Just a few weeks ago, it looked like the effort to return wild bison to tribal lands would be stopped just as it was gaining ground. It looked like the dreams that culminated in the release of more than 60 bison from Yellowstone National Park last year on the Fort Peck Reservation would be killed.

The campaign to restore wild bison to the American prairies is still alive, thanks to the work by tribal and conservation leaders and the overwhelming public response. The National Wildlife Federation and more than 53,000 members and activists sent a clear message for the Montana legislature to call off its assault on bison. 

This spring, NWF joined tribes, other sportsmen’s and conservation groups and wildlife advocates to defeat a barrage of anti-bison bills sponsored by Montana lawmakers.  The bills that didn’t die in the Legislature were vetoed by Gov. Steve Bullock. The bills could have blocked returning the bison to its home on the plains – to tribal lands and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The proposals ranged from a ban on transferring wild bison anywhere in Montana except the National Bison Range to a bill that would make the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks liable for any damage to private property by wild bison. Another would have allowed county commissioners to ban restoration of wild bison in their counties, even on tribal and federal lands.

Opponents rallied at the state Capitol in Helena to protest the bills. Leaders and members from five tribes participated in a peace-pipe ceremony on a bison hide in the center of the Capitol rotunda. Tribal leaders stressed that the bills reneged on commitments made in the last legislative session and, in some cases, threatened treaty rights. “They would starve our people of a vital cultural icon,’’ said Mark Azure, Fort Belknap’s director of Fish, Wildlife and Buffalo.

One of the worst of the anti-bison bills was killed after thousands of you responded to appeals from NWF. The bill by State Senator John Brenden would have changed bison hunting regulations, allowed private landowners to shoot bison if they wandered onto their land, and prohibited the relocation of bison anywhere in the state, including the transfer of bison from Fort Peck to Fort Belknap as previously agreed upon by the tribes. Brenden recently remarked, “Why do you want to spread this creeping cancer, these woolly tanks, around the state of Montana?” This type of anti-wildlife rhetoric was also seen in House Bill 396, vetoed by Montana Governor Steve Bullock, that would have required county commissioner approval before any bison were relocated. Clearly, many more people see bison as an important wildlife species to be preserved and recognize their value to grassland ecosystems and other wildlife.

Governor Bullock vetoed the two remaining bison bills. Senate Bill 305 would have prohibited using bison that have ever been privately owned for restoration to other lands. Senate Bill 256 would have made Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks liable for any damages resulting from wild bison that had been relocated or released.

The work will continue until bison return home – to tribal and public lands.

Last March marked a historic step forward in the campaign to restore wild bison when Yellowstone bison were released on the Fort Peck Reservation in eastern Montana.

Tribal members from Fort Peck and Fort Belknap, NWF staff, conservationists, and their supporters braved a cold, snowy night to watch as the animals bolted out of the trailers that had carried them 500 miles to their new home. It was a huge milestone in efforts to restore bison to the wild. The bison is the one large mammal driven to near extinction that hasn’t been re-established on the Western landscape.

Last year’s bison release on Fort Peck followed two decades of work by the tribes, conservation groups, and state and federal officials. The Yellowstone bison’s genetics date to an era when millions of bison roamed North America and were fundamental to Plains Indians’ physical, cultural and spiritual nourishment.

Yellowstone bison are special to the tribes because they are the last wild, free-ranging herd. For years, the tribes, NWF and other groups have urged that bison wandering out of  Yellowstone be transferred to tribal and federal lands rather than be gunned down because of fears they’ll spread the disease brucellosis to cattle. The disease can cause pregnant animals to abort, but there have been no confirmed cases of bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle. Bison transferred from Yellowstone have been quarantined and are brucellosis-free.

NWF members and activists, and our tribal and conservation partners, stood up for bison, and the Montana legislature and Governor Bullock listened. With a swipe of his pen, Bullock demonstrated that he agrees with NWF that bison belong on Montana public and tribal lands, along with all the other wildlife that are crucial elements of the ecosystem, our heritage and culture.

