Buffalo Nation: American Indian Efforts to Restore the Bison

5. The Yellowstone Crisis [Includes Image Plates]

5. The Yellowstone Crisis We will continue to pray for an end, and will fight the genocide of these sacred animals. We will continue with this struggle until this unethical slaughter ends. Carle Rae Brings Plenty (1999) Despite a century of steadily increasing bison population since the Yellowstone buffalo population’s nadir in 1902, the winter crisis of 1997 marked both the worst slaughter of “free-roaming” bison in the twentieth century and the worst slaughter of Yellowstone bison since the park’s establishment in 1872.1 By early February 1997, over 800 of Yellowstone National Park’s approximately 3,500 buffalo perished just outside the park’s boundary at the hands of government officials representing the State of Montana and the National Park Service. Yellowstone bison biologist Mary Meagher predicted that by the end of the winter “a major population crash” would befall the woolly beasts, with at least 2,000 bison ultimately perishing. Her prediction rang largely true as government agents killed 1,084, and another 200 to 300 died from the exceptionally adverse winter conditions by the time the crisis ended. The herd emerged from the winter with fewer than two-thirds of its former members. Environment-sensitive citizens bemoaned the “national tragedy.” The Greater Yellowstone Coalition of Bozeman, Montana, led five other plaintiffs in a suit against the National Park Service (nps) for violation of its own Organic Act and other laws. The coalition also charged that Montana ignored fifty-year-old laws that required the state to establish bison habitat outside the park. Montana’s governor, Mark Racicot, one of the most popular political figures in Montana history, shot back that the National Park Service had proved “remiss” in its bison oversight by not The Yellowstone Crisis 100 reducing the herd. Montana senator Conrad Burns introduced legislation calling for tighter control over and herd reductions of Yellowstone bison. The Montana legislature moved bison from its Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to its Department of Livestock so fewer obstacles could be placed in the way of implementing the slaughter policy.2 In the winter of 1997 the fate of free-roaming bison on the American landscape appeared to hang in the balance across the boundary of Yellowstone National Park. Why? Part of the answer comes from the National Park Service’s controversial “natural regulation” policy for Yellowstone National Park. Established in the 1960s, the policy departed from much of the heavy-handed management of the existing policy, especially with respect to persistent herd reductions by humans and limitations on predation of ungulate populations. For example , when the nps implemented the policy of natural regulation in 1967, the frequently reduced Yellowstone bison herd numbered approximately four hundred animals.3 As the herd’s population skyrocketed over the next three decades, various groups interested in the herd’s plight envisioned differing futures for the buffalo of Yellowstone. Scientists and officials within the National Park Service foresaw an “experiment” whereby they could examine “natural” processes. Cattlemen saw a threat looming on the horizon, which was eventually articulated by Montana’s senator Conrad Burns when he stated: “The problem with Yellowstone National Park has always been they had too many buffalo. What we’re saying is get the numbers down where the range will support them. It’s just good old common sense on how you run livestock.” Environmentalists saw nature running its course and hoped that with some subtle tweaking, for example, the introduction of the wolf, the park’s ungulates could reach some type of equilibrium. For their part, Native Americans hoped to witness the return of an age-old icon to an existence not unlike the one it had once enjoyed.4 Thus, as the herd increased, public officials, ranchers, environmental visionaries , and Native Americans held diverse ideas on the proper relationship of the buffalo to the American landscape. Most specific to the Yellowstone controversy, however, the livestock lobby drew the line of no return for bison outside the park’s boundaries. Montana possessed 2.75 million cattle in 1996, of which some 2,000 grazed near the park on six public allotments interspersed with private land. The Montana herd enjoyed a “brucellosisfree ” status, which meant that Montana cattle did not require inspection when crossing state lines, and their beef merited acceptance by European The Yellowstone Crisis 101 Union standards. Brucellosis, a disease for which about half the Yellowstone bison...