March 04, 2021
The Honorable Harvest by Robin Wall Kimmerer
"If we understand the Earth as just a collection of objects, then apples and the land that offers them fall outside our circle of moral consideration. We tell ourselves that we can use them however we please, because their lives don’t matter. But in a worldview that understands them as persons, their lives matter very much. Recognition of personhood does not mean that we don’t consume, but that we are accountable for the lives that we take. When we speak of the living world as kin, we also are called to act in new ways, so that when we take those lives, we must do it in such a way that brings honor to the life that is taken and honor to the ones receiving it. The canon of indigenous principles that govern the exchange of life for life is known as the Honorable Harvest. They are “rules” of sorts that govern our taking, so that the world is as rich for the seventh generation as it is for us. The Honorable Harvest, a practice both ancient and urgent, applies to every exchange between people and the Earth. Its protocol is not written down, but if it were, it would look something like this:
Ask permission of the ones whose lives you seek. Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Take only what you need and leave some for others.
Use everything that you take.
Take only that which is given to you.
Share it, as the Earth has shared with you.
Be grateful.
Reciprocate the gift.
Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever.""
- Last Words ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
February 19, 2021
Adrian Jawort
"My name is Adrian Jawort. I am also testifying against HB 302 on behalf of Montana Native Vote. Firstly, there’s been no known brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle in history, but there has been vice versa. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2002 and 2012, brucellosis was discovered in seventeen cattle herds, and all of it was from elk. I am noting this because you don’t see panic against elk, and them being slaughtered by the literal thousands....All Montanans have a right to have bison reintroduced on Montana lands under already stringent guidelines, not being beholden to boards of county commissioners, this small segment who already openly view bison as a hostile, competitive threat, as you have witnessed. While I am not apathetic to cattle ranchers livelihoods, there’s no way to put this other than bluntly: I do find it disingenuous that they think they should have the sole public grazing rights to all public lands that all Montanans are supposed to own, then abuse that granted welfare as a doctoral permission to shut down the rest of the state’s say in any matters regarding said public lands, and this includes treaty lands where tribes were promised they could hunt bison. And I will end this by getting to the heart of the matter, the elephant in the room: that is the American Prairie Reserve and their plans to reintroduce bison wildlife to their natural habitat, because I feel that this is exactly what this bill had in mind, as a dubious reason to explicitly deny them to have legally obtained wild bison on their lands. And while I may not agree with the American Prairie Reserve one hundred percent on issues, I do respect the fact that they are reintroducing a wild animal back to Montana lands we all enjoy. We should not be beholden to the whims of fear mongering against an indigenous animal we Natives deem sacred, and who has been here since woolly mammoths roamed this area. Thank you."
- Last Words ~ Adrian Jawort
February 11, 2021
Chris Weatherly
"I actually have two related stories to share of my Bison experiences. Let me begin though by saying I believe any personal experience with Bison is a blessing.
Back in 1972, I was going to an Art school in Baltimore. I had spent all of my 20 years living up and down the east coast, from Maine to North Carolina. That Autumn I had heard that some “Indians” had taken over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, D.C., only 45 minutes away. I skipped classes that day, and took a bus to Washington, then walked the couple of miles to the Dept. of Interior building. It was my first up-close experience with Native Americans. The following Spring, members of the American Indian Movement had taken over the village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. I began to voraciously read any books about Native Americans that I could find. A best seller at the time was Dee Brown’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”. Another was “The Sacred Pipe”, a classic book of Sioux rites and ceremonies as told by Black Elk to Joseph Epes Brown.
By 1976, I had the urge to visit this special land west of the Mississippi, so a friend of mine and I took off for South Dakota and Wyoming. The Pine Ridge Reservation was eye opening to me in terms of the poverty and the Third World existence right here in America. Standing in the wind at the Wounded Knee cemetery, I could feel the sadness of the souls at rest there, and the heartbreaking story of a people. Now as we traveled we would occasionally spot herds of Bison in the distance, the Emissary of the West.
Driving west that evening, we camped in the Badlands. It was truly wide open country, and a land all its own. In the moonlight, I went off by myself and sat on a nearby ridge top, taking in the new universe around me. The stars of the night sky were magnificent and almost overwhelming, and I fell asleep among the potent sage brush, listening to the coyotes.
It must have been about five or so in the morning, when I slowly opened my eyes to behold the rising sun lighting the eastern sky. I propped my head up, while still zipped in my sleeping bag, to watch the unfolding picture…when all of a sudden, a deep, low rumbling grunt bellowed right behind me, shaking my very being wide awake! I was almost afraid to turn around. There, only ten feet away from me, was the shadow of a “moving mountain”!! I soon realized that it was a lone old bull Bison. We looked at each other for quite some time, and I being the newcomer, was unsure of what his next move would be. After several minutes he continued grazing, walking slowly away. And I, deeply humbled, was given my official welcome to the west.
It was about five years later that I came full circle. I had unwittingly met and married the daughter of Joseph Epes Brown. I found myself living in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, near the horse ranch of my father in law. He also raised a small herd of Bison in the back field. He would take one a year to fill the meat freezer, and to share with his Crow and Blackfoot friends. All parts of this magnificent beast were used. The hide, the skull, the heart.
Whenever we would venture into the Bison field, we would always make sure that the herd was on the far side of the field, and that we had plenty of room to run for the fence if need be. We had them fenced in, but there was always the sense of the wild in their eyes. If a Bison really wants to go somewhere, nothing can stop him, for it was many a time that we had to call the neighbors to help us get them back.
I was practicing Tai-Chi at the time, and I would routinely rise with the morning sun, and walk out into the Bison field to do my exercise. One day, I approached the fence, and again making sure that the herd was far away, I walked into the field and began to disappear into my meditation. Suddenly, the ground began to move under my feet, and a distant thunder was getting closer! I immediately became aware that the Bison herd had seen me, and were running toward me! Around the corner of the aspens they came, with the bull in the lead. I glanced to the nearest fence off to my left, but there was no way that I could make it. For some unknown reason, which to this day I do not understand, I immediately sat down on the ground cross-legged, and found myself looking up and into the eyes of the bull with whom I was about to become one with. No one moved for the longest time. Then, one of the cows began to graze, and I could see an understanding deep in the bull’s eyes. I slowly rose to my feet, and walked backwards toward the fence.
I had just had another religious experience with my brother Bison.
To me, this animal will always be the link between the grounded earth and the ethereal spirit world….I hold them close to my heart…..
……..and, I have one tattooed on my right arm……Tatanka."
- Chris Weatherly
February 05, 2021
John Trudell
"We are a spirit, we are a natural part of the earth, and all of our ancestors, all of our relations who have gone to the spirit world, they are here with us. That's power. They will help us. They will help us to see if we are willing to look."
- Last Words ~ John Trudell, (February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015). Native author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist.
January 28, 2021
Darrell Geist
"Of particular concern is the federal appropriation for enforcement of livestock agency control over wild bison in Montana. Enacted in 1995, Mont. Code Ann. § 81-2-120 grants the Dept. of Livestock and the state Veterinarian broad authority to remove wild bison migrating in the state. Montana used the statute to sue the National Park Service and National Forest to gain control over bison management through the plan in force today. The majority of funding for the Montana Dept. of Livestock to enforce Mont. Code Ann. § 81-2-120 comes through annual grants from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture APHIS totaling millions of dollars. In spite of the inappropriate use of federal appropriations perpetuating Dept. of Livestock control of a valued wildlife species, the spigot of funds continues to flow."
- Last Words ~ Darrell Geist, Buffalo Field Campaign's Habitat Coordinator
December 31, 2020
Walt Whitman
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you."
