Hunting on American Indian Land.....

I live about 3 miless off of the Wind River Indian Reservation, and there are plenty of coyotes on the res. No allowances for hunting though.

Two summers ago, I was working on a large fire around Nesplelum, WA. It's on a reservation near Grand Coulee. One of the drivers for the ground support unit showed some pics of his coyote hunts. Pleanty of dogs. He simply sets his caller on the hood, then stands in the back of the truck and uses the cab for a rest. Apparantly there isn't much pressure.
 
When I lived in North Central Washington state I hunted the Colville Indian Reservation. Tons of coyotes but only tribal members are allowed to hunt them. No deer, bear or pheasants either. Waterfowl and upland birds except pheasants are okay. In that area there is a lot of animosity with the locals outside of the res so I usually had the place to myself. Bird hunting was as good as it gets. Quail, Chukar and Hungarian Partridge. Lots of ducks and geese, too.

I often encountered tribal members on horseback while hunting. They'd generally just wave to me. In that area off the res there were lots of birds but on private property where obtaining permission to hunt was almost impossible. Fishing on the res was pretty good, too but it was also good of the res. On the res I fished by myself most of the time.

One day I was driving home from a productive Chukar hunt and saw a guy out in a fenced area where the tribal members sometimes kept cattle. I stopped to talk with him. Turns out he was a government ADC guy and he was setting cyanide guns to kill coyotes. I thought they'd been outlawed. I later asked a tribal policeman what the deal was. I was told that the ADC guy was trespassing and poaching coyotes to get his numbers higher.

Indian Reservations are federally protected lands. Although the state would argue the point no state hunting or fishing license is required but tribal licenses are and they're strictly enforced. When you break a law on an Indian Reservation you put yourself in the sites of the FBI.

Some insane fireworks are sold on the reservations in Washington. State troopers keep an eye on the stands and take down license plate numbers which are radioed to troopers waiting for vehicles leaving the res. Washington state has been trying to get a piece of the action from the Indian casinos but the feds have told them to butt out. The casino on the Colville res wanted to bring in slot machines but the state said they couldn't. The casino ordered them anyway but when they came across the state line they were confiscated by the state. Since the machines were on state property the confiscation stood. So the next time the casino had them flown in to the res where the state couldn't lay their mitts on them.

Most of the reservations in the parts of the northwest where I've been don't allow any hunting by non tribal members. The Colville Reservation is a pleasant exception. I could hunt out there for days and not see another soul and the hunting was good. Nice to buy a permit for $22 and not have to kiss anyone's butt to hunt.

To give you an idea of what it was like here's a little story. I was tying fishing flies and ran out of Partridge neck feathers so I jumped in my truck and drove to the res. I parked well of the road and got out. I then reached into the passenger's side of the truck to get my 20 gauge out and put together. I no sooner got the gun together and a coupe of shells in it when a Hun flushed by the truck. Then another and another and so on. In just a few minutes I had a limit of 5 and hadn't even closed the door of the truck or even taken a step away from it. Since I was miles from any road and not touching the truck when shooting I was perfectly legal. I picked up my birds and headed home. I was gone less than an hour and had the feathers I needed to complete my tying and had a good dinner to boot.

$22 and a little respect goes a long way up there.
 
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