Amarok hunters slam Sylvia Grinnell bridge plans
Members of Iqaluit’s Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association are calling on environment minister Daniel Shewchuk to stop plans to build a bridge over the Sylvia Grinnell River.
The hunters are upset by Shewchuk’s decision that the bridge will be limited to foot traffic only, barring ATVs and snowmobiles from the structure.
In a June letter to Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo, Shewchuk said the decision conforms to the master plan for Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park.
“Parks [should] support our traditional use and hunting, not build barriers which only allow tourists to use the best lands and prevent appropriate uses by hunters,” states the letter, signed by the HTA executive.
The HTA also says a pedestrians-only bridge will be useless of search and rescue.
In his letter, Shewchuk said he’s hoping the bridge will be completed within three years.
(16) Comments:
We should call this project, “A Bridge Too Far” as we have been talking about building this bridge for almost 20 years now.
It’s not like we’ve been asking for the Golden Gate bridge, just a simple functional bridge that everyone can use whether on foot, 4 wheeler, and skidoo during late spring/early fall. But, as long as we continue to wait upon various levels of dysfunctional government that keep telling us they’ll fund & build it, it’s becoming apparent that’ll never get done.
Local hunters would have been better advised to just start building it themselves using scrap wood from construction sites or donations in kind. As for the yuppies newbies who think that our traditional use for hunters is not valid, I have news for you! Take your eco-touristic tree-hugging attitude and go back south!
Enough is enough. Build it or shut up!
While I have the utmost respect for tradition and the traditional ways of doing things I fail to see how using an ATV to hunt falls under “traditional use”.
Perhaps if the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association could provide an explanation as to how hunting via a motorized vehicle is “traditional use” it would clear up my confusion.
Also, why is there a need for a bridge that can be utilized by snowmobiles? The river is frozen 7 months of the year and last I checked snowmobiles operate on ice.
Dear Confused.
Traditional use does not always mean by traditional means. Hunting is traditional use, and how we go about it is not relevant in this matter. By saying that motorized vehicles is not traditional use is incorrect. It sounds like Inuit will have to fight tooth and nail again just to practice thier Traditional and Human Right to hunt. Hunting is a traditional practice, and always will be, regardless of how we do it, it’s still a traditional practice if we hunted out of a helcopter, just because we don’t use dog teams anymore does not mean hunting is no less traditional, no difference. Build it with multiple uses, why waste it just on foot traffic. Why should the traditional hunter have to travel by more dangerous means, ie: crossing the river itself during spring and fall when it’s dangerous.
Having it just for foot use in my books would be prejudice, prejudice for the tourists and against the hunters.
You need a new bridge to provide access for you new atv/skidoo in order to hunt traditionally? I’m sure your ancestors are proud your fighting the good fight.
On the other hand, Kingons (Star Trek) used space ships and lazer blasters on “traditional” hunts, so why not?
There’s a song/lyrics by Dire Straits called ‘Telegraph Road’, where he speaks of a man who jumped off the train at a place called telegraph road. As soon as he pitched his tent, everyone else followed and pitched their tents. Now Telegraph Road is 12 lanes of traffic…6 moving slow.
It doesn’t matter what kind of bridge is put over the Grinnell. It’ll be a major road in ten years.
I agree let the tree huggers and the confused slog through the icy river if they are so inclined to impact the wilderness. The hunters are part of the the ecosystem the eco-interlopers are not. They are so concerned about the non traditional atvs but they forget about the tons of jet fuel or bunker ship fuel it takes to get the eco morons to that latitude. So much for global warming and thier carbon footprint. Just more “confused’do as I say not as I do!
“confused”: hunting is hunting, whether on foot or on motorized vehicle. The method of using an ATV or snowmachine to approach animals, harvest them and bring the meat back to home only allows us to get home in time to be able to go to work early next morning. The hunting expedition itself is a tradition in and of itself. Furthermore, one can’t sustain a traditional harvesting lifestyle whereby they maintain a dogteam and travel for days on end to bring home food because of the high cost of living and the fact that we’re no longer a nomadic people that travels and lives with the food source.