- Last Words ~ Walt Whitman
November 07, 2019
Jason Baldes
"For some reason, people feel the need to treat buffalo like cattle, through roundups, ear-tagging, vaccinations etc. No other wildlife species go through that treatment. We need a paradigm shift to one that respects the intrinsic value the animal has. Buffalo is a keystone species, benefitting a host of others as it utilizes the landscape. We shouldn’t measure the value of buffalo on the landscape in terms of money."
- Jason Baldes, Wind River Reservation
October 10, 2019
John Trudell
"Every human being is a raindrop. And when enough of the raindrops become clear and coherent they then become the power of the storm."
- John Trudell
September 26, 2019
John Trudell
"We have power... Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an economic system, or in a military system; these are authoritarian systems... they have power... but it’s not reality. The power of our intelligence, individually or collectively IS the power; this is the power that any industrial ruling class truly fears: clear coherent human beings."
- John Trudell
September 12, 2019
James Holt
"A motto that resonates with me, and that I want to share with the BFC community, is a quote from the great Nez Perce chief of the Wallowa Band, Chief Joseph, 'The Earth and I are of one mind.' This is how I see my brief existence: I am child of the Earth, and I will respect, honor, and protect my Mother.
My involvement with BFC is rooted in my advocacy and feelings of personal responsibility to Mother Earth’s children, and to my people. As a warrior, I take my sacred relationship with all sentient beings seriously. I will speak for the buffalo, who cannot speak for themselves."
- James Holt, Nez Perce Tribe and BFC's new Executive Director
August 29, 2019
Wilma Mankiller
"Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it -- and gets through it quicker. Whenever I'm confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo."
- Wilma Mankiller, first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
August 15, 2019
Corry Westbrook
"Specifically, these regulations will bias listing decisions with unreliable economic analyses; make it much more difficult to protect species impacted by climate change; make it more difficult to list a new species and easier to remove those now on the list; make it harder to designate and protect critical habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife; reduce protections for threatened species; reduce voluntary conservation incentives and weaken the consultation process."
- Corry Westbrook, Senior Grassroots and Policy Advisor, Endangered Species Coalition, in response to the Trump Administration’s recently published Endangered Species Act regulations.
August 1, 2019
Cody Little Bear
"Whenever I'm with the buffalo, I feel like my heart runs with them. When I'm with them, they already know the questions and they already know the answers."
- Cody Little Bear, BFC Volunteer
July 11, 2019
Darrell Geist, BFC
"The government’s sterilization study on wild bison should never have been funded by the U.S. Congress, permitted by Yellowstone National Park, or carried out by a federal agency beholden to the livestock industry. A lot of wild bison suffered and died because of a breakdown in government accountability."
- Darrell Geist, BFC's habitat coordinator, from a press relase where BFC is requesting heads of two federal agencies open an investigation into the potentially unlawful destruction of public records and removal of scientific data.
June 27, 2019
Anonymous
"Always be yourself. Unless you can be a buffalo.... then, always be a buffalo."
- Anonymous
May 30, 2019
Darrell Geist
"It is now up to all of us to submit comments persuading Supervisor Erickson to select Alternative D and adopt strong standards protecting American bison, bighorn sheep, threatened grizzly bears, wilderness, linkage corridors, habitat connectivity, and water."
- Darrell Geist, BFC Habitat Coordinator
May 23, 2019
James Holt
"Everytime a calf stands is a victory for us."
- James Holt, Nez Perce Tribal member and Vice President of BFC's Board of Directors. These words were said during an opening prayer at our board meeting.
May 16, 2019
Henry David Thoreau
"In wildness is the preservation of the world."
- Henry David Thoreau
May 9, 2019
Mike Mease
"If you have something you truly believe in or that you think is wrong in the world, if you get involved and start brining attention to it, you can create change in your lifetime. There is a lot of energy making people feel hopeless, like they can't make a difference in the world. But if you put your mind to it and you get involved you bring attention to it. When you inspire others to get involved you can make change."
- Mike Mease, co-founder and campaign coordinator of Buffalo Field Campaign
May 2, 2019
Rosalie Little Thunder
"Woableze' is knowing that we do not survive unless the natural world lets us survive. It is knowing what will nurture and heal and the price that we must pay for this benevolence."
- Rosalie Little Thunder, co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign
April 25, 2019
Henry David Thoreau
"All good things are wild and free."
- Henry David Thoreau
April 18, 2019
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
"and when the sounds
of hooves,
like thunder
once again roar.
peace shall prevail."
- Karen Lyons Kalmenson
April 11, 2019
Dylan Kettlestrings
"Great dark eyes, knowing of times before time,
Stout horns pointed into a future uncertain,
Wool, impervious to wind, snow, and rain,
A living monument to resilience.
To us they are ancient,
To them we are yet sleek with the sheen of afterbirth, already a monstrosity rapidly morphing,
Our tie to our mother severed at our own hands lest we deprive ourselves of upward pursuits.
The buffalo are of the earth as we once were, and they watch our spirits drift ever farther from the origin.
And all of us naked bipeds, from the blood lusting to the loving,
Our bond discontinuous with the mother who bore us.
And the buffalo watch.
A slow shifting of the massive brown eye toward the beings who deliver swift desecration.
They will be steadfast in their footing as the maelstrom we give rise to sends our kind scurrying to escape the consequences we have incurred."
- Dylan Kettlestrings, BFC Volunteer
April 4, 2019
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
"We are the watchers. We are witnesses. We see what has gone before. We see what happens now, at this dangerous moment in human history. We see what's going to happen -- what will surely hapen -- unless we come together: we -- the Peoples of all Nations -- to restore peace and harmony and balance to the Earth, our Mother."
- Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
March 28, 2019
Unknown
"Always be yourself. Unless... you can be a bison. Then, always be a bison."
- Unknown
March 14, 2019
Lyn Dalebout
"We want the Earth again. We want the Earth beneath our feet again. If you do not love the Earth and all her bounty, then please, remove yourselves, do not stay. If you do not love this place with all your heart then give it back to us who fertilized Her unfailingly-- perhaps our greatest gift!-- and grunted the daily language of thank you! and of prayer."
- Lyn Dalebout, from her poem This Bias Against Bison
March 07, 2019
Diane Glancy
"Surely the angels say we sing your four-legged song. Ancestor buffalo. We sing your grass-eating song. Ho ee yo. The clouds rumble over you. The wind-currents follow. The whole earth sings to you world-movers today. Yes the prairie highways remember your migrations."
- Diane Glancy, from her poem Buffalo Medicine
March 01, 2019
Rosalie Little Thunder
"The Park is pursuing similar arrangements with other Tribal governments to set-up an operational quarantine - a livestock factory - to domesticate wild buffalo."
- Rosalie Little Thunder and BFC habitat coordinator Darrell Geist in our 2014 Open Letter to Tribal Leaders and the American People. Rosalie (9/18/1949 - 8/9/2014) was a co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign and member of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate; Burnt Thigh Band, of the Little Thunder Tiospaye and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
February 21, 2019
Rosalie Little Thunder
"Remind yourself every morning, every morning, every morning: 'I'm going to do something. I've made a commitment.' Not for yourself, but beyond yourself. You belong to the collective. Don't go wandering off, or you wil perish."
- Rosalie Little Thunder (9/18/1949 - 8/9/2014), co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign. Rosalie was a member of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate; Burnt Thigh Band, of the Little Thunder Tiospaye and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
February 07, 2019
Rosalie Little Thunder
"Throughout the buffalo culture tribes, there is a common understanding that when the last wild buffalo perishes, so too will the tribal cultures."
- Rosalie Little Thunder, Oglala Lakota / Co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign
January 31, 2019
Dr. Franz Camenzind
"There is an overall attitude of social acceptance for bison in Jackson Hole [WY]. We have a benign respect. What it basically comes down to is that we like having them around, we like seeing them. They are icons of the West and their presence confirms the reason we live here. It's not the melodrama you see in Montana."
