Five First Nations people found guilty of hunting endangered Roosevelt Elk near Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island have lost a court challenge claiming they had a right to hunt the animals.

The woman and four men were found guilty in 2006 of killing eight elk, including two pregnant cows and a calf, in January and February of 2002.

Sandy Morris Jr., Bonnie George, Ben Sam, Patrick Edwards and John Sylvester admitted to using a bright light and night-vision goggles when hunting the endangered animals late at night. Sylvester passed away before the end of the trial.

The convictions were put on hold while provincial court Judge Brian MacKenzie heard treaty and aboriginal rights arguments from the hunters.

The defendants -- who hailed from several different native bands -- claimed they had the right to hunt under the Douglas Treaties of 1850 and 1852, and that they had so-called shelter and kinship rights to hunt on the land of their First Nations neighbours.

The Crown maintained that none of those arguments applied and even if there was a treaty right, the need for conservation -- in an area where hunting hasn't been allowed since 1968 -- would trump all other considerations.

In a ruling posted on the court website last week, MacKenzie rejected all First Nations claims, ruling the defendants didn't prove they were direct descendants of the Douglas Treaty signatories and didn't get permission from the host nation to hunt on the land.

"Neither the treaties nor the historical documents... contain any mention of an intention to affect third parties or to provide hunting rights in areas controlled by other Coast Salish First Nations who were party to the treaty," MacKenzie said in his ruling.

He also said he couldn't find that a reciprocal kinship practice, allowing neighbouring native bands to hunt on their land, was part of the treaty.

First Nations lawyers also claimed the group had a right to hunt and that there was no legitimate conservation issue pertaining to elk at Cowichan Lake.

The elk population in the area was considered extremely fragile, but it has since recovered slightly.

The Crown argued during the trial that even if they had a treaty right to hunt, there is no treaty right that would allow them to hunt the resource to extinction.

A witness for the defence at the trial, 87-year-old Angus Smith of the Cowichan First Nation, testified that using the resource properly meant making sure the animals wouldn't disappear.

"Given the totality of the evidence, and in particular the number of elk killed, the locations at which they were killed, and that two were pregnant cows and one a calf, I find that the defendants did not hunt in a reasonable fashion according to traditional practices regarding sustainability of resources," the judge found.