In Michigan's remote Upper Pennisula a rare white black bear has been spotted at a hunters bait bile on trailcam. That makes this white bear in Michigan the first of its kind outside British Columbia in 18 years. It's more rare than a cougar or lynx or anything else.

The bear is considered sacred by Native Americans. Austin Ayres, wildlife technician with the KBIC Natural Resources Department, said that from a cultural perspective, the white bear is a representation of a new age being born for Anishinaabe people – who are the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes, including Odawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi peoples across Michigan.

“It is a sign of great change. Some stories say the bear only comes when it is time for Anishinaabe to embrace their role and step away from their distractions. It is a reminder that within nature, anything and everything is possible, and the people should not go seeking anything outside of nature but understand all we need is within,” Ayres said.

He further explained that in his culture’s historical stories, the time when a white bear arrives is also welcomed by a “great abundance of the medicines on the landscape” and represented an age of healing.

“It is a sign for all people. We all have a choice, to desire more, to reach further, to expand our understandings, or to slow down, to understand the water more as spirit than as chemical, to know the plants as beings the same as the animals, to not dictate how others act only offer them choice and the option to be better.”

In Michigan we need to follow British Columbia's lead and create protected areas were there is no black bear hunting allowed and make it illegal to kill a spirit bear. The reasoning for banning all black bear hunting in the area is that it takes two black bears carrying a recessive gene to create a white spirit bear. We must all protect the bears which hold this rare recessive trait.