Glacier endorses bison release
A bison in this file photo.
Glacier National Park supports the release of bison into the Chief Mountain Wilderness area of the Blackfeet Reservation.
Last week the tribe released about two dozen of the animals just to the east of the mountain, on Blackfeet Tribal lands. The park boundary is just to the west and abuts the Blackfeet Reservation.
The move was an historic one that could once again see the iconic species roam not just the reservation, but the park.
The creatures once roamed the park widely — their bones have been found in ice fields even in the alpine terrain.
“It is an honor for Glacier National Park and the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park to support the Blackfeet Nation in their historic achievement,” the Park said in a statement. “The park looks forward to working on a co-stewardship agreement with the Blackfeet to coordinate bison conservation and management in the Chief Mountain area. In the event this herd enters Glacier National Park, ensuring the safety of our visitors as well as the bison is our top priority. As a free-ranging herd, these bison will be treated as any other wildlife in the park and be allowed to roam freely on the landscape.”
The last wild bison at Chief Mountain lived there in 1884. The 25 bison released last week are descendants of the last surviving herd on the reservation.
They arrived back on a circuitous route that took more than 100 years.
In 1873 a Salish warrior and his Blackfeet friends captured some calves from a wild herd on the reservation and took them over the divide to the Mission Valley.
The herd grew and meanwhile, bison were extirpated by hunters on Blackfeet lands. In turn, the Mission bison were sold to Canada in the early 1900s.
The bison herd, in turn, grew in numbers at their new home on Elk Island National Park.
In 2016, 88 of the animals returned to Blackfeet lands with help from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The release on Monday at Chief Mountain was part of that herd. Assuming they survive, they could very well end up inside the park.
Where they’ll go remains to be fully seen, but the area is excellent habitat, with a mix of grassland and wooded areas, dominated by lodgepole pine and groves of aspen.