Native Americans Fight to Take Back the National Bison Range in Montana

In the beginning, centuries before the Lewis and Clark Expedition discovered the land of the Flathead Indian in Northwest Montana, the tribes were the stewards of the environment, keepers of the bison, land, and wildlife. The water was clean, and everything was used and recycled. It was and is a natural state of existence for Native Americans.

Tribes comprising the Flathead Indian Nation were: Salish, Kootenai, Bitterroot and Pend d’Oreille. These tribes are native to the land and have lived in the area for 14,000 years. Today, they are simply known as the Confederated Salish, and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, or CSKT.

In the summer of 1855, the Hellgate treaty was signed between the United States Government and the tribes. But it was riddled with translation problems and neither side was able to negotiate terms, nevertheless 21 million acres of land was taken from the Indians in exchange for the 1.3 million of reservation land, now lying south of the Flathead Lake. The tribes were transferred to this reservation land to an area now called Lake County seat in Montana.

In 1908, the Federal government again stepped in to take 18,000 acres of land for a new wildlife refuge, now known, as the National Bison Range as an effort to set the buffalo. This at first galled Native Americans who were cheated out of their ancestral lands in the first space. They had to give up more land to the federal government. However, it made these peaceful tribes more on alert and they became determined to learn the laws of these foreign despots.

Ironically, Indian tribal member, Walking Coyote, saved the diminishing bison in the area that the federal government had signed to protect. He had secured two bulls and two cows of buffalo to obtain a herd on the land in 1874 when the buffalo was come extinction. The government ignored this act of preservation by Native Americans and as time went on the management of the bison range was not handed to the true keepers of the land, but by what is now the United States Fish Wildlife and Parks.

In the 1970s new interest of Native American tribes sparked Congress to pass the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. It gave the secretary of interior the right to enter into compacts with the tribes transferring to them authority to administer federal facilities and programs designed to benefit Indian tribes. A 1994 amendment to this act-the Tribal Self-Governance Act-made it unnecessary for the program to be directly beneficial. Instead, if a tribe could prove a historical, geographical, or cultural link to the program in quiz, then its council could petition to take over management. In 1994 the Salish and Kootenai did so, asking that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service give managerial responsibility of the range to the tribes. The fact that Walking Coyote was directly responsible for bringing back the buffalo to the area was enough to restore the range back to the Indians. Resistance from western Montanans was immediate. Tribal Chairman Mickey Pablo’s statement that tribal hiring practices would determine employment scared job seekers who feared Indians would receive preferential hiring treatment. Others believed the biological complexity of the range exceeded the tribes’ managerial abilities. But who best to take care of the bison than those who sought to preserve it from the very beginning? Nevertheless the fight to control the bison range is still ranging today among the tribes and the federal government and even local Montanans who doubt the Indians can manage their own land.

Yet since the 1970s the tribes have been brilliant about taking advantage of the laws passed and taking assist control of not just their lands but their lives. They have been one of the few tribes in the United States to successfully take back a lot of reservation and tribal interests.
They built the Salish, Kootenai College to educate Native Americans in areas of biology, science, conservation, nursing and teaching. They successfully took control of the Mission Valley Utility company providing electricity for the area and managing it well. They also run S&K Technologies, providing business and person technology solutions to various government and local entities.

In 2005 the tribes were given contracts for some duties at the Bison Range, in a cooperative management agreement that was extended that September. The agreement led to a controversial and principal evaluation of how well the tribes performed their duties to date. It also prompted an ongoing investigation by the Interior Department into the possible misuse of federal funds by the tribes, and to a grievance filed with the Fish and Wildlife Service by some employees who claim the agency created a hostile work environment by entering into an agreement that promised the tribes control over more jobs if Fish and Wildlife Service employees left the Bison Range.

“This is a cherished piece of land we watched be taken out of our hands decades ago,” said Rob McDonald, communications director for the tribes. “Twelve years ago, there was a shift of laws that said we could negotiate for this, and we have been talking about it. We have a direct cultural and historical link to this place.”

Refuge managers from around the nation opposed the takeover, by the Indians. These included some 50 environmental groups such as Ducks Unlimited and the American Bird Conservancy, and by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national nonprofit alliance of local, plot and federal scientists, law enforcement officers, land managers and other professionals whose stated goal is to uphold environmental laws and values. The greatest fear of these organizations is that tribes around the country would initiate taking control of their lands without being adequately equipped.

“Over 300 tribes theoretically could qualify to demand takeovers around the country,” said spokesperson Grady Hocutt, a retired refuge manager. “Only a fool would argue Indian tribes can’t meet one of the requirements – cultural, historical or geographic – virtually any place in this country. And they only have to meet one of the three. Imagine if this goes through, and this becomes the blueprint for dedicated trust lands owned by the public.”

But McDonald said only a handful of tribes can meet the criteria, and the federal government has spelled out which refuges tribes can apply to bustle. The National Bison Range is one.

In spite of the continuing fight local ranchers (non-Indians) have seen improvements in the herds since the tribes started taking a hand in managing the range.

Paul Bishop is a local volunteer for the Bison roundup done at the Range every fall. He says that while his exposure to the Bison Range is limited to two to three days a year when he volunteers at the roundup, he thinks it provides a good window into the work the tribes have done there since the co-management plan went into effect in the fall of 2005.

“I have, from the beginning, felt that the way FWS conducted the roundup had serious problems,” Bishop wrote in a letter published Thursday in the weekly Valley Journal. “It was always heavy on the ‘cowboy’ and it seemed the welfare of the bison extended only to their most basic physical needs.”

Bishop, whose family has volunteered at the roundup for more than 20 years and who himself has been fervent for more than 10, says that over time the bison became more savvy to the methods of FWS riders.

“The only FWS response was to run the animals harder, getting them even more stressed and worn out,” Bishop says. “The common method, once all the ‘easy’ animals had been chased in by riders, was to retire the horses and bring out a FWS Jeep. The driver would then wobble the remaining stubborn bison, horn blaring, until they submitted.”

It sometimes involved ramming the bison with the front bumper, Bishop says, and in 2004 – the last year FWS had sole control of the roundup – an adult bison was rammed from slow, its leg was broken, and it had to be killed.

But when the tribes came on board, that changed, Bishop says.

“The tribes’ first roundup was a immense success, which was completed in two days with time to spare,” Bishops says.

“I know it sounds odd, but I believe the animals noticed a difference, too,” he says. “They were clearly much calmer and less stressed. The riders did a fantastic job of handling the animals with care and everyone else followed suit. The bison were processed through with a level of compassion and patience that was definitely lacking in the old FWS cowboy days.”

Today the tribes continue the fight to manage the bison in their own ancestral lands. The Department of Interior investigation on how the tribes are managing the range is still on the table with discussions going on between the tribes and FWP. This time the tribes are better informed, educated and ready for the fight, there is no turning back or giving up. The time has come to give the reigns back to the true stewards of the land and they are positive to select succor what has naturally been theirs since the beginning of time.