"We've come a long way since the days when my father hunted game on the rolling North Dakota prairie or walked the breaks of the Badlands. I knew it was a new day for hunting when I listened to the conflict between the tribe and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department officials. Many years ago, there were no reservation licenses and nonmembers probably didn't consider hunting the reservations.

But today, Game and Fish wants to claim a right of jurisdiction over nontribal members who buy hunting licenses on reservations.

The state's proposal to overstep reservation boundaries seems heavy-handed to me. State officials say tribal hunting upsets the balance because the state doesn't have regulatory power over the nonmember reservation hunters. But would this balance also mean that the tribe has regulatory power over tribal members who hunt on state land?"

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Leave tribal hunting rules alone (The Grand Forks Herald 1/15)

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