Pilot Project on Native American Lands

A UNIQUE REWILDING OPPORTUNITY

CANA Foundation has developed an innovative rewilding solution to address the controversial “overpopulation” of America’s wild horses.

In exchange for large plots of land for the wild horses within Native communities, CANA Foundation will work to rewild, restore, and reignite the horses, the land and its people.As the horses begin to naturally rejuvenate the lands’ resources, CANA will work with the community to deliver incentives such as: economic and social development opportunities, cultural awareness programs, healthcare initiatives, job training opportunities, organic farming initiatives, and other environmentally friendly and sustainable commerce projects.CANA rewilding initiatives will save and re-purpose tax dollars in a more humane and considerate way, assist in creating opportunities for Native communities, and work with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in relieving the overcrowding of horses in holding pens.Our rewilding projects will conserve land, return endangered wild horses to freedom, and work alongside Native communitiesto properly honor their culture and history.

PILOT PROGRAM

This proposed project’s goal is to establish a long-term viable, ecologically well-adapted, and naturally self-stabilizing population of wild horses in tribal lands. If successful, this program can be replicated on other Native American lands, saving the wild horses, as well as taxpayers’ money.Livelihood benefits would accrue to tribal members and others involved that could include ecotourism, wild horse behavior and ecological studies, biodiversity studies, film making opportunities, photo and camping safaris, among many others.CANA professional ecologists believe that as the wild horse-containing ecosystem is restored, the cost of maintaining the wild horses will diminish and the excess funds resulting from this can be diverted to further improving the habitat, acquiring more land, and providing for a larger, more genetically viable herd of wild horses.

YOU CAN HELP

CANA is looking for assistance in working with Native American communities and the BLM. We want to work with government agencies to acquire large tracts of land on reservations, where we can place wild horses in return for socioeconomic programs for Native communities.Additionally, we are working to secure either private or public funding for the development of commerce and industry opportunities. We are pursuing government grants for alternative energy projects, organic farming, veteran and wounded warrior and cultural preservation programs, as well as other responsibility programs.

America’s Wild Horses Are Among Our Nation’s Most Cherished Resources; They Are Diminishing Quickly.

By ensuring wild horses remain wild and free we are: conserving diminishing western territories and natural resources, contributing to the protection of our natural ecosystems, and preserving Native culture for generations to come. The success of the Pilot Project would benefit the horses, the people, and their lands.

Facts And Figures

More than $80 million tax dollars are used every year to round up wild horses from public land, and deposit them into small, mismanaged, and over-populated holding pens.¹
5 out of every 8 wild horses are held captive in government holding facilities.²
Maintaining horses in government long and short-term holding facilities cost American taxpayers $5.08 and $1.27 per horse, respectively, per day.³(That exceeds $120 million every day!)
Taxpayer-funded livestock grazing on public lands costs more than $132 million dollars per year. Yet only 3% of America’s beef supply comes from these cattle.⁴
Native Americans have among the highest rates of high-risk drinking⁵ and suicide⁶ of any American ethnic group, according to research from the NIH and CDC respectively.
Native Americans are nearly 2.8 times more likely to have Type II diabetes than white individuals of comparable age.⁷
While the unemployment rate for white workers peaked at 9.1 percent in 2010 and is now down to 6.1 percent, Native Americans have experienced double-digit unemployment rates ever since 2008, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. Their current rate hovers over 11 percent.⁸

¹ Department of the Interior http://www.doi.gov/budget/appropriations/2016/upload/FY2016_BLM_Greenbook.pdf
² American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/
³ Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-77
⁴ American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/
⁵ National Institutes of Health http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/argh40/152-160.htm
⁶ Centers for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/Suicide_DataSheet-a.pdf
⁷ US Department of Health and Human Services http://archive.ahrq.gov/research/findings/factsheets/diabetes/diabdisp/diabdisp.html
⁸ Economic Policy Institute http://www.epi.org/publication/bp370-native-american-jobs/

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Pilot Project on Native American Lands

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