Yakama Nation Sheep Tags

[jackelope]

Only downside is we lose all that auction money that goes back to wild sheep. Which I guess is ok, because wdfw is overflowing with money to be spent on management.
(Insert passive aggressive sarcasm here)

This is where I assumed your auction concern   

When I use the term conservation concern, I'm using it roughly the way I've read court rulings.  The action must put the species in great peril for the state to have jurisdiction over a treaty tribe exercising a hunting right.  Preserving a unique resource, such as trophy rams, is not a conservation concern that warrants or has the ability to impede a treaty right.  If the sheep population will go extinct because of the 2 yakama tags, then it is a conservation concern...and if that's the case, the state can't discriminate against Indians in their regulation...meaning they would need to cut the state tags as well.

Sure there is a concern about the revenue that would be lost, but it's definitely not one of my overall, or top concerns. Regardless of what kind of revenue or spending problem the state has, the money generated by auctions and raffles is significant and without it, those specific species would be losing money.


My idea of a conservation concern and your idea of a conservation concern are 2 totally different things clearly. I'd rather not wait until the last minute to save or attempt to preserve a herd. Also, this isn't about regulations for me either. My comments on that topic are pretty much all angled at getting the tribe and the state to sit down and work together. I'm 99.9% sure little old me isn't going to make a difference there, but 100 little old me's or a thousand might. Hopefully one day, the 2 sides see the light and are able to work together.

Has your buddy that is the head of sheep, moose, and goats ever proactively sat down with the Yakamas to discuss increases or changes in state harvest levels?  That would have been a good way to get to the collaboration most of us would like to see.  My point is, wdfw has no upper hand to force yakamas to the table. 

Also, I'm not advocating we all wait until the sheep herd is on the brink of extinction in describing "conservation concern", I'm merely explaining the point at which wdfw has the ability to step in...that's just a fact supported by case law. 

Once the wyoming crow tribe hunting case is settled in the Supreme Court next session I would predict more western states will start seeing the value of collaborating with tribes on harvest.

He's not a buddy. He's just a guy who works for the WDFW. I went to their website, figured out who would know if anyone would know, and sent him an email.

I've never once insinuated or said anything to the effect that anyone should step in, take over, force anything. I've been suggesting over and over that it would be cool if the tribe and the state worked together. That is all. I could rephrase that and say it would be cool if the state and the tribe worked together...maybe by putting the word "tribe" in front of "state" in my sentence made it sound like I was saying the tribe should take the lead.

[Rainier10]

As I understand it the Yakama's have been sheep hunting for quite some time and have had seasons for the hunts and specific areas that they hunt.  They have not for the past 20 years hunted for sheep in swakane or had tags that they offered to members.

I am not sure why in the past twenty years the WDFW would have talked to the Yakama's about sheep tags numbers or adjustments in the swakane unit.  Why would they, the Yakama's haven't been sheep hunting there?

It seems fair to think that if the Yakama's decided that all of a sudden they are going to hunt a herd that the WDFW biologists think can only allow 2-3 rams to be harvested from they would say "hey, by the  way we are going to double the number of sheep taken in that herd."

I would also like to think that if the WDFW decided to double the sheep tags in I don't know, let's say Clemen's mountain or the Quilomene that they would let them know that they were adjusting numbers.

Maybe the WDFW doesn't share with the tribe what their plan is for those herds but I would like to think they do.

[boneaddict]

When are the Lummis' going to show up to get their two and then the mucks and hey, why not the Colvilles.   They at least worked together to get their own to manage.

Sure would be easier if one cohesive group made the decisions for wildlife in this state. 

[jackelope]

[PlateauNDN]

It does make sense, it does sound logical and that would be the right thing to do, buttttttt. Again, when does the State pick up the phone and make those introductions? They have not in the past and to my knowledge barely make efforts currently.

Maybe if the state looked at the Tribe as a possible beneficial partner and not a hindrance or enemy and treated the Tribe as a governmental entity and not adversary then the possibility of cooperative management might be possible.

When an approach is equally and respectably done things can begin on a good footing, but when no approach is made and contempt or hostile attitudes are given why would anyone want to work with said agencies?

[PlateauNDN]

We've had successful cooperative management with other states and other groups involving animals but not this state or its agencies.

[boneaddict]

Indeed!   
I've seen some wins such as the antelope, and sheep from Clemans to good habitat on the Colville.....so maybe there is hope.

[jackelope]

It does make sense, it does sound logical and that would be the right thing to do, buttttttt. Again, when does the State pick up the phone and make those introductions? They have not in the past and to my knowledge barely make efforts currently.

Maybe if the state looked at the Tribe as a possible beneficial partner and not a hindrance or enemy and treated the Tribe as a governmental entity and not adversary then the possibility of cooperative management might be possible.

When an approach is equally and respectably done things can begin on a good footing, but when no approach is made and contempt or hostile attitudes are given why would anyone want to work with said agencies?

@PlateauNDN
So I know you don't speak for the tribe, but do you think in your gut that if a WDFW biologist or species manager reached out to the tribe, the tribal game managers or bio's or whoever would be responsible for this kind of thing on your end would be willing to talk?

[baker5150]

We've had successful cooperative management with other states and other groups involving animals but not this state or its agencies.

Does the Tribe have a Sheep biologist of some sort?

[huntnphool]

It does make sense, it does sound logical and that would be the right thing to do, buttttttt. Again, when does the State pick up the phone and make those introductions? They have not in the past and to my knowledge barely make efforts currently.

 Here is the problem with this logic and why the tribe gets a black eye on this move. Clearly this was not a spur of the moment decision on the tribes part, they have been working on this for a while, yet didn't reach out to WDFW and let them know what they were going to do.....why?

 WDFW clearly had no idea it was going to happen, and why would they? As previously posted, the tribes have not hunted sheep there in the past, so how would they know this was a issue?

 IMO this is nothing more than the tribes giving WDFW and the citizens of this state the finger, "because they can".........but go ahead and point the blame at WDFW for not asking if this was going to happen before hand........again, how were they supposed to know?

[PlateauNDN]

Yes

Yes

And correct. It had been in the making even before I made inquiries into it. Take it as you want. If it's a finger to the state then so be it. This state has given us more than a finger for nearly a century and still continues to do so. So why should we be the ones to initiate the dialog when we dont have to.

[huntnphool]

why should we be the ones to initiate the dialog when we dont have to.

 And there it is in a nutshell!

[grundy53]

Yes

Yes

And correct. It had been in the making even before I made inquiries into it. Take it as you want. If it's a finger to the state then so be it. This state has given us more than a finger for nearly a century and still continues to do so. So why should we be the ones to initiate the dialog when we dont have to.

For the good of the sheep herd...

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[PlateauNDN]

There it is indeed. Again, when this state decides it has another government to deal with and treats it as such and not the ugly step child then maybe they will get better treatment.

Treat others how you want to be treated, guess the State never heard of that.

[huntnphool]

Yes

Yes

And correct. It had been in the making even before I made inquiries into it. Take it as you want. If it's a finger to the state then so be it. This state has given us more than a finger for nearly a century and still continues to do so. So why should we be the ones to initiate the dialog when we dont have to.

For the good of the sheep herd...

 Be damned!

 Again, this was nothing more than the tribe telling WDFW and all of us to #>£€ off!

 All the tribe had to do was let WDFW know what they wanted and planned to do if WDFW didn't cooperate with them. Then if WDFW chose to do nothing, and the tribe announced this, it would make WDFW look like the bad guys. Instead the tribe decided to flip everyone the bird, again......"because we don't have to".

 Clearly they're not interested in any COopperative measures and don't give a rats backside about anybody but themselves.