losis as outlined by the ….

losis as outlined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wallen even visited Fort Peck to give Magnan advice about the infrastructure and resources needed for his bison facility.

“I think that the tribes have the most interest and authority in leading wild bison conservation outside of the park,” he said. “They want to live with bison, and they have a long cultural history of doing so that informs their management strategy.”

Much has changed since the first quarantine facility, managed by USDA, was built in 2005. Yellowstone’s 2024 bison management plan, which is currently wrapped up in litigation between Montana and the federal government alongside tribes, noted 40 new items on its environmental impact statement concerning carrying capacity of the park’s landscape versus bison populations. Wallen emphasized that simply restoring the numbers of wild bison is different from a balanced ecological restoration — but that Fort Peck has gotten closer than most conservation programs.

“It’s a step in the right direction. It may not be preserving the ecology of wild bison, but it’s preserving some of the ecology,” he said about the Fort Peck buffalo program. “More importantly, it’s preserving the culture of tribal nations.”

Fort Peck’s buffalo legacy commenced in 2012, under cover of a spring snowstorm, when 69 Yellowstone bison arrived in the middle of the night. They were welcomed first by Assiniboine families gathered at the Missouri River bridge, and then by Sioux relatives at Turtle Mound Buffalo Ranch, formally establishing the Tribes’ separate “cultural herd.” At the time, Fort Peck had built the nation’s only USDA-sanctioned bison facility outside of Yellowstone National Park, backed by financial and technical support from the World Wildlife Fund and Defenders of Wildlife.

A cultural cascade

As buffalo return to Fort Peck, a cascading effect of historical, educational and cultural revitalization has reshaped how the community imagines its future.

The Fort Peck Pté Group, a coalition of mostly tribal women formed in 2015, are helping to steer broader educational initiatives that reconnect tribal lifeways tied to the bison. One of Pté’s core members, Suzanne Turnbull, is working with local schools and educators to integrate classes on the bisons’ environmental and cultural aspects in order to weave together traditional knowledge and contemporary research on the reservation.

“The return of the buffalo has created pride and prosperity for our tribe,” Turnbull said. “It’s part of our right to self-determination: to provide food to our community, and to also create new economic opportunities that can lift our tribe up.”

Work by the Pté Group has led to a large surveillance facility where a buffalo trail system is being developed, financially backed by tribal resolutions, foundation grants, a National Endowment for the Arts award, and a private donation from the philanthropic Butler Foundation. Designed as a “prayer path” and lined with story poles, Turnbull envisions the trail will provide space where families can visit the cultural herd. Turnbull hopes that the Pté Group will continue to foster new programs that help people understand the wealth bison provide, calling them an “ecosystem engineer.”

“I believe that the buffalo is a way back,” Turnbull said. “It is a central part to our cultural identity, but it also teaches us to be a steward of all living things.”

The ripple effects go even further. At Poplar Middle School, the Buffalo Unity Project brings the 7th-grade class out to the ranch each year to experience a bison harvest. As part of Montana’s Indian Education for All initiative, students get to see the cultural herd, and watch Magnan as he carefully processes a bull shot by a nominated hunter. The anatomy lesson is coupled with historical and cultural education so the next generation can understand the species’ role in their tribal heritage.

Adlee Archambault, a seventh- grader who was present for the harvest this year, was able to attend the Yellowstone bisons’ delivery to Fort Peck mid-February. “Watching all of the buffalo come out of the trailer was this feeling like, wow, they’re still here,” Archambault said. “We’re still here.”

Magnan says he has accomplished nearly everything he set out to do. His original goal was to build the tribe’s herd to a count of 1,500 buffalo that stretched over 150,000 acres, something he is inching toward.

“They provided for us once, and they can do it again,” he said. “I am trying to build something so that my tribe can provide for themselves like we used to. There is pride in that.”