Tribal Council OKs 2017 hunting seasons, tags

For the third time since the state of Oregon agreed to the Tribal Wildlife Management Plan in September 2014, Tribal Council has exercised sovereignty to declare hunting seasons and tags on Tribal Reservation and trust lands outside of state-mandated seasons.

During its Wednesday, July 26, meeting, Tribal Council approved the 2017 seasons and tags recommended by the Natural Resources Department.

This year’s “conservative” proposal offers Tribal members 76 hunting tags across a combination of early and late hunting seasons, totaling six seasons.

Three of the seasons are for black-tailed deer and three are for Roosevelt elk. A new addition in 2017 is one additional tag per season specifically designated for young hunters.

“It’s exciting to get the youth out there,” Tribal Council member Jack Giffen Jr. said.

Fish & Wildlife Program Manager Kelly Dirksen said at the Tuesday, July 25, Legislative Action Committee hearing that previous Tribal hunting seasons experienced a 9 percent hunter success rate in 2015 and an 11 percent success rate in 2016. Applications increased from 203 in 2015 to 362 in 2016.

The approved hunting seasons for black-tailed deer will run from Nov. 18 to Dec. 3 for bow buck and muzzleloader, and from Sept. 25-29 for coastal buck.

Approved hunting seasons for Roosevelt elk will run from Nov. 18 to Dec. 3 for bow bull, Nov. 4-13 for coast bull and Nov. 18-20 for any coast elk.

A Natural Resources staff report stated that this year’s “conservative” proposal was based on the need for responsible wildlife management and harvests, the importance of wildlife stewardship and keeping a manageable number of hunters to whom the mandatory education course will be administered.

Giffen said at the July 25 Legislative Action Committee meeting that he would like to see Natural Resources offer basic survival and navigation classes for young hunters who do not learn those skills within their families.

Tribal Council Secretary Jon A. George said he would like to see more of a cultural element incorporated into hunter education courses to explain why Tribal members hunt.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved appointing Tribal Council Chief of Staff Stacia Hernandez as manager of Huy Huy LLC, replacing Finance Officer Chris Leno. Huy Huy owns 51 percent of Lamatsin LLC, which owns 100 percent of Shasta Administrative Service’s stock. The Tribe partnered with Hawaii-Western Management Group in November 2012 to buy the Redmond-based third-party health care administrator.

• Adopted a per capita payment date of Sept. 15 for the next gaming revenue distribution to the membership.

Also included in the July 26 Tribal Council packet was an authorization to proceed to submit the Chinuk Wawa phrase “ɫush pus chaku” to the University of Oregon for use on its newest dorm on campus. The phrase means “It’s good to, or you should come (in)” since there is no direct translation for “welcome.”

Cultural Resources staff members Jordan Mercier and Brian Krehbiel and Tribal youth Izaiah Fisher and Kailiyah Krehbiel performed the cultural drumming and singing to open the meeting.

The entire meeting can be viewed on the Tribal website at www.grandronde.org by clicking on the News tab and then Video.