- Dr. Franz Camenzind, award-winning wildlife cenematographer
January 24, 2019
Joseph Chasing Horse
"When the U.S. government slaughtered the buffalo as a way to subjugate Indian people, they put into motion an imbalance in the ecosystem that continues today."
- Joseph Chasing Horse, Lakota
January 17, 2019
John Trudell
"We are a spirit, we are a natural part of the earth, and all of our ancestors, all of our relations who have gone to the spirit world, they are here with us. That's power. They will help us. They will help us to see if we are willing to look. We are not separated from them because there's no place to go -- we stay here. This is our place: the earth. This is our mother: we will not go away from our mother."
- John Trudell
January 10, 2019
Chief Grier
"Among the Blackfoot Confederacy, our ancestors looked upon the valley with awe, this swath of earth and imagination inseparable, infused by the sacred and sanctified by the buffalo..."
- Chief Grier of the Piikani Blackfoot Confederacy
January 03, 2019
Lilla Watson
"If you've come here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you've come here because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together."
- Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal elder
December 20, 2018
Northern Cheyenne
"Those of you who struggle should never give up. If there is no struggle recognized, how will those who struggle know there needs to be a change?"
- Northern Cheyenne
December 13, 2018
Gwen Brown
"Oh, gentle beast I will fight for you As you amble on your way My tears I will shed for you Your burden I’ll take away — Your freedom I will win for you My voice will never sway.”
- Gwen Brown
December 06, 2018
Henry David Thoreau
"All good things are wild and free."
- Henry David Thoreau
November 29, 2018
Jack Rhyan, USDA-APHIS
"I like the bastard question best. I think with those [buffalo] we donate their little bastard carcasses to the food bank, as they have no special value for conservation. PS: we might should delete these emails."
- Jack Rhyan, USDA-APHIS in an email to APHIS colleagues.
November 22, 2018
Tupac Katari
"I will return and I will be millions."
~ Tupac Katari, indigenous Aymara leader of a major anti-colonial insurrection in Upper Peru, c. 1750-1781.
October 19, 2018
Paul Clark
"I pray to the Spirit of Thunder and again to the wild restless wind. I want that the herds of our buffalo lost will walk in our valleys again."
~ Paul Clark, River of Darkness
October 4, 2018
Jaedin Medicine Elk
"When Yellowstone National Park haze buffalo into the trap at the Stephens Creek capture facility, it's no different from when the U.S. Calvary chased down and killed Native People and pushed them onto reservations, where we endured harsh treatment and were no longer free to roam the land as we once did."
~ Jaedin Medicine Elk, Northern Cheyenne
September 20, 2018
Rosalie Little Thunder
"Remind yourself every morning, every morning, every morning: 'I'm going to do something. I've made a commitment.' Not for yourself, but beyond yourself. You belong to the collective. Don't go wandering off, or you wil perish."
<em~ Rosalie Little Thunder (9/18/1949 - 8/9/2014), Lakota, co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign. Watch this BFC video made in her honor, edited by BFC's Mike Mease and the late, great Tony Birkholz.
September 6, 2018
Dr. David Mattson
"Bison have been and still are an important source of food—meat—for Yellowstone’s grizzly bears, far exceeding anything one might expect simply from numbers of bison in the ecosystem—by a factor of 2-½-fold and more. Bears obtain almost all this meat by scavenging rather than by predation. Bison are too big, too well-armed, too collectively aggressive, and typically too far from ambush cover for a bear to kill outright. But bison do tip over dead for all sorts of reasons—from starvation and disease during winter and spring, from complications of birthing, from injuries sustained during the rut, and less often from being killed by wolves. And when bison do die, they constitute a big package of meat that not only provides a large reward for any bear lucky enough to find it, but also increases odds that stinky carrion will persist long-enough for discovery by animals, such as bears, endowed with an acute sense of smell.
These fundamentals suggest that bison were always a comparatively important food for brown/grizzly bears wherever both species overlapped in time and space. In fact, availability of meat from bison probably dictated the terms of existence for grizzly bears for over 10 millennia in the mid-section of North America."
~ Dr. David Mattson, from his incredible presentation, The Epic Shared Journey of Bison and Grizzly Bears
August 24, 2018
Darrell Geist
"Can we have one population of buffalo in the U.S. that is not treated like livestock?"
~ Darrell Geist, BFC Habitat Coordinator
August 10, 2018
Lierre Keith
"The task of an activist is not to navigate around systems of oppression with as much personal integrity as possible. It is to bring those systems down."
~ Lierre Keith, Deep Green Resistance
July 13, 2018
John Trudell
Buffalo Wild
Been living with a fugitive inside of us
Like buffalo wild under a buffalo sun
Running in a closing in maddened world
Racing against the predators of spirit
In facing off with progresses addictions
Civilized destruction’s wanting habits
Polite or violent whatever it takes
With guns and laws and truth that lies
Domesticating the natural for harvesting
Threatened by what nature made free
With civilized rational aggressions
Wreaking blood havoc
And no feeling of tomorrow or the ancient
In the plundering of all our relations
The business of collateral damage
Profiteering maximized in the carnage
Sacred living reduced to looking to escape
Buffalo wild needing a buffalo roam
Between earth and stars breathing free
Following the future through the looking glass
Ancestor prayers praying to the buffalo spirit
Been living with a fugitive inside of us
Feeling the human part of buffalo dreams
In the reality of all life is sacred
With buffalo medicine as one of the gifts"
~ John Trudell, hero, poet, activist. John was inspired to write Buffalo Wild after attending a BFC Road Show event. His poem was later put to music by Goodshield Aguilar and Mignon Geli and made into a vide by Mike Mease. Watch it here.
June 29, 2018
John Trudell
"For I am the Resistance, and as always, I will return."
~ John Trudell, hero, poet, activist.
June 15, 2018
Winona LaDuke
"Should the Earth, the Mother of all life, ever be shaken to crisis by the people living upon her, then the White Buffalo Calf Woman will return."
~ Winona LaDuke, an American environmentalist, economist, and writer, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development.
May 31, 2018
Tupac Katari
"I will return and I will be millions."
~ Tupac Katari, indigenous Aymara leader of a major anti-colonial insurrection in Upper Peru, c. 1750-1781.
May 24, 2018
Erika Edberg
From a Buffalo's Persepective
This is the land my ancestors walked upon
the land they lay their heads on
And the land they should.
We have been cut down
our children run from our native places
and trapped inside fences
for your own self-centered
money-centered reasons.
We have been here long before you
and I have raised generations myself
only to watch the killing continue
As each winter
comes to an end
the Spring sun melting the snows
blooming the flowers,
the leaves on the aspes,
I feel myself grow weaker.
I look around at my family
and wonder what their future holds.
We are the last of the wild
I don't know
what it is
about the wild
that scares these creastures so,
it is what we are all created from
we come from the rocks
the dirt
the ground
the cosmos
and it is to this
we will all return.
You control and decimate nature
because you yourself
are afraid of death.
You forget the beauty
of this natural cycle,
you forget everything
that was once held sacred.
You are striving
to disconnect yourself from something
we will always be connected to.
I feel sorry for you,
for missing
and killing
the true beauty in this world,
in turn
killing yourself.
There once was a time
of harmonious balance
when everything
was seen as equal,
no bullshit made up hierarchy,
all was free
as all should be.
You are fueled by misunderstanding
and you are fueled by hatred,
controlling all that you do.
You have no trust
no honor
in the beings who exist all around you....
What an empty,
lonely life
you must lead.
But I see the other side.
you're many against their few
who hold love
and honor,
they hold the sacred close.
I am touched by their love
their dedication
for things outside themselves.
There is still beauty,
hope among you
and for that I am grateful,
for that,
I give thanks.
~ Erika Edberg, BFC Volunteer
May 17, 2018
Dylan Kettlestrings
"Buffalo Tribute
Great dark eyes, knowing of times before time,
Stout horns pointed into a future uncertain,
Wool, impervious to wind, snow, and rain,
A living monument to resilience.
