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AUTHORS. Travis D. Bartnick*, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission; Mike Schrage, Fond du Lac Resource Management
ABSTRACT. Native American populations comprise a significant minority component of several Midwestern states and tribal managed lands a significant component of the land area in several states as well. In addition, tribal members exercise treaty rights on millions of additional acres and across state lines in some cases. Issues of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights mean that measures enacted by state governments to respond to wildlife diseases do not necessarily apply to tribal members living in the same state. Coordination with tribal natural resource staff on wildlife health issues may be challenging as tribal staff are very limited or even nonexistent as compared to federal or state agencies. Furthermore, tribal governments may elect to respond differently to a disease threat. In many Midwestern states, an effective wildlife disease monitoring program or a response to an outbreak would be hampered or ineffective without cooperation from tribal governments and their natural resource staff. However, if an effort is made to develop them, good working relationships between tribal, state and federal natural resource personnel can be an effective way to share information and develop coordinated action on wildlife health issues.
