From: floyd@hayes.ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: fyi from Paula's Alaska friend
Organization: University of Alaska Computer Network
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 10:02:45 GMT



Paula Wagoner <ucs.indiana.edu!PLWAGONE> writes:
>
>thanks for sending me the bit on the walrus case...for floyd to be in
>alaska, it's amazing that he has heard (or created) such a a different
>story than i have heard.

I'm not sure we are even talking about the same thing at this point.

    Patrick Omiak:	6 months in jail, $100 court costs
    Dennis Soolock:	6 months in jail, $100 court costs
    Edgar Iyapana:	2 months in a halfway house
    Patrick Soolock:	2 months in jail.

From the October 28th Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, with an Anchorage
dateline:

"..five hunters from the Bering Sea island of Little Diomede who
were convicted of wasteful taking of walrus."
...
"In 1991, the hunters were filmed killing 10 walrus, salvaging a
few parts, and dumping the carcasses."

I am not sure if the 5th person has been sentenced yet, but I found
nothing in the newspapers I had stacked by the stove that indicated
so.  I could have missed it...

>  it just so happens that my current advisor
>and her husband (inupiat scholars) were hired to research and be expert
>witnesses as it turns out, they were not allowed to testify...this is the
>story they have... the elders of this particular area requested that the
>feds come in to investigate drug infiltration.  the feds found no drugs on
>natives or whites (i don't remember which they were looking for), but they
>got a line on what they thought was hunting (poaching) in violation of the
>Marine Mammals Act.

My understanding is that the request was made to specifically
investigate the allegations of illegal hunting.  The allegations
were made as part of drug investigations.  But since charges of
"head hunting" are an old and very sensitive political issue, such
claims from the Feds caused more concern than otherwise might be
expected or understood by someone from outside.  The political
ramifications of the head hunting charges affect subsistance
and soveriegnty questions which are extremely important and
extremely sensitive subjects right now.

There were in fact a number of illegal ivory trading and drug
arrests made too.  I don't have any numbers as I was not at all
interested at the time.

>  what was happening was that in late walrus hunting
>season, the walrus were shot, parts (including the ivory) were removed
>and much of the meat was left.  as it turns out, many sources could be
>found that support such behavior as traditional...this evidence was not
>permitted in court, because apparently the court system has gotten
>screwed out of prosecuting natives in the past by allowing historical
>information into the testimony... well. as it so happens, the MMAct
>states that no animal can be "wastefully" hunted... it just so happens
>that in late season when only old bulls are left around (others have
>migrated) they are hunted for skin, fat, ivory, etc.

Another defense was that the meat is contaminated with chemicals
(mercury??) bad enough to be unfit for human consumption.  Certain
walrus body parts in fact are highly contaminated.

> Bering Strait
>(he didn't even spell that correctly!!)

My apologies for the fact that I can't spell.  Is my spelling any
more important than your lack grammar or text formatting ability?
Or the fact that you can't spell either??  (Run yours through a spell
checker before you comment on my spelling again.)

I do NOT agree with your opinion on why the history was excluded.  And
as my original post said, I don't think the sentences were excessive
just because the defendants are Native.

> natives have never (i mean
>ever) eaten the meat of old bulls...it's inedible- too tough to
>chew.

Let me try explaining something about culture differences.  I
used to dry salmon for a dog team.  Maybe 3000-4000 fish a year.
Can you imagine the work in cutting 200-300 fish a day?  I cut the
dog food in a very sloppy, but rapid, manner.  My wife would do
10-20 fish for human food in the same amount of time.  Cutting eating
fish so that it won't spoil takes time.  The dog food can spoil a 
little and it makes no difference to a dog.

Well, I noticed one elder who didn't have as many dogs, and cut
fewer fish, but still a lot of them, and he cut every single
rotten old spawned out fish very carefully as if it were for him
to eat.  He spend a LOT of time at it.  I asked him why.  He told
me he wasn't sure who was going to be the lead dog this winter,
maybe him.

Don't ever say "natives have never ... eaten" anything.  They have.

Old bulls probably are too tough to eat.  I never tried one.
Walrus is a very course meat about like a roast off the front
leg of a beef.  It is much better tasting than beef though...

But not many people I've ever talked to approve hunting old
bulls that can't be eaten.  It is a waste of time and effort,
not to mention an animal and a spirit.

>  what the court and feds saw was "waste"...what the natives saw
>was proper...so the question arises...how are the native versus legal
>concepts of "waste" in conflict.

Even as you have described it, most, but of course not all, Native
people that I know, would call it waste.  That has been my experience.
Other experience might be very different.

> frequently too, when dead animals
>are found afloat their heads will be removed for the ivory. it is
>my inpression that this fact was never allowed either. i don't even
>know if all the heads in question were from live animals...this case

I heard nothing about anything other than killing animals and not
making use of the meat.  The removal of ivory, or the whole head,
from dead animals is a common practice and as far as I know has
never been challenged by anyone as other than a legal act.  The
dead bodies of legally hunted walrus commonly sink before they
can be retrieved, and of course many die natural deaths, so after
every storm it is common practice to comb beaches for dead walrus.

I mentioned having first been to the area of Little Diomede Island
in the 60's.  One of the first airplane rides I took there was from
Wales to Shishmarif, at 100 feet above the beach on commercial
flight!  The pilots (it was a Twin Otter) were looking for dead
walrus.  The only thing that has changed since is that only a
Native can take the raw ivory now.

>got really screwed up. one guy got ten years!!!(it's under appeal)

Perhaps you would supply documentation on that ten year business?

There were a large number of drug and illegal ivory charges brought
at the same time.  Perhaps one of the drug cases got ten years?
(That would be just as stupid in my humble opinion, but...)

If that ten years is true, and I don't think it is, then I will
be right along side of anyone who wants to protest too harsh a
sentence...  but as far as I know the 6 month term was the longest.

>now.  i don't know all the facts, but this is what i was told.
>kinda puts a different slant on the thing, doesn't it!?

Not really.  After you say all that, and I say all this... let
me comment on fish and game laws and courts in general.  I have
never been seated on a jury, though I've been "interviewed" a
few times, including a couple fish and game violation cases. When
I lived in a village (Aniak), the lawyers for both sides came
from Bethel, and we all knew them well.  I used to tease the
prosecutors about bumping me from juries.

You see if *I* had been on the jury, they all would have walked.
And every lawyer in the country knew it.

But I'm not about to start whining about racial bias when it isn't
there.  And I'm not about to start hollaring about culture clash
when it isn't happening.  

There are enough *real* problems.  You may not believe me about
this, but I guarantee that you have no idea what culture clash is
until you have lived in an Eskimo village for more than just a
couple years, which is just long enough to begin to understand.
These are real problems that need work done, and it doesn't help
to have people raising a ruckus for all the wrong reasons at all
the wrong times.

Floyd
-- 
floyd@ims.alaska.edu    A computer guest of the Institute of Marine Science
Salcha, Alaska          at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks
Newsgroups: alt.native