Montana Needs a Future that Includes Bison

In 1886, the last wild buffalo on the Great Plains was killed among the steep bluffs and badlands of central Montana, the final remnant of the tens of millions of bison that once roamed the nation’s vast prairies.

The slaughter of the buffalo was a tragedy for all Western Indian tribes—including every tribe in Montana—because the animals were everything to Native people. Bison provided food, shelter, clothing, and tools.

They were central to spiritual practices. Their destruction was also a central part of the federal campaign to subdue and dispossess tribal nations.

But before the last smoke...