American Bison

“The buffalo is important to Indian communities, to our people culturally and ecologically to our lands . . . We know bringing them back will not only heal our people but also help us with the changes we see on our grasslands due to drought. And for Buffalo Nations to be successful, we need funding support for Tribal research partnerships and for the buffalo that our communities benefit from.”

“President Obama signed into law the National Bison Legacy Act, which designates the bison as the official mammal of the United States . . . The bison, which joins the bald eagle as a national symbol, represents the country's first successful foray into wildlife conservation . . . An estimated 20,000 bison live on public lands in North America . . . 162,110 live on private farms and ranches.”

“There are ceremonies and songs that may not have been performed or sung for decades. But when we bring those [bison] back, that tradition is revived . . . There’s no greater feeling than that.”

“Yellowstone National Park’s revitalized population of more than 5,000 bison are widely considered to be the most sacred since they’re ‘the last of the free roaming wild buffalo that are genetically as close to the buffalo that provided for our ancestors.’”

“'You people are doing the most important thing of any group, Indian or non-Indian, that’s going on today . . . by bringing this animal back, this animal that has tremendous power, you’re going to change everything in the Great Plains.' Herds under the care of Native Americans rose from fifteen hundred animals to more than nine thousand head in 1999. At the same time, reservation bison range increased by one hundred thousand acres.”

"Range expansion much beyond the park boundary was precluded by intense management intervention due to concerns of brucellosis transmission to cattle in the greater Yellowstone system . . . When livestock are infected it also results in economic loss from slaughtering infected cattle herds and imposed trade restrictions. Therefore, all bison leaving Yellowstone were hazed (i.e., moved) back into the park by riders on horseback, all-terrain vehicles, or helicopters; harvested by hunters; captured and transported to slaughter; or captured and confined in fenced paddocks until release in spring."

"As they left the park, bison encountered a changed world. In the century since bison roamed a continent of open space, the grassy river valleys and plains they used to graze had been settled and developed by people, much of it for agriculture. The landscape had become a maze of fenced pastures, houses, and highways."

"After near extirpation in the early twentieth century, Yellowstone bison were restored from fewer than 25 individuals through intense husbandry and within park reintroductions through 1938, after which abundance was limited by regular culling. The park ceased culling in 1969 and allowed numbers to fluctuate in response to weather, predators, and resource limitations."

"A population that once numbered in the tens of millions was seen as recovered with only 22,000 animals."

“Since 1888 great changes have occurred, both in the condition of the buffalo and in public sentiment regarding their preservation. The future of the species now seems assured.” The population of bison is estimated at 2,108 with 1,076 in Canada and 1,032 in the US.

Officials at the New York Zoological Society and others “convened a group of diverse stakeholders at the Bronx Zoo in New York City and formed the American Bison Society (ABS). With President Theodore Roosevelt as its honorary president, ABS set out to preserve and increase the number of bison in the U.S. by establishing a number of small herds in widely-separated parts of the country.”

“Agitation for the preservation of the Yellowstone herd increased. Congress swiftly passed a law forbidding the killing of buffalo under penalty of a thousand-dollar fine or imprisonment. The measure, signed by Grover Cleveland . . . was the first effective protection the federal government had ever granted buffalo.”

“There is no reason to hope that a single wild and unprotected individual will remain alive ten years hence.” Hornaday estimates only 85 free ranging bison remain in the US. He lists 200 in the federal herd at Yellowstone National Park, 550 in Canada's Great Slave Lake, and 256 scattered in zoos or private herds.

“. . . I would not seriously regret the total disappearance of the buffalo from our western prairies, in its effect on the Indians, regarding it rather as a means of hastening their sense of dependence upon the products of the soil and their own labors . . . ”