To us they are ancient,
To them we are yet sleek with the sheen of afterbirth, already a monstrosity rapidly morphing,
Our tie to our mother severed at our own hands lest we deprive ourselves of upward pursuits.
The buffalo are of the earth as we once were, and they watch our spirits drift ever farther from the origin.
And all of us naked bipeds, from the blood lusting to the loving,
Our bond discontinuous with the mother who bore us.
And the buffalo watch.
A slow shifting of the massive brown eye toward the beings who deliver swift desecration.
They will be steadfast in their footing as the maelstrom we give rise to sends our kind scurrying to escape the consequences we have incurred. ”
~ Dylan Kettlestrings, BFC Volunteer
May 10, 2018
Edward Abbey
"One thing more dangerous than getting between a grizzly sow and her cub is getting between a businessman and a dollar bill."
~ Edward Abbey
May 03, 2018
Charles Cook
"Your deepest roots are in Nature, no matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with the rest of Creation.”
~ Charles Cook
April 26, 2018
Tony Birkholz
"A happier existence is to have compassion for our self and others, to honor where we are on this path and discover how we can enjoy it together.”
~ Anthony "Tony" Birkholz, Another Being Creative ~ our beloved friend who passed away January 2017
April 19, 2018
Mark Wolf
"I participated in non-violent direct action to prevent trailers from accessing the road to Stephens Creek capture facility. My actions were circumvented by the dedication of the Park Service. I saw that day how dedicated Yellowstone National Park is to the slaughter of the American bison, our national mammal. I’ve witnessed these sacred animals being killed and the painful memories remain. Their deaths are facilitated by the mismanagement of the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), backed with shoddy science, ranching interests, and keep the bison on the brink of death. The buffalo trailers eventually made their way out, as one driver drove past me he shouted 'Vote Trump, make America great again…!' The slogan of a fool. The motto of a closed mind. As we all know only a closed mind is certain. I watched the trailers roll by with tears streaming down my face and I noticed a flash of empathy in a few faces of the LEO’s; they saw I truly care for these animals. That empathy quickly faded, it was clear that in order to do that work you must trade your humanity for a paycheck. I have a reminder to the lost ones: Your career is not your identity. You are a human with the capacity to love, you just need to remember how. ”
~ Mark Wolf
April 12, 2018
Dan Wenk
"I think that bison are being unfairly targeted as the species of concern.”
~ Dan Wenk, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent
April 05, 2018
Eli Kassirer
"The Buffalo Silencer
Two crushing walls that pin us down, And push our spirits to the ground. With prods and shocks forced down the shute.
With all our hearts and strength resist, But tools of violence will persist.
They push us on, into the cage. The walls move in and squeeze our rage. Our bones are broke - our blood is drawn.
We buck and fight and scream and jump. To no avail - they prod our rump.
The truck is next and on to slaughter. To die a bloody, brutal death, So far from home and herd and friends.
To die alone and not know why. To feed the beast which kills us all.
You crush our hearts and break our bones, But we are made of earth and sky. And with God’s help, will never die.”
~ Eli Kassirer, BFC Volunteer
March 29, 2018
Bruce Babbitt
"The killing [of Yellowstone buffalo] by the state of Montana could threaten the future of this national symbol and the biological integrity of the last wild herd.”
~ Former U.S. Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbit, 1997
March 22, 2018
Tyler Kelley
~ Tyler Kelley
March 15, 2018
Thom Brown
"Our act was in defense of wild buffalo, beings who have no protection, so I just find it pretty ironic that part of our fine is to pay a wildlife fund that serves the very agency facilitating the buffalo slaughter.”
~ Thom Brown to Federal Judge Mark Carman during Monday's hearing.
March 08, 2018
Talon Brings Buffalo
“Rather than keeping the buffalo kind of on a reservation of Yellowstone National Park, really it's the cattle that should be fenced in and the buffalo should be allowed to roam free. They are a sacred animal to the first peoples of this nation and really important to them.”
~ Talon Brings Buffalo, Wild Buffalo Defense
March 01, 2018
Yellowstone Bison Biologist
“In an ideal scenario, the National Park Service would not have a trap to trap bison. We would allow populations to migrate in and out freely, across the landscape."
~ Yellowstone National Park senior bison biologist, Rick Wallen
February 22, 2018
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
“and when the sounds
of hooves,
like thunder
once again roar.
peace shall prevail.”
~ Karen Lyons Kalmenson, Buffalo Advocate
February 16, 2018
Be a Bison
“Always be yourself. Unless.... you can be a bison. Then always be a bison.”
~ Unknown
February 08, 2018
John Trudell
“If everyone got up tomorrow and said 'i will not enable what i know not to be alive' everything would change...”
~ John Trudell
February 01, 2018
U.S. District Court
“Because the Court agrees that the [U.S. Fish & Wildlife] Service applied an improper standard when evaluating Buffalo Field’s petition, it will grant Buffalo Field’s motion for summary judgement, deny the Service’s cross-motion, and remand the case for the agency to conduct a new 90-day finding using the proper standard.”
~ United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Buffalo Field Campaign et al., v. Ryan Zinke et al.
January 25, 2018
C. Cormack Gates, Brad Stelfox, Tyler Muhly, Tom Chowns, and Robert J. Hudson
“The Lamar Valley and the Yellowstone River Valley north of the park . . . to Livingston and beyond was an important area for bison and Native peoples throughout the Holocene. This system can be considered the original Northern Range for Yellowstone bison, functioning as an ecological continuum of grasslands that likely supported seasonal migrations by bison as far south as the high elevation ranges in the Upper Lamar Valley.”
~ C. Cormack Gates, Brad Stelfox, Tyler Muhly, Tom Chowns, and Robert J. Hudson, The Ecology of Bison Movements and Distribution in and beyond Yellowstone National Park, A Critical Review with Implications for Winter Use and Transboundary Population Managemen, 2005.
January 18, 2018
Lyn Dalebout
“My feet went walking
in another world
to discover the roots of this bias
against Bison.
They say they will forgive us.
They would provide again
these thundering nations.
For they are there.
We need them here.
They await our word.”
~ Lyn Dalebout, from This Bias Against Bison
January 11, 2018
Lilla Watsonn
“If you've come here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you've come here because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together.”
~ Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal elder
January 04, 2018
IBMP Executive Summary
“Finally, the [Interagency Bison Management Plan] provided that any agency could terminate the agreement by providing a 30-day notice to the other parties that the agency would withdraw from the agreement.”
~ Executive Summary of the Interagency Bison Management Plan's Final Impact Statement. Read the document here.
December 21, 2017
Todd Wilkinson
“The question is not only why more bison continue to be slaughtered or placed in quarantine, but also what are the consequences of removing animals that are merely acting upon ancient biological instincts to escape deep snow at higher elevations and move to lower-lying grasslands outside the park?”
~ Todd Wilkinson, from his article The Killing Fields Await Yellowstone Bison Once Again in Montana
December 14, 2017
Aldo Leopold
“Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
~ Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac.
December 07, 2017
Rosalie Little Thunder
“We have a relationship with the buffalo, that….sustains us. But we owe, not only the buffalo, but the earth quite a bit. So I think a lot of it is not about what we get, our treaty rights, but what we have to give back….we have a relationship and an obligation.”
~ Rosalie Little Thunder (Kicikute Cokanun Win) - A Sicangu Lakota, Rosalie was a teacher of the Lakota language, protector of sacred sites and species, and co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign. Rosalie fought for the wild buffalo of Yellowstone country and their freedom to roam until her last days. She left this world on August 9, 2014. We miss her every day, but she continues to guide us from the Other Side.
November 30, 2017
P.J. White
“The continued culling and even harvest in the north will continue to remove many central herd animals."