TOGETHER, we killed the bad bills, and now bison have a new future in Montana. Join us as we continue to work with tribes to restore bison and find new homes for the bison on public lands.

Photo: Colin Ruggiero

New NWF Report Tells Story of Mining and Tribes

The National Wildlife Federation has just released a new report, Honoring the River: How Hardrock Mining Impacts Tribal Communities, which tells the story of mining and tribes, from the checkered history of federal legislation allowing mining companies to lease minerals on tribal lands—often without tribal consent—to the many new mines being proposed near tribal communities and lands.

Photo: Earthworks

One of the key points of the report is that tribes view water as sacred, something to be honored. Our government could certainly learn from this perspective. Despite its commitment to clean water and environmental justice, the Administration has been slow to make the relatively simple rule changes needed to close the loopholes in the Clean Water Act. It hasn’t honored the river.

Tribes Speak Out Against Mining

Even as tribes continue to suffer from poisoned rivers, contaminated sacred sites, and other devastation caused by old and abandoned mines, they face a new round of threats. Mines are being proposed from Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a watershed that supports the greatest remaining runs of wild sockeye salmon on earth, to the Great Lakes basin, which contains 84 percent of North America’s supply of fresh surface water.

Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Chairman Mike Wiggins is fighting to stop the permitting of the largest iron-ore, open-pit mine in the world slated for the headwaters of the Bad River, six miles from the reservation border in northern Wisconsin ceded territory. The Gogebic Taconite mine’s proposed location threatens the Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs, a 16,000-acre wetland complex at the mouths of the two rivers that contains valuable flora and fauna, including wild rice beds of cultural significance to the tribes. These resources are within the Bad River Reservation and contain 40 percent of the Lake Superior Basin coastal wetlands.

“This ecosystem is as good as what we have left in the state and in the world. We all have an impact on the environment. We really have to humble ourselves. Environmental stewardship is a sacrifice.”

-Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Chairman Mike Wiggins

We may not be able to undo all of the inequities of the past, but we can learn from the original stewards of the land and require mines to operate responsibly. Surely nobody can argue that mines should be able to store untreated industrial waste in living waters. Closing the mining loopholes would not stop hardrock mining, but it would help protect tribal communities, all of our communities, from the chemicals, heavy metals, and acid mine drainage produced by modern mines.

Urge the EPA and Army Corps to close these mining loopholes to protect our nation’s waters and wildlife.

Flickr:USFWS/Rocky Mountain-Prairie Region. The black-footed ferret is one of North America’s rarest species.

Now, one of the rarest animals in North America could be on the verge of a comeback. The next big step is buy-in from private landowners who typically cringe at the mention of endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping ranchers and others will agree to host black-footed ferrets in exchange for assurance they won’t face restrictions that hinder their operations.

Foster program for ferrets?

Several federal agencies will offer assistance (including financial help) to participants in the proposed Safe Harbor program, kind of the conservation equivalent of foster homes for ferrets. The plan is undergoing an environmental assessment.

 ”We’ve got to have wider geographical distribution of colonies of black-footed ferrets. The only way we’re go to achieve that is with the help of landowners,” said Tom Dougherty, who first got involved with the recovery program when he was with the Wyoming Wildlife Federation.

Dougherty later became a regional director and a senior adviser with the National Wildlife Federation. He represented NWF on an advisory committee to the team overseeing ferret recovery.

Ferrets have been released – and some have been born in the wild – on federal, tribal, state and private lands in the Intermountain West and Plains. The recovery program’s goal is a population of 3,000.

According to the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Implementation Team, the biggest obstacle to ferret recovery today is lack of suitable reintroduction sites.

Friendly environs for ferrets

Gary Walker, who ranches near Pueblo, Colo., thinks his land is more than suitable. His cattle ranch is stocked with thousands of acres of ferrets’ favorite food – prairie dogs. He’d like to see ferrets take a big bite out of the rodent’s population.

