BENNETT HALL
Corvallis Gazette-Times
ADAIR VILLAGE — A group of Native American activists protested for several hours on Wednesday at the Adair Village office of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to call for better protection of gray wolves.
Seven men affiliated with the American Indian Movement, some wearing bandanas over their faces to conceal their features, demonstrated from about 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The men carried an AIM flag and a banner that read “Respect the Sacred.” After burning a sagebrush bundle in the parking lot, they moved into the building’s lobby, where they sang and offered prayers for wolf protection.
Mato Woksape of Corvallis, who identified himself as the regional leader of AIM, said the wolf is sacred to some tribes and should be protected on religious grounds.
“We’re asking that the wolf be protected under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978,” said Woksape, whose ancestry includes Lakota and Dakota of Standing Rock, the Citizen Band of Potawatomie and Canadian Blackfeet.
In addition, the group wants Oregon to restore full endangered species protections for wolves, which have been relaxed in the eastern part of the state as the animal’s numbers have increased. (There were at least 112 wolves statewide in 2016, according to the latest available estimates from ODFW, and the animal is still protected as an endangered species in Central and Western Oregon.)
The protesters also object to the possibility of wolf hunting being allowed in Oregon.
“We’re all connected,” said Zachary Pierce of Ashland, a member of the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe.
“(Wolves) have just as much right as a human being does to have a place to live and flourish.”
Some people don’t see it that way.
“They better not come on my property,” said Marty Bates of Lebanon, who stopped by the office on Wednesday to apply for deer-hunting tags. Bates raises cattle and said he’s glad he doesn’t have to worry about wolf predation in this part of the state — at least not yet.
“Wolves are pack hunters — they’ll hunt down anything they can get,” Bates said.
“It’s all fine and dandy until somebody’s little kid gets hurt.”
The state’s wolf management plan contains language allowing for “responsive hunting and trapping” of wolves in certain circumstances in areas where they no longer have endangered species protection.
But ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy stressed that the plan is under review and that no hunting has been approved so far.
“There is no planned wolf hunt at this time,” she said.
Brian Wolfer, who manages the Adair Village office of ODFW, said Native American activists have held protests calling for wolf protection every few months at the site for the last several years. He said the demonstrators have always been peaceful.
“Usually it’s just a short visit and a song, and then they leave,” Wolfer said.