Treaty Signed for the Return of the Buffalo

The Treaty event began with a Native American prayer and the Song of the Buffalo. Loud drum beats, “honor beats,” echoed throughout the conference room, the head singer calling and others joining in with loud singing sound. I felt chills up my spine as I stood listening and reflecting on what an honor it is to be working with these tribes on bringing back the buffalo. I attended the Treaty on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, a partner in cultural buffalo restoration programs with the tribes of Fort Peck, Fort Belknap, and the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. The Treaty is an annual gathering of all members signing the agreement, an intertribal alliance with the shared goal to restore buffalo to tribal lands in the United States and Canada.

The buffalo Treaty was first signed on September 23, 2014 on the Blackfeet Territory in Montana. For the first time in 150 years, 13 nations from eight reservations came together for this cross-boundary indigenous agreement. Blood Tribe member and school teacher Amethyst First Rider told me this treaty is very special to her people because it does not include the signing by the U.S. or Canadian federal government, as have so many past tribal treaties.

This year’s Treaty gathering was sponsored by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation and held in Polson, Montana on beautiful Flathead Lake. The two-day event culminated with ceremony and song. Five additional tribes signed the Treaty this year, each giving speeches on just what the buffalo means to their people.

The tribes and reservations collaborating for the Treaty include:

• Blackfeet Nation
• Blood Tribe
• Siksika Nation
• Piikani Nation
• The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation
• The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck Indian Reservation
• The Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Confederated Salish and Koothenai Indian Reservation
• Tsuu T’Ina Nation along with other nations

The Treaty, written on a large piece of parchment paper, acknowledges the importance and cooperative efforts needed to bring back buffalo to Tribes/First Nations in the United States and Canada. I was humbled and honored to be asked to also sign the Treaty on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife as a supporting signatory and conservation partner. After I walked up to the signing table I said, “Helping you bring back your buffalo is the most rewarding part of my job. Defenders is a proud partner and looks forward to continuing to support members of the Treaty as you endeavor to conserve bison for this and future generations.” I heard clapping and howl-like calls as I sat back down with our conservation NGO partners, the Wildlife Conservation Society (a champion of the Treaty), World Wildlife Fund, and the National Wildlife Federation.

The Treaty signing was held at the People’s Center in Pablo, just south of Polson. Male tribal leaders wore their decorated war shirts and headdresses adorned with eagle feathers. The women wore colorful skirts, ponchos, and buckskin beaded moccasins. The smell of burning sage was in the air. Mark Azure of the Fort Belknap Reservation was among the leaders and participated in the ceremony by presenting each tribe with their own copy of the Treaty to take back to their reservation for an additional signing ceremony with their community and children, the future stewards of the buffalo. Azure is a long-time friend of Defenders and has been a leader in bison restoration for nearly 30 years. He regularly testifies in Washington D.C. on behalf of the tribes, and at the Treaty spoke on the efforts of both Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations. Both reservations have cultural buffalo herds, animals of high genetic value that are originally from Yellowstone. They were from the first cohort of Yellowstone animals to be relocated to tribal lands back in 2012.

What were once the last remaining wild bison in North America — a small Yellowstone herd of 23 animals remaining in 1901 — today has grown to upwards of 4,500 animals in Yellowstone National Park. Come this winter, as the result of a federally approved Environmental Assessment that was signed last month, Yellowstone plains bison will be available for a major cooperative program intended to return these genetically important bison to tribal lands and additional areas within the species’ historic range.

“A program to give bison to tribes has been a long time coming,” Azure said. “When you get that animal back, there is a healing. It gives you a sense of who you are and can affect your outlook.”

The Fort Peck Reservation, with its new state-of-the-art bison facility, will soon serve as a bison restoration hub for Yellowstone bison to receive final testing for the non-native disease brucellosis to then be relocated to other tribal buffalo programs in the region. With Yellowstone bison finally available for restoration, the Treaty will now have even greater meaning to bring back buffalo to its tribal members.

The Treaty is about “song, ceremony and conservation of buffalo, our family” said Leroy Little Bear, who served as Master of Ceremonies. Little Bear is a member of the Small Robes Band of the Blood Indian Tribe of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. Little Bear had an amazing way of synthesizing the information presented at the Treaty, including the updates on buffalo programs presented by the tribes represented. The Treaty included many stories of the buffalo retold by the elders, who are relied upon as the keepers of essential knowledge, says Little Bear. They described how these lands have been home to their people for hundreds of years, and how young people are growing up in a different world. They also discussed how children and even communities are relearning the ways of the buffalo and the Great Spirit. The Treaty is an agreement of cooperation, renewal and restoration.

“To honor, recognize, and revitalize the time immemorial relationship we have with BUFFALO to once again live among us as CREATOR intended by doing everything within our means, so WE and BUFFALO will once again live together to nurture each other culturally and spiritually,” as noted in the Treaty.

The Treaty acknowledges that if the American Indian tribes and First Nations work collectively, rather than individually, they will have more power to restore prairie habitat and return bison back to the land.

The treaty also notes an invitation to others — such as Defenders of Wildlife — to participate: “WE, collectively, invited Non-Governmental organizations, Corporations and others of the business and commercial community, to form partnerships with the signatories to bring about the manifestation of the intent of this treaty.”

Inside the large white longhouse, the tribes signed the Treaty and smoked the peace pipe while saying a prayer to the four directions. Ervin Carlson, president of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, said it well, “Bringing buffalo herds back to North America is a vital task for our people — whatever the difficulties that we have on our reservations or that lie ahead, the buffalo unites us and gives us hope for a prosperous future.”