Haaland joins CSKT Bison Range celebration

PABLO — A three-day community celebration filled with song, dance, speeches and community sharing marked the official return of management of the Bison Range at Moiese to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes last weekend, a move that includes the transfer of more than 18,000 acres into trust for the Tribes.

The history of the bison herd and the deep significance of the transfer was acknowledged by several speakers and visitors throughout the weekend, including CSKT Tribal Council Chairman Tom McDonald and several elders, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Martha Williams and Montana Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras.

After nearly 100 years of federal management, the transfer was authorized by the Montana Water Rights Protection Act of 2020. A two-year transition led to the official transfer to the Tribes on Jan. 2.

Chairman McDonald, who served as manager of the CSKT Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation as part of his 40-year career with them, welcomed the crowd gathered Saturday afternoon at Salish Kootenai College’s Joe McDonald Health and Fitness Center.

“Welcome to the homeland of the Salish, Qlispe and Ksanka people,” McDonald said. “For thousands of years we have welcomed people to our homeland and into our homes. We welcomed Lewis and Clark in 1805 at the Ross Hole. We gave them food and warm buffalo robes. We are a friendly people, and we have carried on that tradition. So it’s my great privilege to carry on the traditions of my ancestors and welcome you all here as we celebrate the return of what was once taken, and of what we’ve worked so hard to restore. … This is a new beginning for healing, not just for the land, but for the pieces of hearts, culture, language and the identity of the Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai people that was taken with the land.”

McDonald acknowledged descendants of Little Prairie Falcon Robe, said to have brought back six orphaned bison calves from east of the Continental Divide in the 1870s after herds were decimated by the U.S. government and settlers, and those of Michel Pablo and Charles Allard, who built that herd to about 800 animals by 1906.

The herd was sold to Canada as the reservation was opened to homesteading, and then re-established by the government and managed as a smaller federal herd beginning in 1908. McDonald credited the many Tribal people, government officials and conservationists who have worked for decades to restore the herd and its place on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

“With you here today, we begin that healing,” McDonald said.

Tribal elder Johnny Arlee asked younger members to help lead the Tribes into the future as there are few elders left.

“Take a role. Learn that tradition. We’ve got a future yet to come.”

Lt. Gov. Juras said the property law class she taught at the University of Montana spent several weeks reading the Hellgate Treaty, which established the original reservation, giving her a deeper understanding of the Tribes’ history.

“To understand Montana property law, we had to start at the beginning. These tribes were here first. … We acknowledge the cultural, spiritual, ceremonial, life-giving significance of the buffalo to the Salish, Kootenai and Pend Oreille people and all Native Americans, a relationship that has existed since time immemorial. I cannot even begin to comprehend the sorrow and the desperation that your ancestors experienced when they saw the unbelievable happen before their eyes in the 1860s and ‘70s, the disappearance of the buffalo — your life. … We have no doubt your tribes are going to do wonderful things with the ownership and management of this range.”

Headlining the Saturday celebration was Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve in that position, after serving as the first Native American woman in Congress. She teared up with emotion as she acknowledged a small child with the drum circle who opened the ceremony.

“What a wonderful way to grow up.”

Haaland discussed what the area must have looked like before European contact, “when vast herds of bison roamed the plains and the foothills. When our indigenous ancestors lived on this land alongside the plethora of animals, and they each respected their place in the balance of nature.

“We all know that history took a tragic and brutal turn after that. Indigenous people were colonized and forcibly assimilated, and buffalo were hunted within an inch of extinction. But in spite of that tragedy and loss, we are still here. You are still here. And that’s something to celebrate. The return of the Bison Range to the Tribes is a triumph and a testament to what can happen when we collaboratively work together to restore balance to ecosystems that were injured by greed and disrespect.”

“In the face of a changing climate and a changing world, we have much to learn from Indigenous communities,” Haaland continued. “I am confident that the future is bright for the little calves learning to walk this spring and for the generations of CSKT members who will be reconnected with their ancestral traditions over the decades. Our country is better when we work together and communities thrive when we have respect for nature and all that it has to offer us. … Today represents a return to something pure and sacred.”

Students from Polson Middle School’s Native Studies class joined Tribal Council members in presenting gifts at the ceremony’s end. Sec. Haaland was given a shawl and beaded necklace, and blankets were given to Lt. Gov. Juras, U.S. Asst. Sec. for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland and USFWS Director Williams.

Ksanka Culture Committee director and former Tribal Chair Vernon Finley closed the day by telling of the herd’s white buffalo, called “Big Medicine” in English, born in the 1930s.

“There was a lot of meaning behind his presence there. He was born at a time of big change, and going away from the traditional culture. He was born at a time to hold onto it for us … for a day that it would start to come back. He held onto it for us throughout his life because today was coming.”

Finley spoke of a “rebirth and regrowth” of the culture.

“This restoration is part of that story. We’re still going in the right direction. The story isn’t over.”