In 1987, the Fort Peck tribes returned more than 100 bison to 5,800 acres; decades later they stopped hunting their own flock to restore the original cultural purpose | World news

In 1987, tribal leaders on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana began working to restore the buffalo to Assiniboine and Sioux lands, reviving an animal central to their culture, spirituality and way of life. Two years later, the tribes purchased more than 100 bison from the nearby Fort Belknap Reservation and established a herd on 5,800 acres. What began as a cultural restoration effort eventually developed an economic component as the costs of managing a large roaming herd grew and Fort Peck began allowing paid hunters from outside the reservation to hunt its bison. The hunts generated income, but over time tribal elders began to worry that the program was moving away from the reason the buffalo had been brought back in the first place. Fort Peck eventually ended the commercial hunting operation and shifted to a system in which tribal members could hunt through a cultural lottery, allowing hunting to remain part of the pack’s purpose and placing the community, rather than outside clients, at the center of the program.

Why Fort Peck elders decided the bison program had lost its way

According to the Property and Environmental Research Center, Robert Magnan, who has managed the Fort Peck buffalo program for nearly 15 years, said the change came after tribal elders told program leaders that the community had lost sight of the purpose of bringing the buffalo back. The issue was not the hunting itself, which remains an important part of the tribes’ relationship with the animal, but the decision to make the herd available to outside hunters for a fee. Once commercial hunting became a major source of income, the economic value of the animals risked overshadowing their cultural role. Therefore, Fort Peck stopped selling hunts to outsiders and redirected hunting opportunities toward tribal members. The cultural lottery now issues a limited number of tags each year, and demand exceeds supply. About 50 tags were issued to tribal members last year, showing that hunting remains an active part of the modern buffalo program and not something tribes have abandoned.

How the Yellowstone bison became part of the Fort Peck restoration effort

A second chapter in the program’s history began with Yellowstone National Park, where a growing population of wild bison created long-running disputes over how the animals could move beyond park boundaries. In 2000, federal and Montana agencies established the Interagency Bison Management Plan, while the Buffalo InterTribal Council later became involved in the management framework. In spring 2012, Montana transferred 61 certified disease-free Yellowstone bison to Fort Peck, sparking a legal challenge from critics who argued that state law required landowner approval for bison movements. In 2013, the Montana Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the tribes, concluding that the relevant law did not apply to reservation lands in the way the challengers had argued. Animals native to Yellowstone later became an important part of Fort Peck’s conservation work, helping the reservation develop its capacity to quarantine and certify disease-free bison for transfer to other tribal communities. That work has made Fort Peck an important center for the broader movement to restore buffalo to Native American lands.

What the Fort Peck buffalo program looks like today

The Fort Peck program has expanded dramatically since the original flock was established. The preserve now manages more than 800 bison on approximately 33,000 acres and operates quarantine facilities that support its work with animals native to Yellowstone. Through the Buffalo Conservation Transfer Program, Fort Peck has distributed disease-free bison to 27 reservations in 16 states, helping other tribes establish or expand their own herds. The program also made its first international transfer to Canada last year. Fort Peck’s long-term goal is to grow its own herd to about 1,500 bison on 150,000 acres, but the importance of the program is not measured by the number of animals alone. The buffalo provide food and support cultural and educational activities, while the transfer program helps other indigenous communities rebuild relationships with a species that once shaped life in much of North America. By ending commercial hunts while preserving hunting opportunities for tribal members, Fort Peck has effectively changed who the herd is for: not outside customers looking for a paid hunting experience, but for the community whose elders originally brought the buffalo home.