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Buffalo Nation: Saving the last wild buffalo herd in Yellowstone
The U.S. Congress in the mid-1800s through treaties recognized the Greater Yellowstone area as Indian Territory.
The original inhabitants, who were living in the Yellowstone region for over 8,000 years prior to European contact, were the Shoshone, Bannock, Crow and Blackfeet bands. Interior Salish, Kootenai, Kalispel and Nez Perce were familiar with Yellowstone, as were Gros Ventres. The Piegan and Blood bands were there, and the Assiniboine, Arapaho, Cheyenne and the Lakota visited the area frequently.
But in 1872 lands were seized from the tribes and Congress created Yellowstone National Park. The intent was to protect native species, thus assuring the survival of the Yellowstone buffalo.
Kill the buffalo -- control the "Indian problem"
However at that time, with the United States trying to control their "Indian problem," millions of buffalo were being slaughtered throughout the West. In the words of General Phil Sheridan in the 1870s: "These men (buffalo hunters) have done in the last two years, and will in the next year, more to settle the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are destroying the Indians' commissary; and it is a well-known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed at a great disadvantage ... let them kill, skin and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle ..."
By the late 1880s almost every tribe was forced from their lands within the Park's boundaries and restricted to reservations. It appeared that the "Indian problem" had been solved.
Land grabs common
Likewise, the Buffalo Nations were also forced to give up their lands as well as their lives. 1894 left less than 1,000 head of buffalo in the entire United States. A small herd of 25 buffalo hid deep within the Greater Yellowstone area, concealed from the wrath of Gen. Sheridan's followers. That same year, the Buffalo Nation became protected under law when Congress passed the Lacey Act to combat poaching.
In 1902 the Park's superintendent, concerned with the extremely low buffalo numbers, received $15,000 from Congress and purchased 21 head of buffalo from two private herds to supplement the wild herd. These...