Erasmus cited for violating NWT caribou hunting ban

The grand chief of the Dene Nation is among those Dene hunters who have been cited for violating the caribou hunting ban in the North Slave region.

Bill Erasmus was with a group of hunters along with some elders and children near Gordon Lake last week, about 110 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

He says wildlife officials spotted them from an aircraft, and then their caribou was seized by a ground patrol. He says he was among those issued violation reports.

Erasmus says he doesn't acknowledge the territorial government's authority to ban hunting.

"We have the right to this food that we have always had for the last 30,000 years or so we have occupied this area," he said. "The territorial government has moved up here in 1967 and we don't believe they have the right or the authority to tell us not to hunt this animal."

Erasmus says he didn't set out to deliberately challenge the emergency measure. However, he did say he was legally counselled in advance how to conduct himself and what to say if wildlife officers attempted to seize the hunters' meat.

He expects to attend Justice of the Peace Court in Yellowknife on Feb. 16 to try to get the caribou meat back. Erasmus says he has yet to be charged.

The Northwest Territories government imposed the temporary ban on hunting for Bathurst caribou on Jan. 1 after surveys indicated the herd is in decline.

The no-hunting zone, which applies to aboriginal and non-aboriginal hunters, extends from the north shore of Great Slave Lake to the N.W.T.-Nunavut boundary.