WE ARE ON
https://www.youtube.com/HeyBearGOAL
If a picture tells a thousand words, a video is a million times more eloquent and outspoken.
Here is a selection of videos you should watch; some are GOAL's own creations and explain not only the cultural perspectives of grizzy bears to different tribes, and why trophy hunting is such an abboration to traditional people; others are the best videos we have found online explaining the importance of the grizzly and the uncertain future they face.
The Crow Nation says don't delist grizzly bears . . .
Articulated in the traditional Crow language, with some subtitles, this short movie explains why the grizzly is so important to the Crow culture and why delisting grizzlies from the Endangered Species Act is an affront to tribal sovereignty.
Bear Witness: A film by BC's Coastal First Nations
If you do nothing else on this site, please watch this video. This group in BC face the same fight that we all do. Their narrative is poignant and persuasive, and the film is a window into the real world of bears in danger.
Blackfoot Confederacy Leaders speak out AGAINST the delisting
of the sacred grizzly bear.
Removing Endangered Species Act protections from the grizzly will result in the bears being trophy hunted, and the lands they currently inhabit opened to expanded energy and livestock interests. FOIA documents have revealed that even Director Ashe has questioned the credibility of his own agency on delisting the grizzly, as the fate of the Great Bear is being dictated by politics and personal ambition, not the “best available science” as proponents claim.
Tom Poor Bear, lifelong activist for Lakota rights spoke out yesterday, explaining his tribal perspective on grizzly bears and why they must be protected. As Tom spoke his truth, the Fall 2015 IGBC/YES (Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee) meeting was taking place in Jackson Hole, WY and government officials and scientists were laying the groundwork to announce delisting. It was a fiasco! Government arguments clearly hold no validity and the most shocking information to come from the meeting validated what GOAL tribes have been saying all along.
It turns out that bear numbers are DECLINING not growing as the government wants the public to believe.
USFWS, the IGBC/YES and government scientists reluctantly had to concede that while last year’s spring emergence number was 757, this year’s was ONLY 714. Subtract from this the confirmed mortalities SO FAR this year of 54 bears, and the official grizzly bear count for 2015 is just 660.
Nolan Yellow Kidney, speaks out against delisting the grizzly bear, and gives impassioned reasons why grizzlies need protection. Nolan's dad, who was also a spiritual leader amongst the Blackfeet people once said " “The grizzly bear is really sacred to us. His power is in the Medicine Pipe that has always brought health to the tribe. Today, people kill bears without thinking what they are doing. People do it now because they are lost and ignorant.”
At the same time that US supporters stood on the banks of Yellowstone Lake (despite initial attempts by the NPS to make us get a permit and PAY to pray), the Nyoongar People of the South West of Western Australia stood with us, prayed and danced for the survival of the grizzlies in their own tradition.
Watch this beautiful tribal bear dance!
Says Laura Grizzlypaws . . . The creative metaphorical relationship of the spirit of the bear is an expression of art of walking in two worlds and balancing the physical with the spiritual.
Ruthie Shoulderblade
(Northern Cheyenne)
. . . gives a concise insight as to why bears are sacred and crucial to the spiritual life of traditional Cheyenne, and other Native American peoples.
Lakota Historian Donovin Sprague explains the importance of grizzly bears in his culture
Donovin Sprague (GOAL Spokesman) is a grandson of the legendary Lakota leader Hump, or High Backbone and he explains the significance of grizzly bears to his own family as well as the wider Lakota community - cool, short film!