1bigdude
If your date and location of killing that caribou is correct, you done poached it, as it was almost certainly (catch there) of the low-land herd. Where does that leave your argument/opinion?
At that time, permits were available only for the Kenai Mt herd, and the Killey River herd here on the Kenai.
Caribou (Rangifer genus) do wander. A friend working summers for USF&W helped release the second batch of caribou imported from the Nelchina Herd, from up in Interior, behind Tustemena Lake to establish the Killey River herd. The KR herd only became hunt-able by permit due to natural increase several years later.
Later that fall of the release, we were hunting our permits for the Kenai Mt Herd, over by Hope, maybe 80-100 miles from the release site. The cow he took there was one he had helped release a few months before, as established by the radio collar she wore. Unseen until on the ground.
Oops! But she was in the right area (trying to go "home", we think) for the permit issued, so legal. Your permit? was probably invalid for where/when you say you took that bull.
More perspective on "subsistence".
In the old days, it was often literally life or death to "kill as many as possible, whenever possible, any way possible". Technology has changed that issue some, tho not necessarily that thinking among some. Laws and regulations are in place mostly not to control the animals, but to control the people's take/use /means-of-take of those animals, within the ability of the resource to tolerate such. "Fair chase" has no basis in survival. This is not to say it isn't a splendid ethic when one can afford it. Got a problem with shooting swimming animals (as opposed to those grazing peacefully, lured in with feeders, piles of corn in the woods, decoys, blinds over scarce water, hunted with dogs, shooting immature animals, using spotlights?), change the law/regulations. Prosecute those who do not abide. If you can catch them. Remember- most of game management is really people management .
Game management units and differential regulations are set up to address different management issues and conditions, including (maybe mostly!) traditional and political. You maybe missed my rants on Unit 23 "Pregnant Cows Only" season of years past, when I was a "subsistence user" in Kotzebue....
. That was prejudicial, mostly feel good cultural (with some merit) practice embodied into regulation, rubber stamped by the State Board of Game because it neither helped nor harmed the herd. It did inconvenience ( a little) a few people like myself, but they weren't about to fight a losing political/racial/cultural battle when it didn't really matter. It only offended MY (with some merit) cultural prejudices! Doesn't mean I had to like it....just abide by it ....or not get caught. Admittedly, there is a lot of the latter going on everywhere where enforcement is thin, not just in "subsistence" areas. Again, it largely depends on personal ethics, rather than fear of the law in areas with little enforcement available.
Established rules can be discriminatory, such as how one qualifies for a certain type of hunting by where one lives. Just move there, then. It is no more discriminatory than having to pay non-resident fees, in a sense. Or being able to apply for a RM800 moose permit (greatly expanding one's season) or musk-oxen permit, but only by personal appearence in one of several villages in a short time frame. TS. You just have to get there - not dependent on area residency, unless one counts Alaska as a whole. Several of my acquaintence have done just that for musk-ox. Fly in to obtain the permit, then again a few weeks later for the hunt.
As a resident of Kotzebue (back to the OP) I could take advantage of a very generous moose hunting season, between Federal and State regulations, and locations. Virtually from August thru December. Perhaps into March at one point- I disremember. Now, living outside the area, I am restricted to hunting there only during the "sport' season - a few weeks. Unless I fly to Kotzebue in June or early July for the permit. Any Alaskan resident can do that. Similarily, "personal use" salmon fishing with gill or dip net is restricted to Alaska residents by law. Discriminatory? In a sense. And widely abused and broken by residents and non-residents alike, not having obtained the permit- free to Alaskans with a fishing license. And some do get nailed.
The traditional "sharing" of northern (and other) cultures heavily dependent on wild game stems from my first point. Today you might be in the right time/place/luck to kill a bunch of food. Or you might be in a long dry spell - gets pretty hungry there. So the "lucky" ones share their kills, and accept same from others when not "lucky", incapacitated, or just SOL generally. And fresh meat/fish doesn't keep well in some kinds of weather, so it is best to eat it immediately with family, friends, and neighbors if it can't be preserved somehow.
Not so much now-days - most Eskimos now have freezers AND refrigerators (which destroys the old joke....), and other non-"traditional" means of preservation but the sharing tradition endures. Modern technology is expensive to buy, maintain, and feed, so it still makes sense to legally harvest as much as one can handle (process, store, or share at one time) whenever one can, just to make it more cost effective. Not necessarilly cost effective.....just more so. I have given away several times more caribou than I or my immediate family/friends have consume TO THOSE THAT COULD USE IT. AND I HAVE ACCEPTED SOME, tho I didn't really "need" it.. It was a social thing..... Sue me. And I like to hunt.....
And keep in mind humans breed like rats...... The Arctic population is many times what it was 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago, when I first lived there - hunger for some, but very little starvation death, unlike the old days, even in the most remote parts, thanks???? to technology and other "western" advantages.
If the airplanes ever quit flying, tho - and never mind your "special considerations" in game regulations.... there isn't enough food on the hoof or on the fin (much of it seasonally migratory - back to killing whatever, whenever, as much as) to support the current human population anywhere for very long, even in the more remote, small villages, tho they would fare best.
As for "tradition", 1bigdude, as Chip pointed out, sort of, that can be anything that has been done once or more..... using semi-auto .223, airplane/boat/atv access, internet/cell phone communication, post high school inter-village basketball tournaments, and all sorts of other things are now "tradition", so get over it.... It is called "progress", tho many of us are somewhat dubious of it.....
It was once tradition to hunt whitetail deer without restriction until the deer were in real trouble. Closing hunting entirely and/or allowing only bucks be taken was then bitterly fought by "traditionalists". Once numbers came back up, sometimes to the point of range damage and starvation, doe hunting was then bitterly fought by buck-only "traditionalists".