Walker also prefers working with – not against – nature.

 ”I believe in nature and native predation,’’ Walker said. “It’s nonsense to me why we would be raising all these ferrets in captivity and not be introducing them into the wild, letting mother nature do what it is intended to do.”

Terry Fankhauser agrees. The executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association say his group “is on board” with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s efforts to find landowners who will host ferrets. It’s a turnaround for an organization that in the late 1990s backed a bill requiring legislative approval to reintroduce an endangered or threatened species not currently in the state. That followed on the heels of the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s release of lynx to restore the long-haired mountain cat in the state.

The cattlemen’s group is now backing legislation that would authorize reintroduction of black-footed ferrets on the property of consenting owners.

“Landowners can participate and should participate in the conservation of these species,’’ Fankhauser said.

Black-footed ferrets were on the edge of extinction in 1987, with only 18 ferrets left. Today, captive breeding programs are slowly helping the species recover. This photo of a mother and her four kits was taken at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Center in Colorado

Fankhauser would like to see similar programs aimed at keeping wildlife off the Endangered Species List in the first place.

Dougherty doesn’t understand the opposition the Fish and Wildlife Service plan has met in some places, including Colorado’s neighboring state of Kansas. He thinks it’s in everybody’s best interests to restore a threatened or endangered species to viable population levels, eliminating the special protections that can restrict land uses.

“If you told me 20 years ago that we had a chance in recovering the black-footed ferret, I’m not sure I would’ve believed it,” he added. “Now, I actually think we’re on the threshold of recovering the species.”

Bison Grazing Under Prairie Sky

Many of the foods we eat and the medicines and remedies we use were introduced by Indians and more than one highway follows an Indian trail.  Indians make contributions in every area of endeavor and American life, and our literature and all our arts draw upon Indian themes and wisdom.  Countless American Indians have served in our Armed Forces and have fought valiantly for our country. President Ronald Reagan, Proclamation of American Indian Week, 1986.

There are over 5.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. The 566 federally-recognized, sovereign tribal nations own and manage over 95 million acres of land – 11 million acres more than the National Park Service (to read more notable statistics for American Indians and Alaska Natives, visit the U.S. Census Bureau).

This month, NWF’s Tribal Partnerships Program is highlighting the important contributions Native peoples have made to conservation. Native Americans are our nation’s original environmental stewards. Tribes have been caring for and nurturing Mother Earth for thousands of years. Because Tribes have the longest continual experience with the land, climate, wildlife and other natural resources, they have significant expertise and play an important role in helping us solve today’s conservation challenges.

Since the mid-1980s, NWF has partnered with tribes because we share a common value – to protect wildlife and habitat. This year, the theme of Native American Heritage Month is “Serving Our People, Serving our Nations: Native Visions for Future Generations.” In keeping with this theme – as well as NWF’s mission to “inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future” – we thank our tribal partners for major conservation successes in 2012. Each story is a win not only for tribes, but for all Americans, and is guaranteed to benefit generations to come.

Photo by Ted Wood/The Story Group

Stopping the Keystone XL oil pipeline. In December 2011, Tribal leaders met with federal agencies and members of Congress to voice their opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a massive project intended to carry oil sands from Alberta to Texas. Tribes object to the massive destruction and pollution caused by oil sands development, fear that a pipeline spill will harm tribal health, safety, and environment, and criticize the State Department’s failure to engage tribes in the permitting process.  In large part due to the efforts of tribes, President Obama put the project on hold in February 2012, citing inadequate environmental review.

Tribal Schools Receive Awards from NWF’s Eco-Schools USA Program. This year, the STAR School in Leupp, AZ – on the Navajo Reservation – received an Eco-Schools Bronze Award from NWF as well as a Green Ribbon School award from the U.S. Department of Education. Several Navajo elementary schools – Mesa Elementary in Shiprock, Chee Dodge in Yatahey and Navajo Elementary in Navajo –are in various stages of completing the Eco-Schools Bronze award. In addition, Tohatchi High School in Tohatchi, NM became an officially registered Eco-School.

