During breaks between proceedings in the case against seven village caribou hunters accused of wasting meat, Alaska Superior Court Judge Richard Erlich joked that the real news is the court's ability to hold trials in Point Hope via cell phone. When the land line in the makeshift courtroom set up in the village's community hall failed to work, the judge dialed up one of the defendant's lawyers on a mobile speaker phone and leaned over his desk with an outstretched arm to beam the voice of the Anchorage attorney into the room.
Far from leaving judicial protocol behind, holding court in Point Hope simply required adaptation -- snow pants beneath the black robe, lunch at the school, and elevated voices to ensure elders could hear the proceedings. Before the hearings began, the judge had turned a white board used for bingo games toward the wall.
While no games were held during the first part of the week, less than four hours after the judge handed down his guilty verdict and many of the hearing's main players had caught flights home, the white board was repositioned, the scoreboard turned on, and bingo was back.
Although it was the first-ever trial held in the village, the community hall, called the Qalgi Center, is no stranger to unique gatherings. People are drawn there to exchange ideas, culture and information, measure justice and have fun. One night during the trial, a delegation of marine mammal hunters and scientists from Russia stopped by to talk about their changing world across the border. Walrus haul-outs are shifting, drawing polar bears closer to communities, and hunters have started a series of polar bear patrols and grassroots deterrence tactics -- information they wanted to share with Alaska and the people of Point Hope in the hope alliances might be forged with their neighbors to the east. They answered questions, sang songs, and shared in the community's dances and prayers.
"Nature is severe," one of the Russian hunters told the crowd, "but people are nice and warm and kind."
Even after the fierce philosophical faceoff in court between the state and the hunters, that ethic seemed to ring true. Troopers who investigated the case and testified against the men, and the prosecutor who brought them to trial, shook hands with the defendants and commended them on a job well done. In turn, the young hunters -- who had just been found guilty -- thanked the state's team for treating the elders well on the stand.
Hours after the parties separated, the pulse at the Qalgi Center still had pull. The phone started ringing. Women began hauling in boxes and arranging tables. Game cards were laid out. Money was counted, and bingo was in the house.
One elder seated in the back spoke about the caribou cases as he stamped his squares. He said he thought the judge made a good decision. The world of his youth is a world much different than the one today, and as long as lessons are learned on all sides, even if aspects of the case remain unsettling, then something has been gained from the caribou trials, he said.
The weekly bingo night is a popular activity in Point Hope. And this week, perhaps, it was a sign that despite all the angst, passion, determination and grit the case caused, life in Point Hope goes on.
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"Even after the fierce philosophical faceoff in court between the state and the hunters, that ethic seemed to ring true. Troopers who investigated the case and testified against the men, and the prosecutor who brought them to trial, shook hands with the defendants and commended them on a job well done. In turn, the young hunters -- who had just been found guilty -- thanked the state's team for treating the elders well on the stand.
...
"One elder seated in the back spoke about the caribou cases as he stamped his squares. He said he thought the judge made a good decision. The world of his youth is a world much different than the one today, and as long as lessons are learned on all sides, even if aspects of the case remain unsettling, then something has been gained from the caribou trials, he said."
The attorneys on both sides did what lawyers are supposed to do. and, the judge.
The teacher too, though one may hope he learns more about caribou stomach contents before leaving Point Hope.
Will anything change? Will the Point Hope Native hunters get hunting licenses and register their kills to help the sane management of the herds upon which they depend? Will they make themselves aware of the regulations which have been set for that purpose - which do not appear all the onerous or disrespectful of their needs?
For example: Under those state regulations the legal hunting season for bull caribou in their area is open 12 months of the year. The legal limit is 5 per day, there is no annual limit. The season is closed for killing cow caribou from May 16 through June 30, otherwise five may be killed a day. A "low income" hunting license costs only $5 and no other license or permit is required of folks living north of the Yukon River though "registration with ADF&G (Alaska Department of Fish and Game) or an authorized representative within the area" is required. (Only makes good sense to help keep track of the harvest it would seem.)
What more would anyone want???? What do they want to change? Why are they not active in the process by which these regulations are made and changed?
Will they learn to aim and shot carefully to quickly dispatch the animal? To identify the healthiest, choicest animals before shooting to avoid killing the truely sick? A little marksmanship training would eliminate some of the problems here. ( I'd be surprised if that couldn't be arranged.) Real respect for the animals does not result in the dead being so shot up as to be inedible (in fact that is VERY unlikely though meat on carcasses may have to be cleaned and trimmed substantially when multiple poorly placed bullets killed the animal). Herd shooting and allowing the wounded to go off and die is an old practice in the far north - observed in the 1940's at Chandler Lake on the north slopes of the Brooks Range by Bud Helmericks and much more recently by other visitors.
The Western Arctic caribou herd is growing. There may not be ENOUGH predation from bears and wolves to keep it from growing to a size which exceeds the carrying capacity of the range with a consequent collapse as happened with other herds even in recent times in Alaska. Yet the hunting and trapping regulations for wolves appear to assume these animals are a hazard to the health of the caribou herds.
There are hungry rural people not too far from the area who could benefit from some caribou meat from this herd.
The whole subject of management of these large herds, the predators tightly associated with them, wanton waste, etc. etc. needs to be explored if Alaska is to continue to have these resources well into the future.
Is this the beginning of dialog ... or the end, until the next time something like what happened on July 4, 2008 occurs and is investigated?
JM
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Silent film clip of men in Seward, Alaska, pouring barrels of alcohol into the street and breaking bottles of liquor during Prohibition. From the Alaska Film Archives.
