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TWO MEDICINE VALLEY – A river snakes through this valley south- east of Browning like a muddy belt on a barren landscape. This corner of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is rela- tively unchanged from when the nearby hills were shaped several millennia ago, a time when millions of bison roamed the Great Plains.
The bison have long been a crucial species for the Blackfeet, but more than a century ago they were wiped o this landscape at the hands of white settlers. Now, the Blackfeet Nation is leading an international e ort to return these iconic animals to the Rocky Mountain Front.
Last week, those e orts took a giant leap forward in this small valley on the Blackfeet Reservation with the arrival of 88 young bison that will form the core of a herd tribal o cials hope will one day roam freely on their native land. But those plans could be sti ed as the animals have become a source of con- troversy in the state and as communi- ties debate the implications of bison Treintroduction.
he bison was long the lifeblood of North America’s native people.
“For thousands of years, we had 30 million bison here and they were an integral part of our life,” said Black- feet Chairman Harry Barnes. “Our food, clothing and shelter all came from the bison.”
No part of the bison was wasted. The
meat from the animal could feed dozens of people; the bones used to make tools, utensils and weapons; the fur mor- phed into clothing; and even the fat was turned into soaps, hair grease and pipe sealer. The bison was more than a source of sustenance, but at once a model for the native people. In storms, the bison always face the wind, a lesson in staring adversity head-on, Barnes said.
Settlers in the 1800s also saw value in the bison that roamed the American West and began to rapidly hunt them. By the later part of the 19th century, as the United States began settling the West, the federal government slaughtered the animals in an e ort to destroy the Plains Indians. By 1890, estimates show there were fewer than 1,000 bison left on the continent.
The impact of the slaughter was disastrous, particularly for the Black- feet. Between 1883-84, more than 500 Blackfeet Indians, or about a quarter of the tribe by some counts, died during the grimly named “Starvation Winter.”
Along with losing a vital food source after the bison were eradicated, the Blackfeet lost a spiritual connection to their past.
“When the bison left we began to adopt the lesson plans of the colonizers and that wasn’t a good lesson plan for us,” Barnes said.
The e orts to return the bison began in the 1970s, when the Blackfeet estab- lished a commercial herd, which now
Men on horseback lead a eet of vehicles delivering 88 bison from Alberta’s Elk Island National Park to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
APRIL 13, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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