~ P.J. White, Yellowstone National Park bison biologist, at November 28th’s Interagency Bison Management Plan meeting. Yellowstone is recommending closing hunting in the Hebgen Basin, west of the Park, placing the conservation burden upon hunters, even though the Park recognizes that their capture-for-slaughter operations kill far more buffalo than hunters do. Whom does Yellowstone serve?
November 23, 2017
Rosalie Little Thunder
“Woableze’ is knowing that we do not survive unless the natural world lets us survive. It is knowing what will nurture and heal and the price that we must pay for this benevolence. It is knowing the ways of our brother the buffalo, the wise one. It is knowing that in order to survive in a good way, we must emulate this brother, a sacred species; a keystone species. ‘Tatanka iyacin’ is what we called that way. There are many other species on this planet that are held sacred, that are the indicators that all is not well. Humanity has moved further and further away from ‘wotakuye’; the relatedness of the universe. Man has put himself at odds with all that is, but there are some that still feel a strong sense of responsibility to keep us connected. These are the environmentalists that continue to raise the alarm; to whom we owe our future.”
~ Rosalie Little Thunder, cofounder of Buffalo Field Campaign
November 16, 2017
Peggy Wellknownbuffalo
“[When] you go after buffalo, and you go on your hunt, you don’t just go run through the herd and boom! boom! kill what you want. That’s not what you do. You go into your herd and then they know you are hunting, then they’ll leave one behind. The one left behind is the one you get.”
~ Peggy Wellknownbuffalo, Crow Nation
November 9, 2017
John Wolf
"There is so much to be said and so much to know about the wonderful Yellowstone buffalo. Sadly though there is a simple doorway which must be walked through to access the deep knowledge, wisdom and beauty that the Yellowstone buffalo offer us as humans. That doorway lies in connecting the heart and the mind. This is what is so frustrating and depressing to those of us that know the Yellowstone buffalo, because we have walked through that doorway. But sadly the majority of people have not. Without taking this doorway, the real power of the Yellowstone buffalo can not be experienced. I do not have the answer that will lead people to that doorway. I wish I did, for it would end this horrible ignorant treatment of our powerful Yellowstone buffalo family.”
~ John Wolf, buffalo advocate, responding to the news about the dire straights of the Central herd.
October 5, 2017
Derrick Jensen
“It is hard to fight for what you don’t know you’re missing. It’s harder still to fight an injustice you do not perceive an injustice but rather as just the way things are. How can you fight an injustice you never think about because it never occurs to you that things have ever been any different?”
~ Derrick is an amazing author, radical environmental activist, co-founder of Deep Green Resistance, and BFC advisory board member.
September 7, 2017
Dan Brister
“When I learned [the buffalo] were being slaughtered in and around Yellowstone, I knew I had to act. Yellowstone had changed my life, giving me the courage and drive to move away from the East, from what was familiar. Yellowstone confirmed my suspicion that I was happier in the mountain wilds of the West than on the crowded shores of Cape Cod…..The following winter I learned of a group of people running daily patrols from a rented cabin, intent on stopping the slaughter. Armed with video cameras and direct-action tactics, Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers were spending all of their days with the bison, monitoring migrations out of the park and interfering with he DOL’s slaughter operations. As soon as I could, I traveled to West Yellowstone to help them. Originally planning on a weeklong visit, before the week was up I’d revised my plans to spend the winter. Since that week in December 1997, I have worked with the campaign as a volunteer, a media coordinator, a member of the group’s board of directors, and currently, an executive director. In the intervening years, more than 4,000 volunteers from around the world have joined us. From them I have learned a powerful lesson: Apathy is not omnipotent.”
~ Dan Brister, from his book In the Presence of Wild Buffalo, published in 2013.
August 24, 2017
Robbie Robertson
“Crow has brought the message To the children of the sun For the return of the buffalo And for a better day to come You can kill my body You can damn my soul For not believing in your god And some world down below.”
~ Robbie Robertson, musician and songwriter
August 11, 2017
George Wuerthner
“To treat Yellowstone’s bison as political prisoners to promote the power control of the livestock industry is a national disgrace. The fact that this carnage has been on-going for decades without resolution is also a scandal.”
~ George Wuerthner
July 28, 2017
General Nelson Miles
“When we get rid of the Indians and buffalo, the cattle will fill this country.”
~ Nelson Miles, 1876
July 13, 2017
Tim Gannon
“So give them their habitat Let them heal and spill out over the land again Let them reconnect With the life that creation gave them And give them their respect and let them embody real freedom Let them roam and multiply and thrive Reintroduce them to earth and sky Because we believe that other beings, too, have rights Honor wildness and feed this grassroots redemption Respect live Respect and protect the wild bison.”
~ Tim Gannon, from his powerful film, Protect the Wild Bison
June 29, 2017
Dan Brister
“Buffalo or bison? I prefer the sound of the word and its more familiar common usage in the American vernacular. I like the memories and dreams it stirs, and its power to bring to life, if nowhere else but out imagination, the days when millions roamed our prairies. I like the way the word rumbles from deep in the chest and rises from within, migrating through the body with a resonance like the bass beat of hooves on hard earth.”
~ Dan Brister, from his oustanding book, “In the Presence of Buffalo”
June 15, 2017
Douglas Gruenau
"The shaggy-headed swaggering bulls, the trim cows, the satyr-horned curious yearlings, and the gangly spunky calves, as they find their way in the life of the herd, speak to me of a wilder time, a time less measured by human profit and productivity."
~ Douglas Gruenau, from Bison: Distant Thunder
June 01, 2017
Michelle McCarron
"Buffalo Field Campaign is where you come to give back [to the buffalo, to the earth]."
~ Michelle McCarron
May 25, 2017
Lyn Dalebout
We want the Earth again.
We want the Earth beneath our feet again.
If you do not love the Earth
and all her bounty,
then please, remove yourselves,
do not stay.
If you do not love this place
with all your heart
then give it back to us
who fertilized Her unfailingly--
perhaps our greatest gift!--
and grunted the daily language of
thank you!
and of prayer.
~ Lyn Dalebout, from her poem This Bias Against Bison
May 18, 2017
Nancy Rae Clark
“His mystical breath
and wise ways
are our purpose
to preserve
and protect
the Indigenous
the Strong
the Beauty
the traditions.
He is Tatanka
He is Relative
He is Meaning
and He is Meaning.
He is wild
outrunning
Oppression and
Colonization
He is our inspiration
to LIVE WILD
We still remain.”
~ Nancy Rae Clark
May 11, 2017
John Trudell
“Our obligations and our loyalty have to be to the earth, and they have to be to our sense of community and to our people and our relations.”
~ John Trudell
April 27, 2017
Japhy Ryder Sanchez
“I want to see the buffalo roam free. Want to see the babies play peacefully in the sage, and I want to see mother buffalo being able to calve on their traditional calving grounds.”
~ Japhy Ryder Sanchez
April 20, 2017
Diane Glancey
“Surely the Great Spirit was made in our image. Touch us and you see the face of God.”
~ Diane Glancey
April 13, 2017
Cindy Rosin
“With all due respect, I'm hearing all these partners up here talk about, and ask the question, why the buffalo aren't using the wider tolerance zone, why there aren't more buffalo spread across a wider landscape, why there isn't more distribution; and I find it hard to believe that people are able to sit up there and ask that question with a straight face, and do that when a third to a quarter of the entire population was slaughtered this very season. If you wonder why there aren't more buffalo across a wider landscape, look to the trap that killed over seven hundred animals, look to the hunt that slaughtered almost every other animal that walked past the park borders. If you want buffalo spread across a larger landscape, stop killing every single one that steps across the border, stop killing a third to a quarter of the population every single year. The buffalo know how to do it. They don't need quarantine, they don't need translocation, they don't need shipment, they don't need our help. They just need to be allowed to go."
~ Cindy Rosin, BFC Volunteer, an excerpt from her comments to the Interagency Bison Management Plan decision-makers.
