They trample upon the plains upon which our settlers desire to herd their cattle and their sheep. They range over the very pastures where the settlers keep their herds of cattle. They destroy the pasture. They are as uncivilized as the Indian. These attitudes remain strong even today. The influence of the cattle barons is heard loud and clear while most Native American voices fall on deaf ears. To the western livestock industry, cattle represent an economic interest and way of life, although barely a hundred years old.
To Native Americans the buffalo represent the essence of their social, cultural, and spiritual identity; and a relationship that is tens of thousands of years old.
Consider this: the fact that the tribes haven't been allowed serious participation in discussions where ranchers, land managers, and politicians decide the fate of the buffalo reflects both a lack of wisdom and the utter disrespect for a heritage and way of life that has existed for many tens of thousands of years—not No one has a closer relationship to the buffalo than the Native Americans.
Yet why have they been and why are the tribes currently being left out? Not only is the tribal voice being ignored, but as the actions of policy makers and Montana Law Enforcement Officers attest: the religion and culture of those who consider the buffalo sacred are being willfully violated. The actions of Montana's Department of Livestock are in the same vein as the actions of their predecessors—the buffalo hunters and Army officers who perpetrated the slaughter in the s. On March 7, , during a winter when 1, buffalo were killed, American Indian tribal leaders from around the country gathered near Gardiner, Montana, to hold a day of prayer for the buffalo.
The ceremony was disrupted by the echo of gunshots. Lakota elder Rosalie Little Thunder left the prayer circle to investigate the shots. Less than two miles away, Department of Livestock agents had killed fourteen buffalo.
Some animals found protection on private ranches. In the Yellowstone area, their numbers dwindled to about two dozen bison left in Pelican Valley.
In , they purchased 21 bison from private owners and raised them at the historic Lamar Buffalo Ranch. Yellowstone bison reproduce and survive at relatively high rates compared to many other large, wild mammals, so even as the population recovered managers limited its growth with frequent culling. Hundreds of animals were removed to start or supplement herds on other public and tribal lands.
Even more were killed and given to Native American tribes or relief agencies. But a moratorium on culling beginning in resulted in the bison population increasing dramatically: from animals in to 3, in At the same time, a growing elk population which peaked at more than 19, animals in the late s created competition for food.
As bison and elk searched for grass to eat during winter, they began to leave the park in greater numbers. Only a few bull bison left the park prior to , but as bison numbers increased, groups of bison began migrating across the north and west boundaries of Yellowstone to expand their winter range and pioneer new territory. As they left the park, bison encountered a changed world. In the century since bison roamed a continent of open space, the grassy river valleys and plains they used to graze had been settled and developed by people, much of it for agriculture.
The landscape had become a maze of fenced pastures, houses, and highways. Large groups of 1,pound animals searching for food create challenges for people sharing that landscape, both in terms of human safety and because bison want to eat the same grass ranchers grow to feed their livestock. To further complicate things, bison and elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem carry brucellosis , a disease that can be transmitted to livestock and induces abortions or stillbirths in infected animals.
Brucellosis has an economic impact on ranchers because it affects the reproductive rate and marketability of their animals, so park and state wildlife officials have gone to great lengths to prevent bison from mixing with cattle. Between and , about 3, bison were killed as they tried to migrate out of the park: some were captured and shipped to slaughter, others were shot by hunters or state agents. These actions generated a lot of controversy.
Meanwhile, the bison population continued to grow, as did state and federal pressure to keep brucellosis out of livestock. In , the state of Montana sued the National Park Service for allowing bison to leave the park. For the next three years, hide hunters took down roughly 5, buffalo every day. By mid, almost every single bison in the U. Once the buffalo were gone from the plains, ranchers took advantage of all that grazing land to drive in their cattle.
They are indiscriminate eaters who will chew a summer pasture down to its roots, decimating native grasses and promoting fast-growing invasive species, some with little nutritional value. In contrast, bison are built to survive. That difference between cattle and buffalo is obvious enough for anyone to see.
Unlike the other species, though, buffalo stop surfing in mid-spring, gathering in huge numbers in central areas they turn into grazing lawns. At the end of the season, pastures where domestic cattle graze are nearly barren. The places where bison wander and feed, on the other hand, stay lush and abundant with life. Preventing bison from migrating is part of his job, though. In , the state of Montana sued Yellowstone National Park, arguing that the wandering buffalo were a business handicap.
Livestock interest groups and local ranchers asserted that in addition to competing with cattle for grass and causing property damage, the bison could transmit the brucellosis pathogen to their herds. Five years later, a drawn-out court battle resulted in the Interagency Bison Management Plan, a collective that meets each November to set a culling target for the coming winter.
Forest Service; and three tribal entities. They manage an annual slaughter aimed at keeping the Yellowstone buffalo population between 3, and 4,, just barely enough to maintain genetic diversity. A young bison thrashes against the cold steel of a squeeze chute, bucking and tossing its head in a panic.
It takes two National Park Service employees, wielding electrified cattle prods, several attempts to close the hydraulic-powered sides of the stall around the animal. After a few minutes, they release it to a holding pen, where it joins several other unlucky buffalo. The site handles wild bison like livestock: Most of them, including some that test negative for brucellosis, board trailers and head to slaughter.
The IBMP considers this the best way to mitigate risk. It was cattle that first infected bison and elk with brucellosis, almost a century ago, when they were free to graze within the park. By the midth century, brucellosis was the most common zoonotic disease in the world, affecting an estimated , U. The illness, which could sweep through large swaths of livestock, delivered a financial hit to ranchers. But it did spread widely: In , there were 6, reported cases of brucellosis in humans.
These spurred a nationwide effort to eradicate the disease, which meant culling entire herds if a single animal showed evidence of infection. The strategy eventually evolved to include a vaccine for cattle that, while only 65 percent effective, at least eliminated the need to kill whole stocks.
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