"SALMON, Idaho -- Native American tribes said on Friday they oppose U.S. government plans to strip grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area of federal safeguards, ultimately opening the way for sport hunting of them in northern Rocky Mountain states.

A federal-state-tribal panel that oversees grizzlies in and around the park, which spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, has said for the past two years the bear population had come back from the brink of extinction and no longer needed protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

But tribal members of the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee have since joined with other Indian Nations to demand talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before it officially proposes removing bears in the area from the federal list of endangered and threatened species."

Laura Zuckerman reports for Reuters May 8, 2015. [2]