April 06, 2017
Richard Baldes
“We don’t want anything to do with pens, ear tagging, cowboys chasing them, rounding them up. That’s livestock, cowboy stuff. Buffalo are wild animals, and we want to treat them as such and give them the respect they deserve, as we do with all other wildlife.”
~ Richard Baldes
March 30, 2017
Thomas Johnston
“Our zookeepers are sadists. We and the buffalos and the earth are just an experiment to the amerikans who have taken this land. Do not expect compassion from those with no heart. Resist them and never believe their words. They do not respect life.”
~ Thomas Johnston
March 23, 2017
Ray Goodwin
“How we treat the buffalo in Yellowstone really says a lot about who we are as a people, as a nation and as human beings.”
~ Ray Goodwin, Sonoran Connection
March 16, 2017
Wilma Mankiller
"Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it - and gets through it quicker. Whenever I'm confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo.”
~ Wilma Mankiller, First female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
March 9, 2017
Louisa Wilcox
"…What we have is a cabal of stockmen, state veterinarians, legislators, and employees of the Board of Livestock using paranoia over “disease ridden” buffalo to perpetuate political control and an archaic, regressive mindset obsessed with dominating the natural world. These bad actors aim at nothing less than keeping the West under their thumb, perpetuating a regime that was instituted under the banner of Manifest Destiny. This despite the fact that the region’s economic and cultural health depends increasingly upon amenities rooted in wildlife and public lands."
~ Louisa Wilcox, Grizzly Times. From her blog post Yellowstone Buffaloes Last Stand, recounting a visit inside Yellowstone’s buffalo trap.
March 2, 2017
Rep. Willis Curdy
"If there were only 3,000 animals left of any other species that species would be placed on the Endangered Species list.
~ Rep. Willis Curdy, closing statement in support of HB 419, a bill amending MCA 81-2-120 to require only consultation with Montana’s state veterinarian in translocating buffalo in Montana. The bill was tabled in the House Agriculture committee.
February 23, 2017
Gary I. Johnson
The herd belongs to no man. The herd belongs to the land, the land belongs to the herd.
~ Gary I. Johnson, as told to him by his indigenous grandfather
February 9, 2017
Nahko Bear & Medicine for the People, from the song Aloha Ke Akua
I’m into it...I'm into it
Changing management
~ Nahko Bear & Medicine for the People, from the song Aloha Ke Akua
February 2, 2017
Gwen Brown, BFC supporter
"I weep for you
when I look into your eyes
I pray for you
under dark and wintry skies.
The hunter comes and takes you away
and my heart aches -
no, it breaks
It shatters like those who loved
you are shattered -
Family, friends and spirits passed.
The government uses you like pawns
in a bitter game of chess
They chase you, they capture you
and never give you rest.
They prod you, they poke you
then beat upon their brazen chest.
The deer and antelope are free to roam
upon their land so free
But for you, my spirit guide,
They make a mockery of you and me.
I weep for you
under cold and starless nights
I pray for you
when I look into your eyes
That the heavens will open up for you
and hear the battle cry
To set you free
To let you be
Under deep blue and majestic skies.
~ Gwen Brown, BFC supporter
January 26, 2017
Andrew Rodman
"It’s freaky how much is done by so few
to counter the madness of a world gone askew
Against the psychotic lies that turn the screws
Against corporate plutocracy echo’d by Fox News
It’s indecent, shameful sinful and less
It’s mugging a grandma who is already bruised
Bile bubbles from the Body Politic
From every orifice it does ooze
This kinda news is only fit for the blues
Yer hardwired to thinking you can only lose
Against this tide, what can one possibly do?
That’s why we stand, stand for the land
Stand for the land, stand for choice
Stand for all the critters that don’t have a voice
Stand for wilderness
Not just in parks
Stand for the spirits, not just those closed in the dark
Stand for the mighty and low
Sand for the root hairs that make plants grow
Stand for the mighty buffalo
These peckerhead cowboys
These fat fucks in big trucks
These gun toting blowhards
Think they are the link
From frontier times to now
They are all addicted to welfare
And worship the cow
They have a deep fear
A fear of the real
A fear of the spirit they can not feel
With its snorting, its stamping and herding
With its massive girth
This visage terrorizes terrorists cowboys from birth
“Goddamn it, didn’t we all fill them with lead?
Didn’t we starve off the Indians by shooting them all dead?
Didn’t they holy trinity go on for infinity
Marlboro man, The Duke and Clint Eastwood!
All that mythology did us no good!”
For the bison spirit is rising
Buffalo spirit is strong on its throne at Yellowstone
And it makes cowboy blood curl
When people are drawn to that power from all over the world
And when we try to kill em
And we haze em when they leave out back
These scruffy hippy defenders are on the attack!
Exposing the lies
Hanging tough through many moon’s rotations
The buffalo defenders keep sucking in all the donations
It’s freaky how much is done by so few
To counter the madness of a world gone askew
So find something truly wild
And help it just be
Find your own inner animal
And set both of you free"
~ Andrew Rodman
January 19, 2017
Sam Sheppard, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 3 Director
"We fully support operation of the trap. They've always done a good job of allowing enough bison to pass by ... for tribal and state hunters.”
~ Sam Sheppard, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 3 Director
January 05, 2017
A Poem by g brown
Oh gentle beast
That roams the plain
Your heart is heavy
From the political game
You long to be
Peaceful, wild and free
Yet in the still of night
Or light of day
They come
One by one
To take you away
A mother mourns its baby
Inconsolable loss
Tears fall like rain from the sky
Rest softly my little one
I’ll never understand the how or why
You long to be free at last
And amble on your way
The family gathered oh so tight
In the present and distant past
We honor you on coins and flags
So majestic a sight to see
But when it comes to government
They’ll never let you be.
Oh, gentle beast
I will fight for you
As you amble on your way
My tears I will shed for you
Your burden I’ll take away-
Your freedom I will win for you
My voice will never sway.
~ g brown
December 29, 2016
Rick Wallen, Yellowstone National Park
“... We should manage bison like elk… For the long-term, the public debate and conversation needs to be about how we can manage wild bison, can we learn to live with bison on lands outside the national park? Otherwise, it’s just a reserve.”
~ Yellowstone's Rick Wallen during the mid-December media tour of the Stephens Creek buffalo trap
December 22, 2016
Bob Confer
“Usually this column staunchly defends farmers and ranchers, but I can’t in a case like this where profit ranks higher than wild animals that were supposed to be protected at Yellowstone and the vast tracts of public land that the cattlemen are using.”
~ Bob Confer, columnist for the Lockport Journal, in a recent editorial titled Stop the Killing of Yellowstone’s Bison
December 15, 2016
David A. Dary
“Perhaps no animal in the history of any nation has ever played a more important role than the American bison.”
~ David A. Dary, The Buffalo Book
December 08, 2016
Leonard Peltier
“Don’t separate issues of environmental degradation from the oppression of people… We cannot win one struggle without understanding the other.”
~ Leonard Peltier
November 24, 2016
Derrick Jensen
"If it can be said that relationships form us, or at the very least influence who we are, then the absence of this fundamental daily bond with wild, nonhuman others will change our sense of self, how we perceive our role in the world, and how we treat ourselves, other humans, and those who are still wild. If you see an animal in a zoo, you are in control...I look at the concrete walls, the glassed-in spaces, the moats, the electrified fences. I see the expressions on the animals’ faces, so different from the expressions of the wild animals I’ve seen. The central conceit of the zoo, and in fact the central conceit of this whole culture, is that all of these “others” have been placed here for us, that they do not have any existence independent of us, that the fish in the oceans are waiting there for us to catch them, that the trees in the forests stand ready for us to cut them down, that the animals in the zoo are there for us to be entertained by them."
~ Derrick Jensen, “Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos” excerpted in The Sun, November 2007.
