Bison Dispatch #3
Transcript
AMY: Ok, up ahead of me I see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen bison. Yeah, as I come around the bend, oh my gosh, there’s like several dozen here. Oh, it’s so good to see them again.
Welcome to Threshold, I’m Amy Martin. It’s late September, and I’m on the Bison Range at the southern end of the Flathead Reservation in Montana.
AMY: One of my favorite parts of this place is definitely the quiet. And I just love that the bison get to be out here in this quiet all the time.
The last time I was here, this land was owned by the federal government and the bison that lived here were managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Bison Range was carved out of the Flathead Reservation back in 1908, and in Season one of Threshold, I came here to report on the decades-long fight to get this land, and the bison, transferred back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. One of the people I interviewed was Rich Janssen, director of Natural Resources for the CSKT. Here’s a short clip from that conversation.
2016 RICH: We most definitely are qualified to manage the National Bison Range. I would put our wildlife program, our department, at any level of any other wildlife program in the state, even nationally. Why wouldn’t you have the original stewards of the bison come back and manage the bison for the American public?
That was 2016. Four years later, it finally happened.
In 2020 Congress transferred the Bison Range back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. Stewardship of the herd was returned to the people who had helped to save these animals from extinction more than a century before. It’s one of just a few cases where the U.S. government has actually returned a piece of land to the Native American people it was taken from. I came back here to talk with Rich about how things are going for the bison herd and what the restoration of this land has meant to the Tribes.
RICH: These animals have have sustained us for thousands of years. Going back to the history of Indian people. And that's how we've been able to connect to them for so long. I mean, I'm just one guy, one tribal member of hundreds of thousands of Indians going back centuries.
AMY: And I mean, what was it like for you the day that the transfer back to the tribe actually happened?
RICH: It was amazing. It was very emotional day, emotional time for all of us to finally have the land restored to its rightful, rightful place. I guess. You know, we had a great celebration with a pow wow, a feast that a lot of our membership were here that day. Just the power that you could feel, the land and the and the bison restored to its rightful place was just amazing.
RICH: They're a prehistoric animal. A prehistoric beast that's been here a long time and will be here a long time after we're gone. You know, and in my opinion, you know, we treat them with respect because they are a part of our earth, part of our culture, part of our heritage, part of many tribes, culture and heritage.
Animals rule the bison range. In addition to more than 400 bison, this land is a refuge for elk, deer, bighorn sheep, trumpeter swans and many more creatures. As Rich and I drive over the rolling hills, we see a few bulls chilling alone or in pairs, and larger pods of mothers and calves, grazing together. [....] Rich says although tribal managers still coordinate with federal and state wildlife agencies, they’ve also made some changes. For example, the bison used to get rounded up every year for a health check, but now the plan is to be a little more hands off.
RICH: We do it every two years now, not every year to be more sensitive to the bison.We do it a lot quieter, you know, and use different techniques. We don't use horses, whips and all that stuff. We just go slow, you know, and we just use flags, sticks and just kind of, you know, lead them or let them lead us.
I mean, we're not looking to hoot and holler and play cowboy or, you know. We take our time so they don't hurt themselves or hurt each other, and then we let them loose. And then a few of them we sell because we don't want the carrying capacity to get overpopulated. And we we do help supplement other Native American tribes.
They're not livestock. It's a mutual respect for the animal. We manage this as a refuge for the bison.
AMY: And just just to make it visual for folks like we're looking we're looking at these big, beautiful rolling hills, partially wooded, but a lot of open. And then, you know, in the distance, there's just this amazing silhouette of the Mission mountains and then kind of like rolling valley in between the bison range and the Mission Mountains. And I think one of the things that was so weird about being here before the management was returned to the tribes is everything we're seeing is part of the reservation except for this chunk. Is that right?
RICH: Yes. I mean, the land was taken, it wasn't sold, it wasn't offered, it was just taken. For us to get it back was just, you know, it came full circle. Yeah. Just to see the bison that we may see out there, but I mean, the 18,800 acres that we got back was just amazing. And it's done. It's over. Federal law.
Rich grew up just down the road from the bison range, but he told me that when he was a kid, he didn’t come here. He said no tribal members that he knew did—they didn’t feel welcome. And even when he and I met here in 2016, I could feel how being on this land brought up a lot of pain and anger. But I could also feel his determination to get the bison range back into tribal hands, no matter how long it took. Now, here we were, seven years later, and it had happened. It took decades, and the efforts of many, many people. And it’s not like the injustices of the past have all been magically wiped away now. But a new story—or a continuation of a very old story—is taking root.
RICH: And I tell people, this is your land, this is your range. Get out there, see it.
RICH: You know, and they're still trying to grasp that concept, you know, because it hasn't been a welcoming feeling in so long. They’re like, what do you mean, Rich? I said, this is your land. Go out there, enjoy it. I mean, I really have my staff push that to our people, that you can go out there any time.
RICH: I have a few bison skulls at my house and what they mean in our culture, in our tribe, the connection you have, I mean, going back centuries, just knowing I'm part of a bloodline that had such a special role in saving these animals. My ancestors actually hunted for subsistence and food and clothing. I mean, all these things they did and they used the bison parts, you know, to live.
RICH: When I come on to the range and see the bison, my whole entire day is better. It's like when I drive up from Missoula and I come over to Ravali Hill and I see the bison, I'm home. I see the mountains, I know I'm home, I'm safe. I don't know why, but a lot of us feel that way.