Summary
Since September 23, 2016, over 170 First Nations and Tribes across the continent have signed an Indigenous Treaty spearheaded by the Piikani Nation in Alberta titled “The Grizzly: A Treaty of Cooperation, Cultural Revitalization and Restoration”. The grizzly bear treaty is only the third cross-border First Nations/Native American treaty in some 150 years. In terms of representation, with leaders from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), it translates to over 700 Tribal Nations.
The Native leaders present at the ceremony pledged to work together to safeguard the sacred Grizzly Bear and combat the U.S. Trump administration’s move to delist the grizzly of Greater Yellowstone from the Endangered Species Act. The treaty offers innovative and sweeping reforms to management of the Yellowstone’s grizzly bears if the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) removes Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from the Great Bear (“delisting”). The grizzly bear is considered sacred by many tribes. The treaty integrates ceremonial and traditional knowledge with science to provide an alternative to current government-sanctioned bear killing policies and proposed hunting.
Details of Treaty Signing: September 23, Piikani Nation, Brocket, Alberta (Invited: Piikani Traditional people, Horn Society members, Blood Nation and Coastal Nations representatives) October 2, Jackson Hole, WY (Invited: Representatives from Blackfeet; Hopi; Crazy Dog Society; Standing Rock Sioux; Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, Shoshone Bannock Tribe; Eastern Shoshone Tribe; Northern Arapaho Tribe; Gros Ventres Tribe; Crow Nation; Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes, Northern Cheyenne Nation, Colville Tribes, Pawnee Nation, Ute Mountain Tribe, Southern Ute Nation, Navajo Nation, Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, and more).