Fighting Reckless Energy Development in the Powder River Basin. The Powder River Basin is the most active area in the country for coal mining and coal bed methane development. NWF works with Tribal members from across the Northern Plains who have long-standing historical and cultural ties to the Powder River Basin landscape. We are working to create a Carbon Trust, which would provide economic incentives for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe to keep its coal in the ground and preserve its pristine habitat of grass-covered plains and rolling hills. Currently, we are rallying with Tribal members and local landowners to fight the proposed Tongue River Railroad. Stopping this new spur line will inhibit the development of new coal mines in southern Montana and the export of U.S. coal to Asian markets, which will in turn protect wildlife habitat, historic and cultural resources, and clean air and water.

The National Wildlife Federation is honored to partner with tribes on wildlife conservation. Please join us in thanking them for inspiring us “to protect wildlife for our children’s future.”

Please visit our Tribal Partnerships Program, learn more about what we do, and join us in protecting wildlife and habitat on tribal lands.

NWF’s Yakima River salmon and ecosystem restoration project in Washington state, led by Steve Malloch,  is a good example of how this kind of engagement with local communities pays off.  As this editorial by the conservative Seattle Times points out, the conservation community has negotiated a very promising deal with farmers and the Native American tribe in the Yakima basin.  Declining snow pack and other impacts of climate change on local hydrology poses huge threats to the livelihoods of farmers as well as to the future of the salmon that the Yakima Nation tribe depends upon. These threats caused everyone – the farmers, the Yakama Nation, conservationists and government at all levels – to take a new look at how to manage the water.

Yakima River

This formula for achieving  broad support of a new water management policy may not work everywhere, but in this basin, it is the only way to create a more resilient ecosystem and economy – good for fish, farmers, forests and families.

The Great Plains spread eastward from the foothills of Wyoming (Photo by Sarah Pizzo)

Jason explains that the plants, animals and humans of the American prairie have been evolving together for millennia. Bison were an integral part of the prairie ecosystem: their hooves broke up the soil so seeds could germinate and their wallows – the depressions left when they rolled in the dirt – gathered rain which fed medicinal plants.

The lives of Native Americans were also inextricably tied to the bison. They followed the herds across the plains, relying on the great creatures for food, shelter and tools. They worshipped bison, performing religious ceremonies to promote its abundance and express gratitude for its ultimate sacrifice to them in the hunt.

The U.S. Army recognized this reliance in the late 19th century, when the westward movement of miners and homesteaders led to clashes with the resident Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Arapaho. To defeat the tribes and clear the way for “Manifest Destiny,” the U.S. Army used the following tactic: eliminate the tribes’ main food source.

A herd of wild bison approach the author’s car in Yellowstone National Park (Photo by Sarah Pizzo)

NWF has been working for two decades to transfer some of these Yellowstone bison – whose numbers now overwhelm the Park’s capacity – back to their native lands. Our first major victory came last spring when we helped the Fort Peck Tribes move 61 Yellowstone bison to their reservation in northeast Montana. The tribes are thrilled to have these “tatanka” home. The bison and their 21 new calves are enjoying thousands of acres of wild prairie.

Today, NWF is working with Jason and other members of the Shoshone and Arapaho tribes to move a herd of Yellowstone bison to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. A group of bison awaits transfer on a Montana ranch. The land and the tribes are ready to receive them. Standing in the way is a complex web of legal and political hurdles that we are working to overcome.

Late in the day on my visit to Yellowstone, I came upon a lone buffalo walking the center line of the Park’s loop road. I pulled to the shoulder to give him space to pass and he paused long enough to make eye contact. I stared with a sense of wonder and respect. His return gaze was fearless and unconcerned. And at that moment I knew: we are beginning to restore the balance.