November 17, 2016
Paul Clark
"I pray to the sprit of thunder
And again to the wild restless wind
I want that the herds of our buffalo lost
Will walk in our valleys again"
~ Paul Clark, from "River of Darkness"
September 22, 2016
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
"There needs to be a fast move toward other forms of energy that are safe for all nations upon Mother Earth. We need to understand the types of minds that are continuing to destroy the spirit of our whole global community. Unless we do this, the powers of destruction will overwhelm us."
~ Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe
August 11, 2016
Lierre Keith
“The task of an activist is not to navigate around systems of oppression with as much personal integrity as possible. It’s to bring those systems down.”
~ Lierre Keith, Deep Green Resistance
July 28, 2016
Rosalie Little Thunder
“Remind yourself every morning, every morning, every morning: ‘I’m going to do something. I’ve made a commitment.’ Not for yourself, but beyond yourself. You belong to the collective. Don’t go wandering off or you will perish.”
~ Rosalie Little Thunder (1949 - 2014). Rosalie was a co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign and member of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate; Burnt Thigh Band, of the Little Thunder Tiospaye and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. We miss her every day, though feel her with us always.
June 30, 2016
Derrick Jensen
“But what if the point [of life] is not to rule, but to participate? What if life less resembles the board games Risk or Monopoly, and more resembles a symphony? What if the intent is not for the violin players to drown out the oboe players (or worse, bitterly drown them or at least drive them from the orchestra, and take their seats for more violin players to use), but to make music with them? What if the point is for us to attempt to learn our proper role in this symphony, and then play that role?”
~ Derrick Jensen, from his new book, The Myth of Human Supremacy
June 16, 2016
The Whizpops
“Bison, bison, where did you go?
We’ve been missing you out on the prairie you roamed
Things haven’t been the same since you’ve been gone
We want you back and the fact is that this is where you belong.”
~ The Whizpops, Bison
Listen to the whole song on YouTube.
June 2, 2016
William T. Hornaday
“The wild things of this earth are not ours to do with as we please.”
~ William T. Hornaday, 1913
May 26, 2016
John Trudell
"We must be willing in our lifetime to deal with reality. It's not revolution; it's liberation. We want to be free of a value system that's being imposed on us... Liberation --we want to be free. But in order for us to be free we have to assume...our responsibility. We are going to have to struggle for it. We are going to have to work [and be] committed to it. We must never underestimate our enemy. Our enemy is committed against us 24 hours a day. They use 100% of their efforts to maintain their ...status quo. 100% of their effort goes into deceiving us and manipulating us against each other…"
~ John Trudell
May 19, 2016
Buffalo Medicine
I want to speak buffalo.
Many times ago the grass-eaters on the prairie. It was a day for honor. The herd walked the great plains. This way the herd walked. That. The little band of Indians followed. How they depended upon us. How we clothed their naked bodies. Fed their hungering stomachs. Provided hides for their teepees. We often spoke to them. Grunting in language they understood. There was nothing we didn’t give. But now we take our grasslands. Our lawn chairs and yard goods. Stampede to the other world. From the council-fire of heaven we are called. The Great Spirit speaks in soldiers’ guns. From trains they pass shooting.
Surely America was made for us. Remember how often we delighted you. Deciding how we would run through the prairie with the wind in our ears. Our large heads pure with mind. The Great Spirit great as he spoke. Yo. We were his. We grunted his praises. Snorted and roamed in his will. Our calves grew up in our strength. We were kings. We allowed death. We gave ourselves for the Indians.
We are called Savior buffalo. Señor buffalo. Grandmother buffalo. Mon duke buffalo. Lord and God buffalo. Surely the Great Spirit was made in our image. Touch us and you see the face of God. Our heads were angels fallen to the prairies. Touch us and you hear the grunting God.
Giant buffalo. Universal buffalo.
Surely the angels say we sing your four-legged song. Ancestor buffalo. We sing your grass-eating song. Ho ee yo. The clouds rumble over you. The wind-currents follow. The whole earth sings to you world-movers today. Yes the prairie highways remember your migrations. Put your feet on four little wheels. Roll on the knoll prairie. The creosote road-beds black as your nose. The grass once tall as your backs.
~ Diane Glancy
May 12, 2016
Hey Bear/GOAL Tribal Coalition
"Put another way, given the overwhelming reliance by Yellowstone’s grizzly bears on essentially four foods (lumping elk and bison together as ungulates), major losses of any one are almost certainly to have major impacts."
~ Hey Beart/GOAL Tribal Coalition, from their comments against delisting Yellowstone grizzly bears
May 5, 2016
Marty Two Bulls
~ Marty Two Bulls
April 28, 2016
Prince
“Compassion is an action word with no boundaries.”
~ Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 - April 21, 2016)
April 21, 2016
Are the Koch Brothers to Blame?
"Ah, now things are starting to make sense. No matter how many signatures, letters and phone calls are submitted by citizens, unpopular environmental, wildlife and land-use legislation gets railroaded through anyway. No wonder iconic and nationally-cherished wolves can't catch a break, no matter how much scientific and peer-reviewed evidence is submitted on their behalf. No wonder America's iconic bison, in the world's most important, continually free-roaming, migratory and genetically-imperiled Yellowstone herd, are still being routinely rounded up and slaughtered while the state caters to the cattle industry. No wonder that, despite the Wild, Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, the nation's beloved and iconic wild horses are still cruelly rounded up and sold to kill buyers, who will ship them across the border to meet horrifying deaths in Mexican slaughterhouses. No wonder the grizzly, held sacred by a multitude of tribes, might soon be in the crosshairs and trophy hunted on lands those tribes also hold as sacred. Against that kind of money, our voices, our rights, our country and our innocent wildlife don't stand a chance.”
~ Native News Uncensored. Many thanks to our friends at Hey Bear - GOAL Tribal Coalition for sharing this. Read the full article here.
April 14, 2016
Buffalo or Bison?
“I prefer the sound of the word “buffalo” and is more familiar usage in the American vernacular. I like the memories and dreams it stirs, its power to bring to life the days when millions roamed our prairies. I like the way the word rumbles from deep in the chest and rises from within, migrating through the body with a resonance like the bass beat of hooves on hard earth.”
~ Daniel Brister, In the Presence of Buffalo
March 31, 2016
Safe Passage for Wildlife
March 17, 2016
Why is Yellowstone Killing Wild Buffalo?
March 10, 2016
An Example for Yellowstone Park Rangers
March 3, 2016
Billy Angus
Letter to Yellowstone National Park
"We, The People, demand that you and your henchmen
end the senseless hazing, trapping, and senseless slaughtering
of our wild buffalo IMMEDIATELY!!
The so-called "disease" (known as brucellosis)
was brought on by man, NOT BY BUFFALO!!
And so, quit lying to the people and
LEAVE OUR WILD BUFFALO ALONE!!!!!!!
Our buffalo were here first long before man even existed
and our indigenous tribes revere them very sacred!
Let me ask you this:
What gives you the right to play God?
What gives you the right to violate the
spiritual rights of our indigenous tribes?
AND what gives you the right to limit and/or suppress citizens'
First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly
by keeping us "confined" to a tiny spot
with 6 inches of snow on the ground
in the cold elements, denying me and my faithful
warriors the right to march throughout the park
and raise awareness to the public that
what you are doing is wrong?
It's clear that you have something to hide!!
Not only you violated our constitutional rights
and spiritual rights of our Native American/First Nations brethren,
but also obstructed justice by covering up
the crimes you're committing!!!
What you're doing is not only crimes against Nature
and felony animal cruelty, but also a flagrant act
of treason against the American people and the nation,
and YOU and your henchmen shall be held criminally accountable!!
It seems like the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply to you...
And adding insult to injury, violating "your own" law by harassing
our buffalo (and other wildlife) and it is YOU and your henchmen
who are in violation of the law and it is YOU and all your redneck
Bundy wannabe buddies who should be severely punished!!
