The main reason I feel as to why the tribal members are doing this is someone is giving them money to do so.
I've either lived or worked on 3 different reservations and know many tribal members who could care less one way or another is the general consensus. I've noticed on more than one occasion where tribal members will and have shot whatever animal that they run across then if it's convenient they may take all or parts to be eaten.
A friend of mine was working for his uncle keeping a eye on the herd of cows up on the big horn mtns when he seen a grizzly bear with a number spray painted on it's side across the canyon from where he sat.
His stock dog took off for camp with him & his horse weren't far behind, rumor has it that the bear got shot not long afterward.

You nailed it on the head, Allan.........and not just one rez in one state .

We lived 30-40 minutes drive from a big Res in Wyoming for 13 years and outfitted on the forest all around it. Most tribal members are not nature's spiritual caregivers like Tribal leaders like to promote themselves as. A LOT of elk, big deer, and sheep laying around on the ground missing heads, every year. And they were brought to my friend the local taxidermist by, guess who?

This. And the Rez Indians here are no different.
The whole sacred bear thing is nonsense. I have a distant relative who's name was given for the number of bears he killed. For those brave enough with a stick bow and or lance to hunt them it was a major top accomplishment. To those who didn't they were sacred in their ferocity. Same can be said for Wolves, mountain lions etc.

Osky

I think every state and Rez needs my share of the Grizzly bears and will throw in a few wuff's also!!

The management of game animals is a state issue. There is merit to a federal endangered species list, however standards should be set and agreed upon legally for delisting (hasn't seemed to work with all the court cases). We have only ourselves to blame for this. We have not empowered state legislatures to work against federal government standards that our obtuse at best and make no sense for individual states to manage.

To answer your question about the spray painted number Joe it was a problem bear possibly from Yellowstone national park.
Years ago while elk hunting near Red Lodge Mt I thought I had heard some rocks rolling or something similar it was a faint distant thing, long story short it was a grizzly hunting pika's or maybe rockchucks and throwing rocks out of the way in a rock slide a long way off from where I was sitting.

When I left for home I called the game warden in Red Lodge to let him know how I did and what I had seen, he all but called me a liar until I reminded him I know the difference between a grizzly and a black bear.
Wywolfer, I agree with you I cant tell you how many elk legs I've seen get brought in or elk that were killed by " flock shooting" or pull off the interstate or into a reservation you no longer can pick up the aluminum cans it's against federal law......m because they are ancient Indian artifacts ha ha !

No,I kill animals for profit like all the other commercial hunter/trappers.
My religion is not animalistic.
Not all Native people are traditional,but a lot are.More have been assimilated to a greater extent in the States than here.

No grizzly in the Big Horns and any they move have collars so they can track them and keep count of them for harvest data. Also how long do you think a spray painted number would last on a bear. The bears are all managed by an inter agency group and any that are caught are ear tagged and collared. I guess I would have to call BS on the sighting. I goes around every year.