In 2015, I spent part of a summer volunteering on the Blackfeet reservation in northern Montana. I had the opportunity to experience life among the Blackfeet people and was humbled by how I was readily included in their lives. They invited me to join sacred ceremonies, including a sweat lodge prayer ceremony and the once-outlawed Sun dance purification ritual. I was struck by their intimate connection with the land they have occupied for thousands of years. However, I recall thinking about the dissonance in my mind’s eye of what the reservation would be and the reality of that place. The grasslands seemed oddly empty. Certainly, there were horses, people, and dogs, but what was missing from my imagination was the buffalo; the American Bison to be scientifically correct. I could easily imagine those rolling plains filled with bison herds to the horizon.
As of Monday, June 26th, 2023, that image is no longer only in the imagination. A herd of twenty free-roaming bison was released by the Blackfeet Nation into the Chief Mountain wilderness in Montana. The animals were brought to the reservation in 2016 by the Blackfeet as part of a plan to repopulate ancestral lands with bison that are direct descendants of the animals that used to roam on Blackfeet lands in what is now Montana. The bison will be allowed to live unfenced upon those lands, and presumably anywhere else in Glacier National Park or on the Blackfeet reservation that they choose to visit.
The importance of restoring free-roaming bison to Blackfeet lands cannot be overstated. “The restoration of Iinniiwa will heal the grassland habitats; sustain the health of our people; deepen the relationship between our people and nature; connect our youth to successful lifeways; renew partnerships across our Blackfoot Confederacy; restore ancient knowledge; revitalize our culture and language; teach us sustainable living; and help us re-interpret the relationships of all creation,” the Tribe said.
In addition, it will allow scientists to study the natural habits of a truly free-roaming bison herd for the first time. The herd in Yellowstone is constrained by the boundaries of the park and animals are either destroyed or returned to the park if they stray outside those boundaries.
My heart soars at the thought of what has been rightfully restored to the Blackfeet and the world. I hope those bison live long, prosper, and multiply.
A captive American Bison on the plains of the Blackfeet reservation in 2015.
