“Most tribes work together when it comes to bison programs because there's a shared interest in all tribes succeeding.”
Each tribe is a sovereign nation. They have their own self interests. Those tribes who have tribal lands near a population center have casinos and have been able to make a living from gambling. But there has been problems with that too. Like I said before each tribe may have their “pet herds” but taking the fences down and replacing their cattle ranches, row crops and hay fields with free roaming buffalo will never happen, they know that.
Some of the tribes have some very successful hunting and fishing programs that provide excellent opportunity. Some of them are pricey, but those professionals with a good income don’t seem to care. They are just glad to be able to hunt and fish there. I had my wife look at the Buffalo Treaty of 2014. She said it is not a Treaty but an agreement between Tribes. A Treaty exists only between the US gov’t and the Tribes. Obvisously for the Canadian Tribes a treaty is between the Crown. There is a letter of cooperation from the DOI but it is that. From what I have seen so far, there is no binding contract between ITBC members, just a membership.
I find it interesting to note the Fort Peck Assiniboine, which are one of the original Buffalo Treaty members, is a band of Yanktonai Sioux. Two Yankton tribes in South Dakota are IBTC members. I have been to those reservations dozens of times. The reservation at Wagner boasts of “free roaming” buffalo. The truth is the reservation is only 37,000 acres. Most of the land is in hay, corn and soybeans. The same thing with Flandreau only they have a casino. They have a small herd in a small pasture that the gamblers coming up from Sioux Falls can see from the highway.
They all have to give them cover and feed them hay in the winter. Some researchers say that the reason why they aren’t as resilient to harsh winters as they should be is because of the bovine DNA. And yes that has certainly been a proven factor. But other researchers are saying that DNA is only part of it. They believe that it may be the nutrients from native plants (some of those plants became extinct) that gave the buffalo their resilience, and resistance to disease as well.
Once Clarence seeded with natural plants, he moved the cattle over those plants that were seeded out and tried to simulate (with cattle) how the buffalo moved over the plants during the different seasons. And it was seasonal, because not all of the plants matured at the same time. To his happy surprise, plants that were thought to be extinct grew! The prairie around the Missouri Breaks at Fort Peck is very similar to the breaks around the Mortenson Ranch.
There is a list of plants that Clarence acquired, it would be interesting to compare that list with what AP has, or should have. The big delineation is short grass and tall grass prairie. The tall grass is East of the Missouri River and short grass is west of the river. There is a swath of both habitats. Fort Peck and that area of Montana is short grass as well as the Mortensen Ranch in South Dakota.
Tha last time I saw a “free roaming” buffalo was on I-80. A bull was trying to get the flies away from his face by thrashing a bush, the only one around for miles. There were about a dozen state troopers and police cars there to try and persuade him to go back through the fence where he came from.
I couldn’t figure out why you guys were attacking me as I had not even heard of AP until Ben’s thread. So the BLM gave AP grazing rights for their buffalo in July. Too bad the comment period is up because I have a few of my own.
The Wife just handed me a book: “Scotty Philip, The man who saved the buffalo” - by Wayne C. Lee. Now I’m in trouble
777bison.com
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at the same time….
