Buffalo could return to Native American reservations under Congressional proposal

Buffalo in Custer State Park, SD, September 2020. (Photo by Brianna Chappie)

WASHINGTON — Buffalo are so iconic that Congress designated them a national mammal in 2016. Native American oral histories estimate that 30 to 60 million people once roamed the plains.

After nearly disappearing, the shaggy beasts are making a comeback and soon, many could find themselves on reserves where their species hasn’t set foot in decades.

A bipartisan bill pending in Congress would move some of the 20,500 buffalo from public lands in the West and Midwest to reservation lands that were historically part of the animals’ range.

By the early 1900s, fewer than a thousand remained. The latest number stands at around 440,000 nationwide, mostly in commercial herds, according to the Interior Ministry. More than 4,000 wild buffalo live in Yellowstone National Park.

Support for returning some to their ancestral lands has shown signs of growth since the late Rep. Don Young, an Alaska Republican, proposed it in 2021. The House approved the measure by a vote of 373-52 in late 2021 , but it died in the Senate.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the only Native American in the Senate, is leading a new offensive with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.

The bill would ensure that Native Americans “continue to reconnect with a keystone of their historic culture and way of life,” Mullin said in a news release announcing the measure.

The buffalo is actually a species of bison. The terms are interchangeable in the United States, where French trappers began calling them “boeuf” (beef) in the 1600s and the name stuck.

(Map provided by the National Park Service)

Before the arrival of Europeans, “all the native peoples of this country depended on the plains bison for their survival…. Buffalo were essential to the Native way of life and provided food, shelter and clothing – essential tools for our way of life,” said Ervin Carlson Sr., president of the Intertribal Buffalo Council, during a hearing in the Senate on June 12 on the resettlement project.

“They symbolize survival and have become essential to our spirituality and religious practices. Our people called the bison ‘my kinsman,’ to signify how spiritually connected we are to them,” Carlson, a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, told senators.

Rampant hunting by white settlers contributed to the disappearance of the buffalo. Some herds were killed to make way for railroad tracks – collisions would have been very problematic – and the U.S. military massacred bison to solve the so-called “Indian problem.”

In 1875, a bill was proposed in the Texas Legislature to preserve the species by limiting buffalo hunting. General Philip Sheridan, charged by President Ulysses S. Grant with “pacifying” the Great Plains, defended the massacres as more effective than the fighting of the previous 40 years.

“They are destroying the stewardship of the Indians…killing, skinning and selling until the buffalo are exterminated,” he said.

With the decimation of the buffalo, the tribes lost food, clothing, a way of life and their independence.

The loss of bison also contributed to famine and genocide. There were millions of Native Americans in North America before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the introduction of Europeans to the New World. By the 1920 census, there were only 250,000 left in the United States.

Mullin and Heinrich’s proposed bill, the Indian Buffalo Management Act, acknowledges that “bison were nearly exterminated by non-Indian hunters in the mid-1800s.”

Tribal leaders have long wanted to restore the herds. Supporters of the bill hope that a future where shaggy beasts roam Indigenous lands in abundance will be closer than ever.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are approximately 440,000 buffalo in the United States. Approximately 20,000 individuals live in conservation herds, including a herd located on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon under the care of the National Park Service, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the Kaibab National Forest.

Since 2018, the Intertribal Buffalo Council, or ITBC, has translocated 182 buffalo from the North Shore to eight tribes in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Relocations provide an alternative for national parks that need to control herd sizes and might otherwise have to kill some animals.

A buffalo resting in Custer State Park, SD, September 2020. (Photo by Brianna Chappie)

ITBC, which represents 83 federally recognized tribes in 20 states, is one of several Native American groups supporting the bill.

Carlson, president of the ITBC, told senators that federal funding for bison management was “minimal and stagnant,” something the Indian Buffalo Management Act would rectify.

“When you try to spread $1.4 million among multiple tribes, it doesn’t go very far. Tribes need fencing, watering systems, genetic diversity in their herds, supplemental feeds and testing, all of which require significant funds,” he said.

Restoring herds could also create jobs on reservations and reduce food insecurity. Prices on reservations are high due to transportation costs. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates on behalf of low-income Americans, says one in four Native Americans is food insecure.

Obesity and diabetes are also prevalent on reservations. According to data collected by the National Library of Medicine, 48% of American Indians and Alaska Native adults are considered overweight, and the CDC says American Indians and Alaska Natives are more likely to suffer from diabetes than any other racial group in the United States. .

Buffalo meat is high in protein, contains less saturated fat and more micronutrients like vitamin B12, zinc, selenium and omega 3 fatty acids than beef.

“This legislation will advance food sovereignty and the protection and revitalization of the cultural practices of tribes across the United States,” Bryan Newland, assistant secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, told senators.

At the same hearing, Heinrich recounted a visit to a New Mexico tribe, the Picuris Pueblo. He said he was inspired by how members were able to reintroduce bison into their diet and distribute free meat within the community.

The senator called the resurgence of buffalo herds in recent decades “a symbol of the enduring resilience of this iconic species and a major economic development opportunity for many tribes.”

The bill would also help tribes manage disease.

Bison in Yellowstone Park, for example, are susceptible to brucellosis, a disease that has cost livestock producers billions. Bison are tested before being moved.

“I hope that in my lifetime, thanks in large part to these tribal buffalo herds, we will see the bison return to the important place it once held, as a keystone species of America’s shortgrass prairies” , said Heinrich.

(Map provided by Buffalo Field Campaign)