A Bison-Tennial

We, not exactly… more like 140 years. But the plains around Wolf Point, Montana recently resonated with the pitter-patter – maybe the “thundering hooves” – of sixty bison-invitees raised in our Yellowstone National Park moving to their new Montana “digs.” Ain’t been bison in these here parts for well nigh 140 years, you see. The bison once roamed this great land, facing natural predators and Native American hunters who cherished both the land and the creatures that lived on it. But with western expansion and over-hunting, the species pretty much disappeared.

“When the explorer Meriwether Lewis followed the Missouri River through this region in 1805, he came across bison herds he described as ‘innumerable.’ Just eight decades later, a young Theodore Roosevelt noted that all that remained were ‘countless’ bleached skulls covering the Montana badlands… Scientists estimate that tens of millions of bison once roamed America, but by 1902 there were only 23 known survivors in the wild, all hiding from poachers in a remote Yellowstone valley.” New York Times, April 26^th.

It reminds me a bit about a conversation I had a while ago with a Kenyan farmer with aspirations for a better, Western-style life, who challenged why Westerners were so keen on conservation in Kenya when the United States grew fat and rich by decimating its natural resources. “We want to be rich like you and not be responsible for being caretakers of your vacation wildlife vistas,” he noted with a touch of anger in his voice.

But bison are indeed returning to this million acre preserve. “Sioux and Assiniboine tribe members wailed a welcome song [when they arrived in March]… ‘I call them my brothers and sisters because they are a genetic link to the same ones my ancestors hunted,’ said Tote Gray Hawk, 54, a Sioux who has brought the Fort Peck bison hay and water each day since their arrival. Their meat, lower in cholesterol than beef, will feed elderly tribe members and their skulls will be used in traditional sun dance ceremonies, he said.

“The last hunt for indigenous bison on the Fort Peck reservation happened in 1873. In the 1880s, hundreds of tribe members starved to death on the barren land. Around them homesteaders from Europe began wresting an agricultural living from this windswept expanse of rolling amber in northeast Montana. Most of the neighboring farmers and ranchers today are descendants of those pioneers, and they safeguard their traditions with generational grit.” NY Times.

Bison are the last species to be restored to this part of Montana, although not everyone is leaping with joy at the prospect. “But with several groups now navigating a complex and contentious path to return bison to these plains, agribusiness is fighting back. Many farmers and ranchers fear that bison, particularly those from Yellowstone, might be mismanaged and damage private property, and worry that they would compete for grass with their own herds… ‘Bison are a romantic notion, but they don’t belong today,’ said Curt McCann, 46, a Chinook rancher who this month drove four hours to a public meeting in Jordan to speak against bison reintroduction.

“The bison debate has dredged up old tensions between tribes and their neighbors. Before Ms. [Iris] Greybull, a Sioux, spoke in favor of the animals last fall at a fractious meeting in Glasgow, dozens of farmers and ranchers walked out in protest… She and other tribe members say they see an ugly double standard in the fact that there are more than 130 private bison ranches in the state, including one belonging to the mogul Ted Turner housing dozens of controversial Yellowstone bison, and yet only the Fort Peck herd has been visited by protesters.

“But some say the bison on the ranches do not pose the threat that the wild ones do… ‘Unless they have the German wall and a moat with a bunch of crocodiles and piranhas, they’re not going to contain those woolly tanks,’ said State Senator John Brenden of nearby Scobey, who has long done battle on the bison issue in the state Legislature.” NY Times. I guess debate continues to sustain the old maxim that you can’t please all of the people all of the time… Am I just being just too nostalgic?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I see a clear alteration in just about every priority that Americans once held dear.