in the southern Selkirk Mountains, which would include a captive breeding, mountain caribou dicovery centre.