--- Jan Harkness <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>The Utes
>have year round hunting rights in the mountains of SW Colorado, whereas the
>non native Americans have a short, expensive season.  Do the native
>Americans go out and hunt this land?  No, they opt for Walmart Supercenter
>and other supermarkets for their Doritos, tortillas, candy, processed foods, etc.

I'm not sure if you are advocating that Indians hunt the land, or not.

There are many, many reasons why they don't hunt, and honestly, I can't say that Indians have fallen into the Walmart trap. I've only been to Ute twice, but Indians there told me that the reason they didn't do much hunting was because they are tired of being harrassed by local law enforcement and state game wardens. This, of course, mirrors almost without exception the tribal/state relationship regarding off-reservation resource claims in all states.

This Paleofood maillist can advocate a certain diet, decrying the lack of wild game available to non-hunters, but the on-the-ground fact of the matter is that in the case of Ute, the more the Indians hunt, the shorter and more expensive the non-Indian hunting season gets. The more they take, the less you get.

Local hunters WANT Indians eating Doritos, not elk.

> I understand the native Americans in the NW have unlimited fishing
>rights, and are not allowed to sell the salmon, but they do.  I am sure
>there are many who use these rights as they were intended, but there are so
>many who don't.

The phrase "rights as they were intended" is currently hotly debated, off reservation and in court.

(As an aside: Some of the NW tribes are amazing. If you think you can eat fish, you're wrong. THEY can eat fish, man. If I tried to eat even a fraction of the fish they eat, I'd turn into a Coho. Which is the whole point, an old woman told me one time.)

>They are simply caught up in the same convience trap all of
>America is in.

I don't know if I would say "simply", because there are many other good reasons Indians don't hunt besides convenient doughnuts.


Michael

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