Dozens of caribou found shot near northwest Alaska village
Originally published Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 11:54 a.m.
Updated Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 4:10 p.m.
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE — Dozens of caribou were shot and left to rot in the mountains near the Chukchi Sea community of Point Hope.
The carcasses were discovered last week, said Point Hope Mayor Steve Oomittuk.
It appeared there were about 40 in between Point Hope and Kivalina to south, he said.
“This kind of stuff will not be tolerated,” Oomittuk said. “We still live a subsistence way of life and we need to make sure it’s protected, and our young people need to understand it.”
Alaska Wildlife Troopers approached the town’s elders and told them of the killings, he said.
Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen confirmed troopers were investigating but said the agency had promised village officials it would keep the case quiet until the investigation was complete to ensure their cooperation.
“This is a sensitive issue up there,” Ipsen said. “We promised the community that we would not talk publicly about it.”
Jack Schaefer, president of the Native Village of Point Hope, said the caribou deaths were under investigation and that nobody knew who was responsible. He said he was aware of the troopers’ arrangement.
Point Hope is a community of about 700 people 330 miles southwest of Barrow. It has a long subsistence history but the caribou deaths do not represent it, Oomittuk said.
“We were taught to respect our animals. We don’t like it when something like this happens,” he said. “There was a lot that were cut up and the meat was taken, but there were some that only some meat was taken and there were some that hadn’t even been touched.”
North Slope Borough wildlife biologist Brian Pearson declined to comment, deferring questions instead to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Jim Dau, that agency’s Kotzebue-area wildlife biologist, said the caribou likely came from the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, a group of 377,000 animals that ranges over nearly a third of the state and a major food source for villagers.
Earlier this month, the herd had come to within 20 or 30 miles of Point Hope as it followed its normal summer pattern, Dau said.
The village had a meeting planned Friday night to discuss the issue, Oomittuk said. He did not know who was responsible for the killings but he suspected it might be local teenage hunters and he planned to talk with them about hunting etiquette.
“We have a lot of young people that go out hunting unsupervised,” Oomittuk said. “If it’s out of Point Hope, we need to take care of it. Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it and it will never happen again.”
Community Discussion
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That's odd. You can bet it white kids in Fairbanks did the same, the wrath of AST would be upon them and people would practically riot in the streets. I love selective enforcement.
Hummmmmm John Hartman and racism come to mind?
Could it be?
The whole situation is odd. How about we wait and see what the outcome is before jumping to any conclusions?
Yeah.. Odd like the headless walrus’ that wash up on the beach out there.
Waste not want not. Who ever did this should be fined in such a way that the cost equates to three generations of the number of caribou killed plus the normal fines. This sounds like multiple blatant acts and should be punished accordingly regardless of who did it.
This is not a race issue, people! It is a horrible act, PERIOD!!! Whoever did this should be punished by the full extent of the law!
Forty caribou killings is a drop in the bucket. By the time the investigation is over another 40 will die from natural causes.
Odd, Jeff King shoots a moose in the park and he is vilified in the press and the cops are more than happy to talk about it. But it happens close to a native village and the AST's are more than happy to not talk about it, and the village elders even are upset that it it hit the press at all. Sure smacks of preference by race to me.
They need to throw the book at them just like they would any one else who wasted game meat. And they should report on it, just like anyone else. They need to lose boats, four wheelers, planes, guns, whatever was used while doing this, and also their hunting privilages for a very long time!
This is deffinitly racism and preferential treatment. There is no oher words to describe it.
Some years back F&G was not happy about a section of military land I was asked to trap on and remove nuisance animals. I had the right tools, license, the season was open and full permission from the Commanding Officer. Wildlife Protection officers had a beef with the military police at the time....... so the Wildlife Protection asked to walk the trap line, and even though the two agancies did not get along, they agreed. The Protection officers walked the trap line and somewhere in the woods discovered a deceased magpie - they mad a huge deal of it, charged me with using illegal bait. The Command ordered me to fully coorporate with the troopers in the spirit of patching up the mutual issuses of the past. Instread I get totally burned, I ended up in court, traps confiscated, my name in the paper. Once the DA discovered how unethical the Protection officers had been - all was dropped - but that took weeks. Never got the traps back. All over one magpie I never touched. (high tech video tracked my every move in the suspected area) Yet even with this evidence the troopers would not back down.
