What in the heck is an HTA?

hunter trapper assoc

D99.......as Gatehouse said, it is a Hunters and Trappers Association. I Nunavut there is an HTA for most Inuit communities and members are primarily (if not 100%) Nunavut land claims beneficiaries. I am sure white north can comment on this.

Essentially the HTA's are given an allocation of the various big game animals......caribou, musk ox, polar bear, barren ground grizzly. Members of the HTA can harvest these animals. This is where the polar bear licences come from for non-residents, when the HTA members elect to offer part of the polar bear allocation to be set aside for outfitted hunts. An outfitter organizes and books the hunters and members of the HTA are hired to guide the hunts.

That is an 'in a nutshell' description of how it works.

I thought it was some kind of Canuuk acronym for Indian or something. I know how you guys get bogged down with political correctness.

I guess in a way it is.

Indian is a wierd word in a lot of America. I grew up on the Wind River Indian reservation, and it is still called that today as are much of the other reservations. Most of the Natives call themselves Indian in the West, and in most western states it is an acceptable term.

Some like Native American and some don't. Some like Aboriginie and some don't. I think it will be interesting to see what these folks go by in years to come.

"Well paid wards of the FedGuv" is how they are referred to here in Idaho. When the voters passed a constitutional amendment to outlaw gambling on the res or allow it by anybody in the state (it was banned), they lost interest and went back to killing themselves in DUI accidents.

Rich
Sad to say, even sadder to see.
The Nez Perce were once proud warriors of the Idaho mountains

They are people dealing with some pretty normal problems, and unfortunatly those problems quite often get the best of them.

I would have thought that Eskimos living in the North Slope of Alaska would have been better insulated from modern day problems than the rest of us. While working for North Slope Borough police department I found out that wasn't the case.

It's tough growing up all over, but the kit-glove way Natives are handled in both countries makes it tougher on them.

Sometimes I think the money they get from the Goverment and Oil Companies makes their lives worse.

Well you know the Inuit in the northern communities have had the modern way of doing things rammed down their throats. Some were forcefully moved to establish towns in areas of the Arctic and in pretty recent times.

Generally most people from the south go there to make big wages or to rape and pillage the natural resources. That is the simple truth of the matter. Nunavut is a new territory split off from the Northwest Territories. Lots of growing pains for the communities. Constant need for Federal funding to keep things afloat.

I am rather fond of the Arctic. Like being up there and enjoy the people and the land. Hope to go and get a muskox one of these days just for the experience. Polar bear and barren ground grizzly are out of my price range............glad I smoked my fair share of 'regular' coastal and mountain grizzlies in BC.

D99
Skyline said it all,when you are a beneficer,(you have to be an eskimo to be one,but you do not have to be born as an eskimo to be a beneficer,if an eskimo family adopt a child from anywhere in the world,they become a beneficer.) When you become one you do not need any licence or tags to hunt in Nunavut, Polar Bear and Musk Ox, and narwhale are the only ones that require a tag for the locals,and all three have quotas. We do not need a tag to harvest a Grizzly bear,the only time a tag is issued is when the hide is going out of the territory.

Skyline
There is a outfitter in town here who conducts Musk Ox hunts. Check Out Henik Lake Adventures. Last year I got a Musk Ox with my 50 BMG. In the past I have gotten several of them with various calibers,and a couple with a bow,and black powder. They are very good eating. I have never measured any of them,as I do not know how they are scored.

White North

white north...........thanks for the information. I will check that out. If I get up there I will show you how to score them as I am a measurer for several books.

Cheers!

Rape and pillage?

They come to make money, and they come to go hunting. Rape and pillage are a bit extreme, but I get your point.

Obviously you have not seen the mess left by mining companies all over the arctic and sub-arctic...........although with AK as one of your places I would think so. I have, and no my comment is not extreme.

It is being monitored more closely now, but in decades past it was a free for all. There is crap everywhere. Empty barrels, machinery,...........hell I have been guiding dall sheep hunters in the middle of nowhere and climbed a ridge to find a bunch of old weathered skids with engines and machinery parts that were left by choppers there for some reason and no one came back to get them.

Tailings ponds with mercury and arsenic that are leaching out into the environment. Barrels filled with contaminants that are rusting out and polluting. I have seen these sites all over the Canadian north and in Alaska as well. I could go on.

When I said rape and pillage I was not referring to todays hunters.

I would agree with you on that, I don't like mining as it's pretty rough on the earth. It's hard to imagine something so rough.

Sorry I misunderstood, I agree!

No apology necessary my friend. I should have been more clear in the first place.