A dispute that pits an Indigenous group’s observance of traditional hunting practices against animal rights activists is playing out in a provincial park near St. Catharines.

The hunt is the result of an agreement established between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an unelected, hereditary council and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, that seeks to control white-tailed deer populations while respecting Indigenous rights and traditions.

The hunt runs an aggregate total of six days, starting on Nov. 11 and ending on Dec. 5.

Pushback against the hunt diminishes Indigenous rights, said Karl Dockstader, a member of the Niagara AntiRacism Coalition, which released a statement this week linking the backlash to racism.

“This is a continuation of Canada’s racist legacies,” he said.

Haudenosaunee people have a treaty right to hunt in southwestern Ontario called the Treaty of Albany 1701, or Nanfan Treaty.

“Ontario respects treaty rights under section 35 of the constitution, including the right to harvest,” said ministry spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski. “(The Haudenosaunee) have continually worked with us to find dates suitable to my Ministry and the Niagara Regional Police, and shown nothing but respect and patience in carrying out safe harvest in a limited area.”

There is evidence of excessive deer browsing, which negatively affects the park’s ecosystem, she added.

Liz White, director of Animal Alliance of Canada, said she “absolutely supports” treaty rights, but she said that First Nations hunting is no different than recreational hunting.

“At the end of the day, stripped of niceties, somebody takes a weapon and kills an animal,” she said. “We advocate for animals.”

White said Animal Alliance wants a parcel of land set aside to protect the species, along with an environmental assessment to determine the impacts of hunting on the park.

Paul Williams, member of the Haudenosaunee Wildlife and Habitat Authority, which was appointed by the Confederacy about 10 years ago, chalks it up to misunderstanding.

“They really fail to understand the relationship between the people and the deer, a relationship that’s thousands of years old,” he said. “People see them as large, cute animals, rather than as part of a complex ecosystem.”

When First Nations hunters take from the forest, they partake in opening ceremonies, thank the animals and sprinkle tobacco when one is killed.

“For us, bow hunting is a useful combination of tradition and skill and intimacy with the animal,” Williams said.

And the hunters are disciplined, he said.

“They don’t shoot unless they have a sure shot,” Williams said, adding that if a deer is wounded, hunters track it down.

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Some of the meat is used during mid-winter longhouse ceremonies, he said.

But Animal Alliance and another group called the Short Hills Wildlife Alliance say the hunt causes damage to the park’s interior, that deer are wounded but not killed and that there are too many hunters during the event.

The groups challenge the notion there is a surge in deer populations in the park and say visitors have been known to enter the park during the hunt, compromising their safety.