Northern Indian chiefs urge panel to treat diseased bison

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A government plan to kill diseased bison in northern Alberta is being slapped down by local Indian chiefs who are demanding the animals be medically treated instead.

They charge that Agriculture Canada is bending to pressure be ranchers who fear their cattle will be infected by tuberculosis if the 4,400 free-roaming bison in Wood Buffalo National Park aren't destroyed.

Even though public hearings into the government proposal to slaughter the buffalo drew to a close in Edmonton Jan. 26, Little Red River Band Chief Johnsen Sewepagaham believes the battle to save the bison is just heating up.

As far as we're concerned it's a man-made problem. So man should correct the problem. Right now we're saying they should be left alone. But if we had a choice, it is that they should be treated," he said.

Sewepagaham, who represents 25 Native communities in northern Alberta and the NWT, told the five-member review committee and their panel of technicians that bands near the world historic park want to conduct their own tests. But they want to do it their way.

He asked for a six-month extension to the public hearings and $784,000 in intervenor funding so the Native coalition can hire its own scientists to conduct studies into possible solutions.

"As Native people, we've always said, 'let nature take its course.' It's very clear to us they (federal government) are not allowing that (to happen)," he said.

The Federal Environment Review Office (FERO) was set up in response to an 18-month-long- study that determined a large number of bison in the park contracted tuberculosis and brucellosis.

It has been gathering public input into how the diseased animals can be contained or if they should be destroyed.

Sewepagaham said northern Alberta cattleman in the Fort Vermillion area are now pressuring the federal government to keep the diseased bison from infecting their livestock.

"It's very clear. That's our position," he said.

There are more than 25,000 healthy bison roaming the Mackenzie Delta area in the northernmost region of the 45,000 square kilometer park.

Agriculture Canada has recommended that the diseased bison be killed so purebred bison don't become infected.

Boyer River Band Chief Harvey Bulldog isn't convinced the federal government is concerned with the preservation of the bison or the well-being of wildlife and humans.

He believes the federal government is trying to correct a problem it started when it introduces the infected animals to the area in the 1920s.

Bulldog said Ottawa is only now acting because cattleman are losing too many of their animals.

Gordon Mitchell, assistant manager of operations for the Alberta Cattle Commission, said his organization supports the slaughter of the diseased bison but he insisted the government is not being pressured to kill the herds.

"The whole process has not been brought up by cattleman so much as Agriculture Canada over the last number of years," he said.

Mitchell said more than 800,000 diseased head of cattle have been killed since the bison were introduced to the area.

>From 1925 to 1928, more than 6,000 diseased plains bison were taken from Wainwright in east-central Alberta and placed in the newly-created park. They have since formed a crossbred animal, which officials believe could destroy the remaining herds.

Agriculture Canada veterinarian Reg Coupland said its his department's legal and medical responsibility to "eradicate" the infected buffalo to protect wildlife and humans in the area.

The review committee is expected to make its decision in May.

FERO spokesman Colin LacHance said the panel is taking Sewepagaham's request for more time and money to study the problem "very seriously".