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Tuesday 22 November 2022
Bison spread as Native American tribes reclaim stewardship

shaped the landscape it- jumps.” herds would be run near Glacier National Park.
self. Heinert, a South Da- off cliffs, then butchered Other tribes propose a “buf-
kota state senator and over days and weeks. falo commons” on federal
director of the InterTribal European settlers brought a lands in central Montana
Buffalo Council, views his new level of industry to the where the region’s tribes
job more practically: Get enterprise — and bison kill- could harvest animals.
bison to tribes that want ing dramatically increased, “What would it look like
them, whether two animals their parts used in machin- to have 30 million buffalo
or 200. ery, fertilizer and clothing. in North America again?”
“All of these tribes relied By 1889, only about 1,000 said Cristina Mormorunni, a
on them at some point,” remained. Métis Indian who’s worked
he said. “Those tribes are “We wanted to populate with the Blackfeet to re-
trying to go back to that, the western half of the Unit- store bison.
reestablishing that connec- ed States because there Haaland said there’s no
tion.” were so many people in going back completely
T.J. Heinert, assistant range manager of Wolakota Buffalo Range ___ the East,” U.S. Interior Sec- — too many fences and
near Spring Creek, S.D., inspects the bull bison he harvested on Bison for centuries set retary Deb Haaland, the houses. But her agency
Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. rhythms of life for the La- first Native American cabi- has emerged as a primary
Associated Press kota and other nomadic net member, said in an bison source, transferring
Continued from Front establish a small number of tribes. Hides for clothing interview. “They wanted more than 20,000 to tribes
herds. and teepees, bones for all of the Indians dead so and tribal organizations
European settlers destroyed The long-term dream for tools and weapons, horns they could take their land over 20 years.
that balance, driving bison some Native Americans: re- for ladles, hair for rope — a away.” Transfers sometimes draw
nearly extinct until conser- turn bison on a scale rival- steady supply of bison was The thinking at the time, objections from cattle
vationists including Teddy ing herds that roamed the fundamental. she added, was “’if we kill ranchers who worry bison
Roosevelt intervened to re- continent in numbers that At so-called “buffalo off the buffalo, the Indians carry disease and com-
will die. They won’t have pete for grass. Yet demand
anything to eat.’” from the tribes is grow-
___ ing, and Haaland said the
The day after the bison transfers will continue. That
transfer from the Badlands, includes about 1,000 bi-
Heinert’s son T.J. had his son trucked this year from
rifle fixed on a large bull Badlands, Grand Canyon
bison at the Wolakota Buf- National Park and several
falo Range. The tribal en- national wildlife refuges.
terprise in just two years has ____
restored about 1,000 bison Back at Wolakota range,
to 28,000 acres (11,300 Heinert sprinkled chewing
hectares) of rolling, scrub- tobacco along the back
covered hills near the Ne- of the bison he’d just shot
braska-South Dakota bor- and prayed. Then the half-
der. ton animal was hoisted
The 28-year-old had talked onto a flatbed truck for
all morning about the need the bouncy ride to ranch
for a perfect shot in 40- headquarters.
mile (64-kilometer) an hour About 20 adults and chil-
winds. The first bullet went dren gathered as the bison
into the animal’s ear, but was lowered onto a tarp.
it lumbered away a cou- “This relative gave of itself
ple hundred yards to join a to us, for our livelihood, our
larger group of bison, with way or life,” said tribal elder
the hunter following in an Duane Hollow Horn Bear.
all-terrain vehicle. Soon the tarp was covered
After the animal finally with bloody footprints from
went down, Heinert drove people butchering the
up close, put the rifle be- animal. They quartered it,
hind its ear for a shot that sawing through bone, then
stopped its thrashing. sliced meat from the legs,
“We got him down,” he rump, and the animal’s
said. “That’s all that mat- huge hump. Children, some
ters.” only 6, were given knives to
____ cut away skin and fat.
The Rosebud Sioux are in- Katrina Fuller, who helped
tent on expanding the res- guide the butchering,
ervation’s herds as a reli- dreams of training oth-
able food source. ers so the reservation’s 20
Others have grander vi- communities can come
sions: The Blackfeet in Mon- to Wolakota for their own
tana and tribes in Alberta harvest. “Maybe not now,
want to establish a “trans- but in my lifetime,” she
boundary herd” ranging said. “That’s what I want for
over the Canada border everyone.”q