Just because that you wear a badge does not give you
the right to be above the law!!
Yellowstone National Park and its sacred
wonders of Nature (including wolves and buffalo)
belong to the vast majority of the American public,
NOT to a mere handful of brainless government bureaucrats and
drunken redneck ranchers from the DOL
(along their ruthless wild-west mentality)!!
WE, THE PEOPLE, are disgusted at what you
are doing to our wild buffalo!!
And WE, THE PEOPLE are gonna continue speaking
out against your unlawful activity until the senseless
persecution of our wild buffalo is stopped or until
this old Earth is blown to Kingdom Come,
whichever comes first!!
Not only the whole world is watching,
but THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS WATCHING,
and NO MORTAL MAN IS SUPERIOR TO THE CREATOR!!!
Let this be known that the pain you've
inflicted upon Great Spirit's creations,
IS THE PAIN YOU (and your henchmen)
SHALL SUFFER...TWO, TO A THOUSAND FOLD!!!
For what I say unto to you is a prophecy and a curse!!
You can either change your ways and let our buffalo roam free
or face the ultimate consequences when the Creator implements
His final Judgment!!
Just remember that if our wildlife becomes extinct,
so shall mankind suffer the same fate!!"
~ Billy "The WiZaRd” Angus, wildlife advocate from Hamilton, Montana
February 25, 2016
John Trudell
“When I look at America now, going back to the treaty, this American generation, they don’t look at the treaty as having any validity. Alright, well, I’m going to say that that was an agreement made between their ancestors and my ancestors, and when they break that treaty like that, they’re telling me they have no spiritual connection to their past, no respect for their past."
~ John Trudell
February 16, 2016
Rosalie Little Thunder & Darrell Geist
"The Park is pursuing similar arrangements with other Tribal governments to set-up an operational quarantine – a livestock factory – to domesticate wild buffalo. Backing a trailer up to a trap in Yellowstone Park where buffalo are confined and transporting them to slaughter has nothing to do with tradition or the sacred or sovereign rights of tribes.
Our tribal councils and leaders are occupied with many challenges and do not have ready access to adequate information about the Yellowstone buffalo herd’s fate. Oftentimes decision-makers are distanced from their own councils and advisers, traditional and spiritual. Unfortunately, the decisions made on wild buffalo continue to serve the interests of the Montana Department of Livestock and the National Park Service first."
~ Rosalie Little Thunder, Pte Oyate & Darrell Geist, Buffalo Field Campaign. From An Open Letter to Tribal Leaders and the American People, 2014.
February 4, 2016
There Was a Time
~ Simon Combes
This time will come again!
January 28, 2016
Granville Stuart
"In 1880, [Montana] was practically uninhabited. One could travel for miles without seeing so much as a traveler's bivouac. Thousands of buffalo darkened the rolling plains. There were deer, elk, wolves and coyotes on every hill and in every ravine and thicket. . . . In the fall of 1883, there was not a buffalo remaining on the range and the antelope, elk, and deer were indeed scarce. . . [T]here were 600,000 head of cattle on the range. The cowboy . . . had become an institution.”
~ Granville Stuart, quoted in Donald Worster, Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
January 21, 2016
John Trudell
~ February 15, 1946 - December 8, 2015
January 14, 2016
Gardiner Basin Vacationer
A Slice of Life on the Northern Range of the Wild West
"I want to share with you my past few days. It includes indescribable peace and serenity, perseverance in survival, wild open spaces of wilderness and coexistence; yet, conflicted with the natural selection of the survival of the fittest vs. the chosen elimination of an unwelcome species. I will attempt this collection of events without my embellished opinion. This is a sector of my life in Montana/Wyoming that most never experience, and few fully understand.
The short story goes like this:
With word from reliable sources, over 27 wolves were counted in the Lamar [Valley] less than two weeks ago on one given day, prompting my desire for a road trip to Yellowstone with scope and camera in stow. A crisp 12-15 degrees as I drove towards the Lamar passing iconic herds of bison, elk, and a manageable flow of visitors. But no sign of wolves, only the sound in the distance of howling from many directions. I drove upon a ‘kill’ that 3 coyotes were feeding on, as a flock of ravens perched on the 6x6 rack still intact and upright as if the bull was bedded down for an afternoon rest. Truly a picturesque site of a food chain in progression. I spent 3 hours scoping the Lamar, but no wolves. Before heading north I had counted over 20 coyotes, 2 fox, and numerous birds of prey.
The next morning I woke to bull elk posturing next to the bedroom window of the small cabin where I stayed, only a few miles from the Park’s boundary. As the sun lit the morning sky, a small herd of bison were pacing on an island along the Yellowstone River… the park wildlife had followed me, so I smiled to myself. Midday I decided to drive to Gardiner, but noticed a gathering of trucks, cars, and trailers along the dirt road. Being curious, I turned the opposite direction of town and drove slowly by the gathering of people in camouflage armed with rifles. I asked one young man, “what are you hunting?” “Buffalo”, was his reply. My subliminal voice said, “Bison Bison”… As I continued northward, I saw a herd of bison in the middle of the dirt road walking toward me. A posse of several pickups was herding/pushing them southward in the direction of the clan of hunters. I immediately pulled off the side of the road and turned around to avoid the procession. My thoughts were validated; I was witnessing the process of hazing, or the official elimination of bison that have wandered beyond the boundary of YNP. A slaughter that was about to unfold and something that I had no intention of experiencing; The culling of a herd.
But before I could exit the scene, a state truck stopped me, and the Warden asked, “How many times do you plan on doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Driving back and forth along this road. Can’t you see that those animals are being herded this direction?”
“Of course, that is why I turned around… I realize now that an Event is in process…. I haven’t been driving up and down this road, I’m staying over there."
“Yes, I know where you’re staying. Are you with the Buffalo Campaign?”
“Just a tax payer…………………………………."
“You best leave for your own safety.”
To add to my observation, I thought the Warden was wrapped a bit tight, and I felt he was implying that I was trespassing on public land. However, I would not have wanted his job on that day. I could have cut the tension with a dull knife. As I drove away, a few “hunters” exchanged a few verbals I didn’t understand, nor chose to respond to.
Decided to bag the town trip, as the encounter of it all crushed the mood for an outing. I returned 2 days later to the park with my cousin, Stacey, with anticipation of finding the wolves. None again, but counted another 8 coyotes all close to the road. But the wonder of the Lamar still rewarded us with its splendid beauty. Unfortunately, we had to pass the hazing program twice that day knowing that the bison we saw that morning roaming toward the boundary less than a mile away, would be dead by the time we returned to the cabin that night.
Sunday, at noon, we started to drive back home along the dirt road once scattered with herds of bison, elk, hundreds of pronghorns. Some elk remained (species other than bison were not hunted, of course), but all were lying down in close vicinity. The pronghorn remained. Few deer were seen. No hunters. No pickups or trailers. But birds of prey filled the sky; bald and golden eagles, hawks, ravens, osprey all in view, as well as countless piles of bison remains left on the land to be cleaned up by those that were not selected. The remains of the Day.
This past weekend was a collision of emotion: Coexistence. Can we?
~ Anonymous. Report from the experience of a person vacationing in the Gardiner Basin, near Beattie Gulch.
January 7, 2016
Derrick Jensen
"My great-grandmother grew up in a sod house in Nebraska. When she was a tiny girl—in other words, only four human generations ago—there were still enough wild bison on the Plains that she was afraid lightning storms would spook them and they would trample her home. Who in Nebraska today worries about being trampled by bison? For that matter, who in Nebraska today even thinks about bison on a monthly, much less daily, basis...it’s hard to love what you don’t know you’re missing. It’s harder still to fight an injustice you do not perceive as an injustice but rather as just the way things are. How can you fight an injustice you never think about because it never occurs to you that things have ever been any different?”
~ Derrick Jensen
