Indians march from across U.S. to protest bison killings

GARDINER (AP) - Led by a Lakota Sioux spiritual leader, about 100 members of American Indian tribes ranging from the Algonquin to the Navajo arrived Saturday on a pilgrimage asking for an end to the killing of bison that wander out of Yellowstone National Park.

The pilgrims arrived at the park at midday Saturday after a journey of about 500 miles in 20 days, many traveling on foot or on horseback, across prairie and mountains from Rapid City in the Black Hills of South Dakota to this gateway town at the north entrance of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Superintendent Mike Finley greeted the gathering, telling the assembled Indians: "I came here out of respect, to pay respect to you."

"We welcome you and, more importantly, we welcome you home," Finley said.

The walkers made the journey to bear witness to the sacred relationship between the buffalo and Indian people, said Joseph Chasing Horse, a traditional Lakota Sioux leader who helped organize and led the event.

For many Indian people, eating the flesh of bison is comparable in religious significance to Holy Communion among Christians, who symbolically eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, Chasing Horse said.

In a two-hour ceremony on a windswept, muddy field, just inside a massive stone arch that marks the entrance to the country's oldest national park, the Indian people prayed, sang and listened to remarks from elders of several tribes.

They concluded with a dramatic ritual that Chasing Horse said had not been performed in more than 100 years and which, until Saturday, had never been seen by white people.

"Long ago, the buffalo gave his blood for us. Today, we give our blood for him," Chasing Horse told the crowd.

Then Gary Silk, a Lakota activist from South Dakota, removed his shirt. Others thrust sharp sticks through his skin in two places just below the shoulder blades. The sticks were left in place, a rope was attached to each, and a ceremonial buffalo skull was tied to the other end of each rope.

Silk then danced slow circles around the gathering of about 250 Indians and white spectators, as blood trickled down his back from the two wounds. Many people - women and men, Indians and non-Indians - wept as they looked on.

Then another man sat on the skulls, Silk took hold of a horse's tail, and the horse pulled him away from the skulls, tearing the sticks free from Silk's flesh. Others applied traditional medicines to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds.

The buffalo, or American bison, was a life-giver to the Plains Indians, providing meat, skin and bone that could be shaped into implements. In the Lakota language, the buffalo is Tatanka Oyate, which means "He who owns us," indicative of the animal's central importance to the culture of the tribes.

Joining the Lakota Sioux were representatives of tribes from as far away as New York and Arizona, including the Algonquin, Apache, Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Crow, Navajo, Nez Perce, Northern Cheyenne, Southern Ute and Tuscarora.

"Our prophesy says that if the buffalo disappear, the Lakota will disappear," Chasing Horse said. "We want to protect the last free-roaming herd."

When winter snowfall is heavy, Yellowstone bison seeking forage often wander out the park and into nearby Montana.

But Montana livestock officials say about half the Yellowstone bison are infected with brucellosis, a disease that can cause cows to abort their calves and can cause undulant fever in people.

During the winter of 1996-97, Montanans shot or shipped to slaughter 1,100 bison, more than a third of the park herd, under a federal-state management plan designed to protect their multimillion-dollar cattle industry from brucellosis.

Critics have disputed the likelihood of the disease spreading to cattle, and have blasted Montana's policy as being based on cowboy politics rather than solid science.

The National Academy of Sciences studied the issue and said there was a small but real risk of bison passing the disease to cattle.

"We don't view this as a cattle vs. bison issue. It's a straight disease issue. ... We'd like to get this resolved and cleaned up," said Marc Bridges, acting administrator of the Montana Department of Livestock.

Park officials generally believe that it is inappropriate to intervene any more than necessary in what they regard as a free-ranging herd of native wild animals.

"We've always said that we feel we're in a tough position here, having to deal with so many different agencies that have policies different than ours, and to find a compromise we can all live with," said Marsha Karle, chief spokeswoman for Yellowstone National Park.

The controversy dates back about 15 years. In the mid-1980s, Montana authorized a public hunting season for bison. That led to television news footage of hunters shooting stationary beasts, which then toppled over, spilling their blood onto the snow.

It was a public-relations fiasco. By the early 1990s, the state ended civilian bison hunting but said animals that wandered into Montana could be shot by state livestock officials or, when possible, herded back into Yellowstone by park rangers.

Under a modified management policy now in effect, bison that wander out of the park are corralled and tested for brucellosis. Animals that test positive are shipped to slaughter; those that test negative are either released onto national forest land near the park or hazed back inside the park.

This winter has been mild, and bison have not left the park in such large numbers as they did two years ago. As of Friday, Montana livestock agents had captured and shipped to slaughter 17 bison. At least 500 bison had been hazed back into the park.

State and federal officials are working on a new, long-range bison impact statement. The new plan is expected around July 2000, according to Bridges.

"Once the disease issue is removed, these bison can migrate however they want to migrate, and the wildlife agencies of the various states could get in there and regulate them. And we'd still have a viable bison herd in Yellowstone National Park," Bridges said.