Now we have 40 illegally killed caribou - killed in a state that spares no expense to track down legal out of state white hunters that may have made an honest mistake and taken a 35.5" moose in a 36" aeaa amd thrown the book at them! Full investigations, airline flights, lots of trave to nail these criminals.
Now 40 caribou are slaughtered in one of the most unethical killings of the decade - and the troopers want to keep it quiet? Why? So it can happen again? So it will fade away and nobody will be taken to task over the crime? If this happened up the Steese or around Healy - the roads would be blocked off with full CSI teams on scene.
This is nor only prejudice - it is selective enforcement of a highly unethical crime that very much needs to be front page news. The offenders need a few years in jail and thousand in fines and thousands of hours community service.
For me - I get arrested, my top secret security clearance suspended pending the legal outcome, court dates and multiple meetings with the DA.
One thing that’s NOT in this Story is; when the dead Caribou were found, was the horns Cut Off? I know of case’s where Animals were killed by young native for the horns, and the horns were traded for drugs. Also a while back, they found “headless walrus’”
(Note: Lots of Ivory there to tread for Drugs)
Jack Schaefer, president of the Native Village of Point Hope, said the caribou deaths were under investigation and that nobody knew who was responsible! Do you Buy This “Nobody knew who was responsible “Out in the Native Village’s; they can tell you what color Socks the Nabors wore 5 days ago, that lived 4 house’s down from them , but nobody knew who was responsible for killing “Dozens of caribou” !!!
Also, how about Reporting “The REAL Number of Caribou Killed! Dozens of caribou? Is this like 40 Killed, or 136 Killed?
Bottom Line is “Whoever is In Charge of this Investigation should be Fired Right Now! How can you have the Police “promising village officials, they would keep the case “Quiet” until the investigation was complete to ensure their cooperation? I bet if the Police found 40 or 50 Dead Caribou by White-Peoples homes near North Pole or Fairbanks “The Police wouldn’t Promise to keep quiet!
What The Promise to keep quiet Really means is “ We will not say anything, and Hope this Goes-Away!
How do you say “Preference by race, and selective enforcement of the Law”
This is America.. Rural native or not.
I sure would like to see this on the front page for a few more days instead of being swept away in the archives and "forgotten about". I am disgusted by AST's wildlife protection department and their lack of action.
The latest update is "at least 120 caribou" were slaughtered (per Anchorage Daily News update).
A disgrace...
Allegheny, thanks for alerting us to an update. I've been curiously waiting for one & wondering if it would appear.
The report update indicates it was first reported July 16, but it did make the ADN until July 26. Ten days to get the story straight.
"blantant waste"
I am a 59 year old female from Texas and thinkthat the killing of even one caribou just to leave it lay should be proscecuteted to the full etent of the law. it is also my opinion that if even one native family goes hungry this coming year and it can even remotely be traced to these killings the culprit should be msde to support that family until any cgildren are out of college if theydesire to go.to college
Beverly Moore - Texas
Geez, are you people so dense as to actually WONDER why the chief at Point Hope wanted to keep all this quiet?
*hint- Look at all the people crying racism now, THEY are the racist ones, not the troopers, not the villagers, not the biologists and not even the caribou are racist. Still wonder why he wanted it kept quiet? Because every time a Native person is mentioned in the paper people seem to feel the need to racially bash Native people in general, I've read comments here that look like they coulda been written in 1885 by a frightened "settler" who has never seen and knows absolutely NOTHING about Native people.
Basically those natives have been living in this state much longer than any of you, been hunting those caribou longer than any of you, living off the land still to this day. that caribou herd is THEIR food, not yours. Those caribou killings are THEIR business and NONE of ANY of yours.
If any one of you people threw the entire contents of you refrigerator away that would be YOUR business and it would effect everybody else about as much as these caribou killings are affecting anybody that doesn't actually rely on those animals to survive, not at all.
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