A Yellowstone bison wanders along the Park road (Photo by Sarah Pizzo)

21  bison calves were born in the last 3 months on the Fort Peck reservation

This week, the Sioux and Assiniboine Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation have reached another conservation milestone–after being held in a temporary surveillance corral for the past four months while fencing for a larger enclosure was specially crafted, the 61 bison adults and their 21 calves will be able to freely roam within a 2,200-acre pasture.

These are the first wild Yellowstone bison to be restored to the Great Plains. Later this fall, an additional 5,120-acre pasture will be opened to the bison, allowing them access to more than 7,000 acres of their native habitat.

Bison are one of America’s most iconic species, a symbol of the West, and a vital part of our nation’s wildlife heritage. Their return to Fort Peck is a critical step forward in returning the animal to important parts of its historic range across the West. Building on this victory, NWF is working with the Wind River Tribes of Wyoming and other tribes to restore wild, genetically-pure bison. To accomplish this goal, we need your help. Together, we can bring wild bison back to the tribes and public lands, restoring them to their rightful place on America’s western landscape.

Learn more about our work at nwf.org/tribalbison

Bison on the Fort Peck Reservation, credit: Ted Wood/The Story Group for NWF

As American Indians battled to protect their lives and cultures, they also fought to preserve their historical and cultural connections to buffalo. A pair of Indians from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in northwest Montana rounded up some of those bison to save them, and by the early 20th century the bison had grown to a herd of several hundred animals.

These bison were transferred to Canadian national parks and to ranchers in the U.S. Some eventually became seed animals for the Yellowstone herd. American Indians had saved bison from the precipice and contributed to the creation of what would become America’s only wild, genetically pure, free-roaming herd of bison. Today, the historical relationship between buffalo and American Indians comes full circle, as the bison return home to their brethren that saved them.

NWF is proud to have served alongside our tribal partners to protect and restore bison over the last couple of decades. This week, we are gratified to see the wild bison’s homecoming for Indian tribes at Fort Peck and Fort Belknap in northeastern Montana. We hope this is just the beginning of restoration of the creature know as the monarch of the plains to tribal and public lands across the West.

As a tribal partner told us:

You’ve been working to save the bison for the last twenty years, we’ve been praying for this for 120.

It is only fitting that during the very week of their return to tribal lands, NWF is also celebrating bison as one of the extraordinary species of it’s 74th annual National Wildlife Week. We know that a a better understanding and appreciation of these iconic creatures will help us continue to preserve them for our children’s future.

Yellowstone Bison, credit GVoggesser/NWF

Since the mid-1990s, the National Wildlife Federation has been working to ensure people won’t have to ask that question. We believe restoration to other landscapes is a better management strategy to resolve livestock-wildlife conflicts. We envisioned a future when Yellowstone bison, the last genetically pure, free-roaming, wild bison population in the U.S., could provide animals to establish new herds across the West.

In 1997, we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, the first ever conservation agreement between an environmental organization and a tribal organization, to advocate for the return of wild bison to tribal lands. NWF and the tribes shared a common vision – restoring wild bison to their historical habitat and restoring Native peoples’ cultural connections to bison. But the political opposition to the return of the bison seemed insurmountable.

A Victory for Conservation and Tribes

Room to Roam, credit Stephen C. Torbit/NWF

This has been one of the hardest nuts to crack in wildlife conservation history. Many other large mammal species that had depleted in numbers have been restored, but not bison. By restoring bison to tribal lands and other former habitats across the country, we’re also revitalizing a landscape, habitat, and a diversity of wildlife. Simultaneously, we’re helping to re-establish Native peoples’ cultural and historic connections to wildlife and the land.

This is a win-win proposition for the tribes, the state of Montana, and the millions of Americans nationwide who want bison back where they belong. The return of wild bison to tribal lands is a major milestone in efforts to restore an iconic North American species to the landscape and restore an important element of Native American culture.

This spring, we will welcome the bison home.