Buffalo Treaty in Action: Montana Sends 11 Bison to Indigenous Lands in Canada

If you've seen a lot of news lately you may think there is a lot of tension between the United States and Canada these days. From talk of tariffs to the recent Four-Nations Hockey Tournament. Not everything that has been happening between our two countries has been negative. There has been some positivity recently between our two countries and Montana has been a part of it.

Eleven bison from Yellowstone National Park, were transported from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana to the Mosquito-Grizzly Bear’s Head-Lean Man First Nation, Saskatchewan. It was part of the Buffalo Treaty that was signed in 2014. 

The Buffalo Treaty

The purpose of the Buffalo Treaty is to help revitalize Buffalo herds across indigenous homelands in both the United States and Canada. According to the treaty it states:

To honor, recognize, and revitalize the time immemorial relationship we have with BUFFALO.

Eleven buffalo were transported to Canada on this trip- three bulls and the rest calves. Other trips have transported buffalo to reservations across the United States and Alaska as part of the treaty since it was signed over ten years ago..

A CBC Indigenous TikTok post about the event has received over 1.3 million likes since it was posted. The tribe's excitement over the buffalo is something special. Some of them have never seen a buffalo in their lives.

We can sometimes take it for granted how easy it can be to view the buffalo that we have in our own backyard. With the Bison Range and the herds that roam in Yellowstone National Park, seeing a buffalo in Montana is a regular occurrence for some. For others they may go their entire lives without seeing one. No matter how many times I see one, it's always special to me.