BOX ELDER — Hundreds of Chippewa Cree tribal members clung to a barbed-wire fence, cheering and high-fiving as the community welcomed the return of 11 bison to tribal lands.
“They’re here!” Dustin Whitford, the tribe’s language preservation officer, shouted to the crowd. Montana Cree, a local drum group, played the Chief Rocky Boy song as the bison were released into a 1,200-acre pasture.
Jason Belcourt, the tribe’s sustainability coordinator, hugged everyone in sight. He smiled as he high-fived and shook hands with people in the crowd. Nearly everyone wore masks.
“The buffalo wanted to come home,” he said Tuesday.
In partnership with the tribe’s buffalo board and council, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the American Prairie Reserve, Belcourt worked for two years to return bison (or “pahskahmotos” in the Cree language) to the tribe.
The American Prairie Reserve, a nonprofit that promotes conservation and public land access, donated six bison to the tribe, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes donated five. The Chippewa Cree Tribe’s buffalo board will care for the animals, the Great Falls Tribune reported.
Bison haven’t roamed the Rocky Boy Reservation, home to the Chippewa Cree Tribe, since the early 1990s. Native people used bison for food, clothing, shelter and cultural ceremonies. But in the 1800s, settlers and white traders and trappers killed millions of bison. The American military also ordered troops to kill bison to devastate Native communities that relied on the animal for food.
“There was 40 to 60 million buffalo here, on this land, and there was 40 to 60 million Natives on this land. They wiped out the buffalo and wiped the Indians out, too,” Belcourt said.
Belcourt said he hopes the bison will restore a sense of pride and identity in the tribal community.
“As (the bison) come back and flourish, so too will our people,” he said. “We live in some crazy times. Here in the Rocky Boy community, we’re having a tough time: COVID-19, death, suicide, just loss. We’re lost because we don’t know who we are because years ago, it was stripped — the language, the culture. So now we have to find out who we are, and once we do, we’re going to be all right. And this (bison return) is a big part of that.”
Ashley Young, a member of the tribe’s buffalo board, said the tribe hopes to expand the herd and build a visitor center.
“We have big plans. We want to do this big,” she said. “Our dream is to expand. From there, it would be OK to slaughter one if we need for ceremonies or to feed our people.”
Young said she hopes the return of bison will transform the community.
“We were taught that buffalo have a lot of power to heal. So to me, I think our community could use some healing and some education about what buffalo mean to us. It’s why we’re bringing them back. It’s part of our culture, and they’re powerful beings,” she said.
About 200 students from Rocky Boy and Box Elder schools attended the event. Organizers said they wanted young people to witness the historic event and feel inspired to learn more about the tribe’s connection to bison.
“This is for all of you, our children,” Whitford said to the crowd. “This is for the future.”