Black Bear Skin With Racist Message Found On Sign At Great Smoky Mountains National Park

A black bear skin with head and a cardboard sign displaying a racist message were found hanging on an entrance sign at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located near the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.

Park service officials are trying to locate the perpetrators who left the items on The Foothills Parkway West Entrance sign, near the Highway 321 intersection in Walland, Tenn., between Sept. 18 and 19. The cardboard sign carried the racist message that read “from here to the lake black lives don’t matter,” WVLT-TV reported.

According to the station, it was initially believed that the bear skin was fake, but park officials later clarified that it was real. Investigators were working to determine when and where the bear was killed.

Warren Bielenberg, a former ranger at the park, told Knox News that he spotted the skin while on his way to perform a migratory bird count on the morning of Sep.19. The bear appeared to have been “freshly killed,” said Bielenberg. “The skull was still in it and there was still fluid dripping off the backside of the skin," he added.

Up to $5,000 in reward money was announced for information leading to the identification of the suspects, according to a park service statement.

“We encourage anyone with information to reach out to us as we continue to investigate possible motives,” Lisa Hendy, Chief Ranger at the park, said in the statement. “We take vandalism incidents seriously in the park, and this particular incident is particularly egregious. It is, for this reason, we are offering a reward for information.”

Hunting black bear is legal in Tennessee but requires the individuals to adhere to some regulations. The bear hunting season in the state doesn’t start until Sept. 26. The hunting of bears is prohibited inside the national park.