Tribe Seeks Wyoming Apology Over 'Disrespect' In Meeting

The head of a Native American tribe in Montana demanded an apology on Tuesday from Wyoming's governor for disrespect shown to the tribe's historic preservation officer by a state wildlife official during a meeting about grizzly bears.

The leader complained that a tribal officer had been unceremoniously ushered offstage during the meeting when he sought to speak against stripping Yellowstone-area grizzlies of federal protections, and his microphone ordered cut off by a Wyoming game warden.

"I am extremely disappointed in the disrespect that was shown," Llevando Fisher, president of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, said in a statement.

A spokesman for Governor Matt Mead did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The public complaint is latest sign of growing tensions between Native Americans and federal and state wildlife managers over grizzlies that roam Yellowstone National Park and three adjoining states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Grizzly numbers have increased to roughly 750 from the 136 estimated in 1975 when they were listed as threatened.

But the three tribes on the panel, the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone of Wyoming and Idaho's Shoshone-Bannock, reversed course last month during the meeting in Cody and registered opposition to delisting, which paves the way for sport hunting in the three Northern Rocky Mountain states.

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