We have early releases every Wednesday at school for staff meetings, so it was already a little hectic I guess. I am a bit upset, because if you remember correctly, I was still in Mountain Village at my training. I was in no way near a bear. Yes, I was happy about not being by a huge 100's of pounds of scared, ticked off bear. However, that's a fun story to have. As Laura (refer to "Terms" page) said to me, "On Wednesday, I stopped and said to myself, 'Yup. I live in the Bush. Only this happens in the Bush.'"
So, on Wednesday we were supposed to get out of school at...(let me go check what time...)...2:30pm instead of 3:30pm. However, according to Laura, the parents forgot that Wednesdays are early release days. So, her kindergarteners were without parents picking them up, the other students' parents weren't around either. (FYI-we have no bus. HAHAHA. A bus out here. That'd be funny. The kids walk, or their parents drive them on their 4 wheelers/snowmobiles. A bus wouldn't be able to make it 5 feet in this mud...and I'm assuming not be able to move eventually in the snow. Again, there are no cars here. I guess we have a school van and truck, but they're 4-wheel-drive and somehow they work most of the time...)
So, Laura said she had to pile her kindergarteners into the school van and drive them home because she wasn't going to allow them to go anywhere with the bears running around without parents coming to pick them up. The other kids were escorted by the IL, AIL, and State Troopers (who had guns if they saw bears). Again...only in the Bush.
Overall, it was handled and everyone got home safe. The Troopers weren't able to find the bears, and the bears didn't hurt anyone. (they were grizzlies BTW I guess) However, when I got to school on Friday, one of my students quickly pulled out their cell phone (after their teacher said it was okay) to show me the picture of the bear her uncle got. :( I'm trying really hard to be okay with the fact that one of the Natives got the baby bear. I don't like killing, especially animals. Any of you who know me, know this (I know, it's backwards of what you would think...). However, it's a big part of their culture here. They are HUGE hunters. And I don't want to be disrespectful everytime I see a dead animal that they have killed for feeding their family for the next few months.
I heard from someone that the person who got the bear was going to have to give it to the Troopers because it wasn't hunting season. They're definitely not in trouble for protecting the village, but I heard they weren't allowed to keep the bear. Then, from the person who killed its niece...I think...told me he already skinned it and was harvesting the meat. So, it's a lot of speculation here...I also heard from her that it should get the mama bear to run farther away and mourn over her baby (I know, it makes me want to cry more). So, it shouldn't be a bigger, badder, pissed-offer bear running around. However, they shouldn't have been around in the first place. It's very unusual for them to be around town. So, ya never know!
WARNING: Picture of dead bear coming...
 |
| Grizzly Bear Cub shot 8-30-12 |
No comments:
Post a Comment