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NATIVt AMERICAN FISH & WILDLIFE SOCIETY 



750 Burbank Street • Broomficid, Colorado 80020 

 Phone: (303) 466-1725 • FAX: (303) 466-5414 



^Comments on Indian Fish and Wildlife Management and 

 Enhancement to the U. S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee 

 on Native American Affairs by: 



Ken Poynter, Executive Director, Native American Fish & Wildlife 

 Society 



Good Morning, My name is Ken Poynter. I am an enrolled 

 member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine and Acting Executive 

 Director of the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society (Society). 

 The Society is a national tribal organization established to support 

 the development of Indian tribal government fish and wildlife 

 management capabilities within a professional framework, and to 

 promote information about Indian rights regarding their use of 

 natural resources. The Society has evolved over the past 11 years 

 into an organization of 1,000 professional biologists, managers and 

 technicians, representing all aspects of tribal fish and wildlife 

 management and conservation enforcement. The Society has 

 obtained formal memberships from 70 Tribal Governments and eight 

 tribal organizational memberships including the 1854 Authority, 

 Great Lakes hidian Fish & Wildlife Commission, Northwest Indian 

 Fisheries Commission, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, 

 the Six Nations Council of Canada, the United South and Eastern 

 Tribes, the Ojibway 1850 Treaty Council, and the Chippewa-Ottawa 

 Treaty Fishery Management Authority, as well as the National 

 Center for American Indian Enterprise Development and various 

 State and University Fish and Wildlife Departments. Our 

 Directorate is comprised of 14 Native American people, who 

 represent all geographic regions of the Unites States. 



The Society is appreciative of the recognition by Congress of 

 our efforts in promoting the professional development of tribal fish 

 and wildlife management by taking up the concept of the Native 

 American Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Act. The Society initiated 

 this effort over two years ago as a means to highlight the glaring 

 discrepancies in the support of the U.S. government for tribal fish 

 and wildlife resource management. We sincerely hope that the 

 result of this effort wiU be legislation which provides the tools 

 needed by tribes for self-directed fish and wildlife management for 

 the benefit of Indian people and their resources. 



