OMASHKOOZ: HISTORY AND HARVEST
From left to right: GLIFWC wildlife technicians John Wilmer Jr. and Adam Oja on the left, GLIFWC wildlife biologist Travis Bartnick on the right with an elk that was trapped and fitted with a new tracking collar. GLIFWC and other partners were invited by the Wisconsin DNR to assist with elk trapping efforts in the northern elk range in January 2023.
By Mashkodebizhikigahbaw, Benji Sam
Prior to the western expansion into the heart of North America, a once plentiful resource walked within the borders of the woodlands, plains, mountains, and even the great Northwoods of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Over the last 200 years, with growing densities of fur trade routes, voyagers, and logging camps, this once great resource began to change historical range across North America. While offering a valuable protein source for all who lived across the Northwoods, these four leggeds brought an additional level of biodiversity into the local ecosystems of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Old-time writers from the 1800s spoke about the ease of harvesting omashkooz (elk) who had never seen human pressure and weapons with long-range capabilities compared to the local Native tribes. Over time, and with increasing settlers throughout the region, over-harvest, and development of more proficient weapons, the elk herds began to diminish, and those that survived moved into new territories where they were not so easily tracked or exposed. By 1886, elk were completely eradicated from the landscape, leaving tribes across the Midwest wondering where the once plentiful omashkooz had gone.
Multiple attempts have been made over the course of this nation’s history to revive omashkooz in the Midwest, and in the 1930’s Wisconsin tried to replenish elk across central Wisconsin but failed due to poaching of the elk over the next 18 years. However, recent efforts from 1995 to date in Northern Wisconsin, the northeastern-most portion of the ceded territory of 1837 and within the boundary of the Treaty of 1842, in the Chequamegon National Forest, elk have been reintroduced successfully. After years of research, protection, habitat management, and tracking of annual movement patterns, the Wisconsin elk herd is strong and has shown positive signs of growth over the last decade alone.
Travis Bartnick, a biologist at GLIFWC and a Wisconsin Elk Advisory Committee member, is an expert on the reintroduction, health, and management of the elk herd. “Prior to 1995, there were a few failed attempts to reintroduce elk into the landscape here in Wisconsin,” said Bartnick. “It wasn’t until the first 25 elk were introduced from Michigan’s herd into the Clam Lake area that the herd began to develop long-term success.” Bartnick added that management concern for healthy biodiversity led to the introduction of another 31 elk from Kentucky in 2017, and another 60 in 2019 were translocated to add to the growing herd while expanding into a second county in central Wisconsin.
The Clam Lake herd alone has grown to an estimated 330 elk, and the state DNR, tribal affiliations of the Voigt Intertribal Task Force, GLIFWC, and multiple biology teams determined that a safe allocation of harvest tags could be sustained by the herd while maintaining growing numbers. In 2018, Wisconsin offered its first-ever elk hunt in which 10 total tags were allocated equally between state and tribal hunters. As a Wisconsin resident, the harvest tag applications cost $10 dollars each year and are raffled off for a once-in-a-lifetime tag. The revenue from the lottery raffle goes into habitat management, land allocation, research into herd health, and management strategies for maintaining a growing, healthy herd of the future.
The remaining tags each year are divided amongst the 10 total affiliated tribes, where tribes selected partake in an opening ceremony at the Clam Lake elk harvest camp before each year's hunt. Here, hunting groups gather to partake in ceremony and feast for the elk, for their safety, and for their appreciation to each other and all involved in the harvest of omashkooz. This is also when Travis Bartnick, and the rest of the biology team at GLIFWC overseeing the elk hunt, orients hunters to their responsibility of what follows tribal harvest of a bull elk. Harvesters are required to contact their respective conservation officers from GLIFWC as well as the GLIFWC biology team upon confirmation of harvested elk to gather tissue, blood, and post-mortem measurements that give researchers valuable information about the health of the herd.
“The elk hunt provides biologists a rare opportunity to collect biological samples from healthy elk,” said Bartnick. “The samples of blood, lung, and liver tissue, as well as lymph nodes, brain stem, and neck girth measurements all contribute to testing for disease, nutrition, growth rates, and collaring estimates for future elk in the herd so they can be researched in the future.” This has proved to be a vital resource to biologists across Wisconsin in understanding the movement, growth rate, and quality of life of the elk, as well as the land management strategy that could benefit them for generations in the future.