The ATV simply allows us to maintain a tradition that goes back thousands of years that being hunting to provide food for our families while earning a salary the southern way.
With respect to your last point, as it relates to the ice being frozen seven months of the year - I have but two words for you: CLIMATE CHANGE!!
“confused” - ice over river is never safe - wherever there is ice over river, it’s thin and dangerous, let alone getting a motorized vehicle to run over it!
Build the bridge and use it for all purposes. Nunavut doesn’t have the money to build anything for single minded reasons or purposes. Multitask. Why limit the budget to one use. Besides, how many people are really going to WALK across the bridge? And to Same, who thinks the bridge will become a 12 lane highway like a Dire Straights song, wake up, this is Nunavut and before that ever happened, we’ll be driving to Grise Fiord.
From Reindeer hunting in Greenland
Airplanes, helicopters, and other motorized vehicles (such as snowmobiles) are not allowed to be used for hunting or transport (on land) of animals or hunters. Boats are allowed for transport to and from hunting areas.
We are wimps here. At least there are some REAL Inuit hunters left in Greenland
This bridge came out of a long public process, the outcome of which was that it should be a foot bridge. The entire foot bridge was designed for free, only at this point did the issue of ATVs come out as a priority.
The previous government essentially threw out the foot bridge designs and was unwilling to finance the ATV bridge they demanded. They ignored the public process concluding that a foot bridge was preferable.
Now the hunters are again making an issue of the foot bridge. that is their right, however it is time to figure out why this was such an ineffective process. It obviously did not do enough to build early consensus about the purpose of the bridge.
I see this critisicm of what is traditional coming up all the time and it does not make a lot of sense. Cultures the world over will embrace new technologies to make food production/procurement that much more efficient. To say that atv’s and snomobiles are not “traditional” does not make alot of sense. Yes, there were different methods of hunting before contact with Europeans but just as European cultures evolved from the neolithic period through to the present always adopting more effeiciet means for providing for ones self and family. I don’t think that you would get any arguement from many in England that fox hunting from horseback is a tradition, of from any in Germany that deer-stalking with a rifle in hand is the same. With the Inuit it is no different, rifles were adopted long ago and they have long used dogs as a means of transportation (again a more efficient means of travel).
Laura Bowman hit the nail on the head here: The issue is not excluding the requests of the HTA on purpose. The issue is the ineffective public process that the GN is so infamous for. This shouldn’t even be and issue. Build the damn thing with ATV access. Simple. People can still walk accross it should they choose to do so.
Further more, with the ‘traditional’ hunting nonsense. Let’s just call a spade a spade. Hunting is hunting and we can all choose to hunt. It’s everyone’s right. Northerner’s tend to forget that Canada has a strong tradition of hunting, and hunting etiquette, no matter what province you visit. Which is why it is strange that the GN did not automatically take the HTA’s request into consideration.
It is not a case of just a footbridge versus a ATV bridge, it is that a footbridge will cost very little to maintain.(except for vandilism) An ATV/Snowmobile will require extra funds to replace the floor, because of the damage done by the studs.
This bridge will give us access to the berries on the other side of the river. For thousands of years we have hunted our way on the land a little bridge will not change that, but now that I said all that, I just want to remind the leaders that “if” we ever had an emergency (downed plane etc) on the other side, how would we access the site.
A footbridge will be a wonderful addition in finding picnic locations for a family &/or friend(s), or for photographers or for other quite activities like pisuraq…traditional word to mean ‘caribou hunting by foot’...a chance to get back to one’s grass roots!. It is our little back yard that I can’t wait to explore…it probably has a lot to show and teach me & you.
If there is ever a plane crash on the other side or there is a search & rescue…there are choppers in town for that! Oh let’s not forget that todays snowmobiles are so powerful they can move on top of the freakin open water! let alone a frozen river!
There is always going to be another day and a chance for an actual bridge later on. Let’s just be thankful it is going ahead.
E62G: try running your snowmachine in the middle of winter, in the dark over that river.