In 2007, Kqyn Kuka joined the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks as the second female game warden in Montana. In 2015, out of 100 game wardens statewide, four are women.
"Our formal training at the Law Enforcement Academy is good and is constantly improving. From my experience, what sticks out is the need to be respectful, to talk to people, to show compassion.
After graduating, I taught classes at the Academy and one instructor kept asking me, "How do we teach compassion to these officers?" I finally told him, "If they don't already have compassion, teach them to fake it."
"As a sworn officer, we're there to protect the weak. People respect me; I can build a rapport with my community; I'm more proactive than reactive.
One time I was in a very high-risk situation: I encountered six armed men, all enrolled members of the Blackfeet Tribe, who were trespassing. They took off running through thick brush in grizzly bear habitat. I called for backup and we had them at gunpoint, but we de-escalated the situation enough that they admitted they were wrong. They were afraid of law enforcement, and that's why they had taken off, running.
One said that he was hunting for his boss, who is quadriplegic. To me, I was calling his bluff and also hoping he wasn't lying when I arranged to meet him and his boss the next day, in order to donate some meat and hand off his ticket. And sure enough, the boss was in a wheelchair. I donated half an elk to him (from the carcasses of confiscated animals, shot illegally), which built such good rapport that each year, I donate six hundred pounds of elk meat to the Blackfeet elders."
(Broadcast: "Home Ground Radio," 5/24/15. Listen on the web, weekly on the radio at Sundays at 11:10 a.m., or via podcast.)