TEACHING OUR YOUTH TO DEER HUNT AND TREATY RIGHTS
Featured above are a few of the small groups that took to the woods this fall in search of a deer and learned alongside one another about how to read tracks, fresh sign, and how to harvest, field dress, and prepare a deer from field to fork. George Morrow III, Jenda Wade, Quilin Garbow, Mia Bruguier, RaySean Bugg, Blaze Harkness, John Benjamin, Bryce Cash, and Virgil Benjamin.
By Mashkodebizhikigahbaw, Benji Sam
Education strategies around food sovereignty is a topic spreading across Indian country like wildfire. From wild rice to stinging nettles, the conversation around food as medicine has been changing for some time. Mainstream media, food corporations, and the big farm industry have changed the landscape around the quality of food we put into our bodies. While more and more chemicals are pumped into everyday food items you will f ind at every gas station and grocery store, the Mille Lacs Band Department of Natural Resources and surrounding school pro grams at Nay Ah Shing, Onamia, and Isle seek to create food independence by helping guide the next wave of Indigenous hunters.
For the 5th consecutive year, the MLBO DNR presented the Teaching Our Youth to Deer Hunt event to groups of students looking to expand their knowledge around deer hunting. Todd Moilanen, cultural resources director for the Mille Lacs Band, noted that this classroom series of teaching gives students direction on all topics around chasing Minnesota white-tailed deer, including treaty rights and regulations, hunting etiquette, safety training, harvesting tactics, chronic wasting disease and implications, and processing and packaging harvests. As a follow-up to the classroom portion, a few students have the chance to join mentors in the field for hands-on learning about how to look for tracks, scat, rubs, scrapes, and read terrain for deer sign. This year, 15 children around age 12 signed up to be a part of the hunter mentorship program, says George Morrow III, who works with the Nay Ah Shing school as a four seasons worker.
“This year the total number of kids grew considerably, and we had to split into groups with three different mentors for the field learning,” said Morrow. “Many of these children do not have a lot of opportunity to participate in hunting, fishing, ricing, or syruping at home so we want to be able to give every one a chance to get involved if they want to learn.”
Growing up in LCO and having strong Mille Lacs family ties, raised in an environment where hunting and treaty rights prac ticing was essential to their way of life, Morrow is part of a group of people raising efforts to get youth involved and to increase opportunity for Mille Lacs Band member children to practice their treaty rights. “We want every kid who is willing to learn to be able to get time in the field, education on gun safety and the importance of handling weapons with care, and how to utilize those tools to provide for their elders and com munity,” said Morrow.
As part of the field training, youth paired with mentors are given the chance to be able to learn to read fresh and old deer sign, identify tracks, and learn how to navigate the woods quietly. Morrow, and his group of four children, were able to have a successful hunt this November as a group and were able to harvest a doe. “We were still hunting, walking through the woods together, reading some fresh sign when we spotted a pair of deer,” Morrow said, “we were able to harvest with the children present and I think it was the first time many of them were able to see that in person.” He continued that al most instantly you could read the shear amount of pride on the children’s faces and together they were able to share that moment forever. “Since that hunt, we have had kids asking to go out again every nice weather day we can get,” he said and added that the children continued hunting on fair weather days well into December.
Building pride and sustainability has been the goal of many youth programs at Mille Lacs for many years and has taken a village to build recurrent programs that last. Todd Moilanen, MLBO DNR, noted that they have aimed to expand the hunting and cultural programs to share with the Aanjibimaadizing pro gram (Ge-Niigaanizijig), Nah Ay Shing, Onamia, Isle schools, and Niigaan programs for all districts. “Commissioner Apple gate and Executive Director Klapel are a huge proponent of cultural programming and get our resources team equipment and resources needed to provide safe, hands-on learning for all tribal youth,” said Moilanen.
The second part of the youth hunt programming is a deer processing demonstration in which a group of kids were able to help assist field dressing, taking the hide off, quartering, and processing and packaging an entire white-tailed deer. “The kids were taught about different cuts of meat and uses for the entire animal including the hide, bones, tendons, and more,” said Moilanen. The cultural grounds housed the perfect setting for getting youth out despite the cold weather and many were able to participate in the follow-up event.
This brings it around full circle for our youth hunters in the year 2024 and ultimately, they went from learning about the biology of deer, their habits, habitat, harvest, preparation, and their preservation. “Building this knowledge in the next gen eration might mean that someday some of these kids might want to pass on what they learned to children down the road in their own lives and might become a mentor for someone else,” said Morrow. “This is only the beginning, hopefully, we can get every tribal youth involved with some form of treaty rights harvest in the future.”
For more information on upcoming events, happenings, or how to get involved with becoming a tribal harvest men tor in the surrounding areas programs follow the Mille Lacs Band DNR social media pages, contact Todd Moilanen at the MLBO DNR, George Morrow III through Nay Ah Shing schools, or reach out to get in contact with any of the other program directors at Isle, Onamia, or Niigaan programs to become a mentor or if you have a child who is wanting to become a men tee for next year’s hunt. With this kind of momentum building, this program will have the chance to live on for another five years and beyond.