This year, the Mille Lacs Band was awarded a bull omashkooz tag and the MLB DNR performed a raffle for an elk hunting party to participate in the Chequamegon National Forest. Carla Big Bear, Keith Wiggins, Todd Sam, and Brandi Sam were selected as the hunting party to join the ceremonial elk hunt in north central Wisconsin. In late September, the entire group traveled over to Clam Lake to join multiple other tribes for an opening ceremony, tag allocation, and orientation to the harvest process. “We didn’t really know what to expect traveling to Wisconsin for this hunt,” said Big Bear, “We had to learn a lot of new rules and regulations, and study multiple mapping resources before we got familiar with the new territory.”
Both Big Bear and Wiggins noted that the group traveled to Wisconsin nearly every weekend this fall to partake in the ceremonial elk hunt and had to cover hundreds, if not thousands, of miles in their vehicle, on UTV, and on foot to develop a sense of where these incredible creatures made safekeep. “I didn’t realize the collaboration and effort it would take to find and harvest one of these elk,” said Wiggins. “We traveled around and around, talked to landowners, residents, tourists, bird and bear hunters, and everyone in between to get a feel for where and why these elk were where they wanted to be.”
For those unfamiliar with Clam Lake, Wisconsin, it is a cornerstone in the Chequamegon National Forest, where the only major roadways that pass through congregate with a single gas station, a few campgrounds and motels, and a bar. But despite its size, Clam Lake draws a tremendous crowd of hunters, recreational ATV/UTV motorists, campers, sightseers, and tourists who are drawn to the mighty elk hub. “It took us months to see our first elk, but once we found that first group it was like it was finally meant to be,” said both Big Bear and Wiggins. On the final day of the season, around 12:30 in the afternoon, the group was able to track and find not just one, but multiple legal bulls that the group could safely and ethically harvest.
The group found a small herd of elk with multiple legal bulls with them, standing downwind, so they had to back out and create a plan to proceed. “We had to wait a few hours before making a move in on the elk because they knew we were there,” said Wiggins. “We backed out and gathered ourselves before heading in for the final push.” That’s when the group came across a GLIFWC officer who took it upon himself to work in collaboration with the Mille Lacs hunting team, as well as a hunting group from St. Croix who elected to help in this final day of hunting.
After nearly two hours of cat and mouse between this group of elk, a legal bull presented himself with a safe, ethical shot, and a harvest was made. As many hunters know, pulling the trigger is the easy part, because now they had to work towards completing their field tests and recover the animal in a safe amount of time. If you are unfamiliar with elk, the average size of a mature bull elk is between 700–1100 pounds, so getting this out of the woods is no small task.
“Jim Stone, a GLIFWC conservation Sargent, was incredibly helpful in aiding in the harvest of the elk,” said Wiggins. “He helped direct traffic, performed a drive near the woods, and even helped drag the bull we harvested out of the woods a few hundred yards.” After the shot, the GLIFWC biologist team was also contacted so they could collect multiple samples before the animal was removed from the field. Bartnick added that this is the most crucial part of the process to aid in research of these animals for generations to come.
The omashkooz harvested this year, and every year prior, are brought to a local butcher to be distributed between the 10 affiliated tribes across Minnesota and Wisconsin involved in the Treaty of 1837 to be used for ceremonial use, large events, and to feed Elders and hunters across each community. In their time reflecting on the hunt that came to pass, both Big Bear and Wiggins added that their experience was incredibly fatiguing, rewarding, challenging, and humbling. “If we had gotten the elk in the first week, we never would’ve been able to meet the people we met, we never would have been able to see and learn about the landscape of northern Wisconsin like we did. This was the most rewarding hunt I have ever been on, and if given the chance, I would go back in a heartbeat,” said Wiggins.
The next 10 years of elk management in Wisconsin is currently being finalized between all management parties, with the goal of management for herd health, population growth, minimized human-elk conflict, and to create an environment for social, ecological, economic, and cultural benefits to the tribes involved. “Ultimately, the goal is to maintain a healthy herd and to continue providing this great resource to the people of this region,” Bartnick said.
If you would like to learn more about the growing elk herd in Wisconsin, please visit the Wisconsin DNR page or the Clam Lake Elk Info page. For future information regarding Mille Lacs involvement in the elk hunt, please follow the MLB DNR pages.
The Mille Lacs Band Commissioner of Natural Resources Kelly Applegate said, “The reintroduction of elk into the 1837 ceded territory has been a wonderful project for the GLIFWC member tribes and we look forward to the population expanding. When planning the hunt, it was important for the tribes to do this in a cultural way. Putting out our asemaa, having ceremony, and giving thanks to the Manidoo were first and foremost in planning for the harvest. I recall the first omashkooz hunt several years ago, and how those Elders described an omashkooz standing still, demonstrating its willingness to give up its life so that we as Anishinaabe may eat. This was a powerful message and one that shows how these gifts from the Creator sustain the people, and our responsibility to acknowledge and be thankful for them.”
