'War' escalates with Indians, ranchers

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One Indian has been fired on and tension is mounting in a conflict between ranchers and traditional Indian hunters near a small Indian reserve in southern Alberta.

The Natives claim some ranchers are waging war against them because of a July 17 provincial court ruling which allowed Eden Valley band member George Alexson unrestricted access to Crown land.

Provincial Court Judge John Robbins ruled Indian hunting rights are guaranteed in the Treaty of 1877.

Alexson was found not guilty of hunting without a license on Crown land and illegal possession of wildlife. That decision has been appealed by the province.

He was also acquitted of using a rifle to hunt during crossbow season.

Oliver Lefthand, also a resident of Eden Valley, which is 75 km southwest of Calgary, isn't so sure local ranchers accept that decision.

He said he was on Crown land across the highway from his reserve three weeks ago when he was fired on by an angry rancher.

"There was a guy up the hill in a grey truck, who said come over here, you damn Indian. I sure didn't go. He fired his rifle at me so I got in my truck and took off," he said.

"It's getting so bad you can't go anywhere around there anymore," said Lefthand.

Turner Valley RCMP Sgt. Ron Wessner said his detachment received the complaint but there was little they could do.

He said the officers were unable to investigate the shooting because Lefthand couldn't accurately identify the man, who fired the gun or the truck he was driving.

"And there was no evidence the gun was fired in his direction. The woods were thick with hunters," he said.

Wessner said he is unaware of any violence between Indians and local ranchers.

Local rancher Louis De Paoli, 64, admits he's got hostile feelings toward anyone coming on his leased land near Longview to hunt without his permission.

But he insists his anger isn't focused on the Indians.

He said any unlicensed, unsupervised hunter is unwelcome on his land.

"There's no telling how much force I'll use to get them off," he said.

"It depends on how big they are," he quipped during a telephone interview Tuesday.

Lori Nelson, another local cattleman, denies there's any friction between ranchers and the Eden Valley Indians.

He said Native hunters haven't been denied their rights to be on Crown land.

"We've never had any problems. We know they're there," he said.

Alexson, who was charged last October by provincial fish and wildlife officials for hunting elk on Crown land, said the problem is bigger than the RCMP are lead to believe.

He said traditional hunters, who are designated to hunt wild game for the band, are consistently being denied access to the land and are threatened in the process.

Alexson, director of the drug and alcohol treatment center on the reserve, said the 353-member band has hunted in the area more than 40 years and is now seeing the elk supply dwindle as the herds are driven deeper into the Kananaskis wilderness

by grazing cattle.

He fears local ranchers are banding together to keep the Eden Valley Indians from using the land.

"It's getting out of hand. The minute they see you're Native (and you're on Crown land) they run up to you and chase you off like they own it," he said.

The province leases more than 5.3 million acres of land. More than 4.5 per cent of it is Crown land used by Alberta ranchers to graze their cattle. There are about 5,000 leasees in Alberta.

In his court ruling Robbins states: "Mr. Alexson, a Treaty Indian hunting for food, had an unrestricted right of access to the property upon which he shot the elk. He was not restricted in his use of weapons."

The Eden Valley reserve was part of the Stoney Indian band and was established in 1948. "The Blackfeet have hunted here before the white man even came," Alexson.

"How can they tell me where to go?"

Neils Damgaard, president of the Fish and Game Association (FGA), said his organization is backing Alexson in his court battle to maintain his Treaty righs. He believes the unsettled land has better uses than to feed cattle.

"We as an association feel there should be no boundaries for Native people to hunt," he said.

The FGA has hired Calgary lawyer Alan Hunter, of the Code Hunter law firm, to fight the appeal.

The appeal is set for Dec. 8 in Calgary.