| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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| News
Article 3/02/04 |
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| Bison
meat donated to tribes, food banks
By SCOTT McMILLION
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
March 2, 2004
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At
least 100 bison have been captured in Yellowstone National
Park since Saturday, and dozens of them will be shipped
to slaughter, with the meat being distributed to Native
American organizations and individuals as well as food
banks.
However, one prominent Indian group is urging its 53 member
tribes not to cooperate with the program.
"We been discouraging the tribes from" accepting
the meat, heads and hides, said Fred DuBray, executive
director of the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, which is
headquartered in Rapid City, S.D.
"It's too easy for the officials to claim they're
doing these tribes a favor," DuBray said Monday in
a telephone interview.
However, he acknowledged that some individuals and tribal
groups are working with the Montana Department of Livestock,
which handles the slaughter of animals exposed to brucellosis
and distribution of their parts.
"I know there's people who could use the meat,"
he said. "And they're going to be killing (the bison)
anyway."
DOL spokeswoman Karen Cooper said her office keeps an
active waiting list of people and groups that want the
meat.
"There are a lot of people and agencies on that list,"
she said. "In the past few years, we haven't had
a problem donating the meat."
The recipients are prioritized according to their needs,
location and the timing of its request, Cooper said. Many
Indians attach spiritual importance to bison.
DuBray's group assisted with bison killings in the mid-1990s,
often sending big work crews of tribal members to process
bison killed in the field. They were especially busy during
the winter of 1996-97, when 1,300 bison were killed, sometimes
scores of them at a time.
Then ITBC decided it didn't want to help any longer.
"Some of the agencies were using (the tribal participation)
to justify that management process," he said. "We
had fully expected that would be a temporary thing."
But the process continues today, with some new wrinkles.
Bison are rarely shot in the field anymore. Generally,
when hazing fails to keep them inside Yellowstone, the
shaggy giants are herded or lured into traps, then loaded
into trailers and hauled to slaughterhouses.
Both state and federal agencies have agreed to use that
plan.
ITBC has a plan of its own, one that would ship live bison
to a quarantine facility. Once animals are declared disease
free -- a process that can take repeated tests over a
couple years -- they would be distributed to member tribes.
On the reservations, they would become breeding stock
instead of table meat.
"That's probably the most important gene pool out
there," DuBray said of Yellowstone's free-ranging,
genetically pure herd. "And nobody has access to
it at this point."
The idea of a quarantine facility has been discussed for
years, but hasn't gone far. DuBray said the Fort Belknap
Reservation in northeastern Montana has offered land for
a facility, as has the Choctaw Reservation in Oklahoma.
Over the past 10 days, the Park Service has trapped almost
200 bison, including 71 on Saturday and 32 to 36 on Monday
afternoon. Of those, 131 had been tested for brucellosis,
according to park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews.
Of the tested animals, 69 tested positive and have been
sent to slaughter and 62 have tested negative and will
be held in a corral until spring, when they will be released
inside the park.
The remaining animals will be tested Tuesday, Matthews
said.
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