To Members of the Minnesota Senate Environment and Energy Committee: I am Reyna Crow, one of the co-founders of the Northwoods

Wolf Alliance. We are a grassroots coalition of Anishinaabeg people and their allies working to protect ma'iingan (wolf), particularly in Anishinaabe Akiing (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan). We currently have about 350 members, mostly from northern Minnesota, from both the range and the reservation. Our Anishinaabeg supporters include members from the tribal nations of Grand Portage, White Earth, Sandy Lake, Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Red Lake, Leech Lake, and Mille Lacs. Traditional Anishinaabeg in our organization share concerns that there is no biological rationale for a hunt, that killing for `fun is not consistent with a `subsistence hunting ethic, and other arguments advanced by many in the state, but additionally oppose the hunt on cultural grounds. In the `Declaration Designating The White Earth Reservation As A Maiingan (Wolf) Sanctuary, the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council states: `The Maiingan (wolves) has a special relationship with the Anishinabeg. They are recognized as educators of the Anishinabeg who teach hunting and working together as a family unit. The Anishinabeg creation story explains that Maiingan is a brother to Original man. The two traveled together throughout the earth naming everything. When they had finished naming everything, the Creator separated them and sent original man and maiingan on separate paths, but indicated that as brothers, what happened to one of them would also happen to the other. ... The recovery of the Maiingan population is viewed by the Anishinabeg as a positive sign. Harm to the Maiingan population endangers the very being of the Anishinabeg and threatens the health and welfare of the tribe. Policy already allows livestock and pet owners to shoot wolves they feel are in some way `threatening their property, and they are compensated for any animals they can verify were killed by wolves. Hundreds of wolves are already killed annually in retaliation for being too close to the livestock in northern Minnesota. Many feel that wolves, already limited to only 5% of their traditional territories, and hence hardly `recovered, belong here. When white ranchers bring cows, sheep and turkeys here, displacing maiingan even further, it is hard to see the occasional taking of a domestic animal by a wolf as an outrage. Indeed- this hunt is not about biology or economics- wolves drive substantial tourism spending, some say to the tune of $500 million annually, in northern Minnesota and are clearly more valuable to most Minnesotans alive than dead. This hunt is about culture, specifically, as Mark Johnson of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association put it at a panel discussion in Duluth last fall, `Its about OUR culture. An internal DNR email from Chief of the `Wildlife Management Section Dennis Simon to other DNR staff names `hunters and trappers and the livestock industry, respectively, as the DNRs primary and secondary constituents, who were `owed a hunt. Tom Landwehr, DNR Commissioner has stated that `Its not the MN DNRs job to consider cultural arguments while managing the wolf hunt. He appears to take the cultural values of a small segment of Minnesotans who think wolves are `vermin and should be killed in often very slow and painful manners (trapping and snaring) for fun very seriously, while failing to engage in meaningful government to government negotiation with the tribes. Anishinaabeg or not, the public should be the DNRs constituency and we ask for your support in advancing S.F. #0666. Thank you for your consideration. Reyna Crow, co-founder Northwoods Wolf Alliance 209 N 11 Ave W Duluth MN 55806 218.269.2661