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A Home Where The
Buffalo Roam
MOIESE, Mont., July
10, 2003
The bison that roam
the rough prairie of the National Bison Range are said to be
descended from calves that followed an American Indian home from
a hunt more than a century ago.
That is the story told to visitors, and that is the reason the
Salish and Kootenai Indian tribes say they should be the ones to
manage the range, the only federal wildlife refuge set aside to
protect the bison, or American buffalo.
The Indians are negotiating a first-of-its-kind agreement with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that some fear could set a
dangerous precedent by putting national lands in private hands.
“Those bison come from a herd that was from us — and that
story is even told at the bison range visitor center,” said
Anna Whiting Sorrell of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes of northwestern Montana.
The 19,000-acre bison range, visited by about 250,000 people
each year, sits entirely within the boundaries of the Flathead
Indian Reservation. For $4, visitors can drive a winding, narrow
dirt road through the range to watch bison grazing or see the
birds, elk, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope that also live
there.
Federal workers staff the visitor center, monitor the health of
the herd and rotate the grazing animals to keep the prairie
healthy.
A deal to turn over management to the Indians would be the first
agreement of its kind under a 1994 law that allows tribes to
apply to run federal refuges if the tribe has cultural,
geographic or historic links to the land.
Even if the tribes took over the bison refuge, the Fish and
Wildlife Service would continue to own the land, keep a refuge
manager on site and be responsible for the range's “inherently
federal functions.”
Much of the controversy and the negotiations center on what,
exactly, those functions are. Neither side will discuss details
of the talks.
Opponents fear the move could be a first step toward similar
changes at other refuges and perhaps national parks.
“This has nothing to do with Native American versus other
kinds of American,” said Susan Campbell Reneau of Missoula,
who has written 19 books on wildlife and conservation. “The
issue is, do we want our national lands that belong to everyone
privatized and localized?”
But Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery dismissed such
fears. “There's been no movement to turn over the refuge
system,” he said, and the negotiations are required by law
when a tribe requests them.
The bison range was created in 1908 when the federal government
bought the Indian land to protect the buffalo, which had been
nearly wiped out. The range now has a budget of $1.7 million and
18 full-time workers.
The tribes want to manage only the parts that lie within
reservation boundaries — the bison range and two small areas
of protected waterfowl habitat. The tribes say they would be
paid the same amount that the government now spends to operate
the range and the two refuges.
Whiting Sorrell said management of the refuge would have to be
approved, reviewed and monitored by the Fish and Wildlife
Service.
“Somehow there's this impression that the doors will be closed
to the bison range, that the American public won't be able to
access it any longer,” tribal chairman Fred Matt said.
“That's clearly not the case.”
Likewise, he said, concerns that jobs will be cut are unfounded,
though the tribes will work to boost Indian employment there.
To build public support, the tribe has launched a campaign
called Join the Herd and sent out 50,000 newspaper inserts or
newsletters laying out its case.
The tribes previously worked with the wildlife service to
reintroduce peregrine falcons and trumpeter swans to the
reservation. David Wiseman, manager of the bison refuge,
credited the tribes' work on environmental issues, saying,
“There's probably no better record out there.”
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© 2003 AP Wire and wire service sources. All
Rights Reserved.
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