U.S. Tribes Are Demanding Emergency Protection For Wolves.
On September 14, dozens of American Indian tribes asked the Biden administration to immediately enact emergency protections for gray wolves.
NPR reports that the tribes claim states have become too aggressive in hunting the animal.
Groups representing the tribes sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking her to act quickly on an emergency petition they filed in May to relist the wolf as endangered or threatened.
They also asked Haaland to relist the wolf on an emergency basis for 240 days, ensuring immediate protection.
The groups say that states have enacted "anti-wolf" policies that present "a real potential of decimating wolf populations.".
The letter notes that wolves play a key role in a host of American Indian tribes' cultures and accuses the federal government of failing to listen to their concerns about removing the wolf from the endangered species list in January.
Had either the Trump or Biden Administrations consulted tribal nations, as treaty and trust responsibilities require, they would have heard that as a sacred creature, the wolf is an integral part of the land-based identity that shapes our communities, beliefs, customs and traditions.
The land, and all that it contains, is our temple, Native American Tribes' letter, via NPR.
Wolves across most of the contiguous United States were stripped of federal Endangered Species Act protections in the final days of the Trump administration.
Wolves in the Northern Rockies region — including Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and portions of Washington state, Oregon and Utah – lost protections a decade ago under former President Barack Obama.
The groups include the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Navajo Nation, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, the Native Justice Coalition, the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association and the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona