Yurok Tribe’s Wildlife Department Director Tiana Williams- Claussen (middle, with Ventana Wildlife Society staff Sayre Flannigan and Christy Markowitz) releases a California condor in Big Sur, California, as part of her training on how to handle the birds.


said. “That was policy and deliberate effort to elimi- nate buffalo as part of the process to take Indian lands and as part of the colonization process.” Returning bison to Native lands therefore can help not only restore a species but reinforce tribal sovereignty. Bison also provide cascading benefits for birds,


insects and other animals as well as plants and even soil. These large ungulates wallow, or roll, in muddy depressions to cool down in summer and deter bit- ing insects, creating pondlike pits that support aquatic wildlife, bump up biodiversity and serve as water reserves during drought. Seeds tangled in their fur are also transplanted in the process. The team managing the bison at the Wolakota Buffalo Range has committed to tracking those ecological changes and managing the range lands sustainably so healthier grasslands can mitigate climate change. The InterTribal Buffalo Council reports that


during the past three decades, 69 tribes in 19 U.S. states have restored more than 20,000 bison to tribal lands. The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in


18 SPRING 2022 AMERICAN INDIAN


northern Montana not only host one of the largest herds, some 200 animals, but also have the only facil- ity on tribal lands for the final phase of the years-long quarantine process required to relocate bison from Yellowstone National Park. Bison can carry brucel- losis, a disease contagious to livestock. Although no cases of transmission of the disease to cattle have been confirmed, bison found wandering outside the park have been killed to prevent this. In recent years, however, some bison have been quarantined and then seeded herds on tribal lands, making tribes an essential component for this species’ conservation. Brendan Moynahan, a science advisor with the


National Park Service who chairs the U.S. Depart- ment of Interior’s Bison Working Group, said tribal bison restoration projects have a great potential for success. “We’re starting to do exactly the thing that is so difficult, but we should have been doing all along, and that is working to expressly link wildlife con- servation and culture,” he said. “We’re really good at separating nature from humans, and that’s not


CHRIS WEST, CONDOR PROGRAM MANAGER, YUROK TRIBE


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