By RALF GRUENKE
Wildlife conservationists and Native Americans have publicly expressed their disgust with Montana agricultural officials, who they say killed 15 wild buffalo to intentionally disturb a Native American prayer ceremony at Yellowstone National Park.
The incident was mentioned in a letter to Bruce Babbitt, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Monday, protesting the killing of wild bison migrating from the national park.
The letter, sent by the National Wildlife Federation and the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, emphasized the organization's commitment to bring wild buffalo back to tribal and public land.
'As disappointed as we are that our rational solution to the Yellowstone bison slaughter was not accepted in the short term, we remain committed to participate in the development of a comprehensive plan that reinstates bison to its rightful role on public and tribal lands,' stated the letter.
In the letter, the wildlife and Native American activists referred to an incident on March 6 of this year, when Montana state agricultural officials killed 15 Yellowstone bison, only short distance from where Native American tribal leaders were conducting a religious prayer ceremony.
'This sort of provocation ... creates a situation that is both offensive and potentially explosive,' stated the letter.
'I think it was very disrespectful,' said Rosalie Little Thunder, a member of the Rose Eud tribe who attended the ceremony. 'It felt like a murder during a funeral.'
Little Thunder said the prayer ceremony has a long tradition in her family.
'I've seen it done by my grandparents and also by my parents,' she said. 'It is somewhat equivalent to a memorial ceremony.'
Prior to killing any animal, the tribes involved in the ceremony keep their healthy respect for life by making an offering, Little Thunder said.
'We ask the Creator for forgiveness for killing this life and ask the animal to surrender its spirit,' she said.
'Something is very real there,' Little Thunder said. 'You feel peace, like the animal is okay with it, and then the killing is done.'
Little Thunder said the Montana state officials killing the buffalo, less than a mile away from the ceremony, did not happen by accident.
'There was a lot of information out about it,' she said. 'We even invited Park Service people. It could have been done during the day or the following day. I didn't understand the urgency.'
According to Little Thunder, about 90 people attended the ceremony held at Gardiner, just within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park.
'One of the spiritual leaders talked about the importance of the buffalo to native cultures,' Little Thunder said.
The buffalo provided food, shelter and clothing for Native Americans. Many Native American tribes fashioned their lives after the buffalo and even their social structure, she said.
Montana officials denied any intentional behavior in regards to the ceremony.
'The project was conducted as all the projects in the past have been conducted,' said Rob Tierney, assistant administrator for enforcement administration at the Montana State Department of Livestock.
Tierney said the shootings were not in any way intended to interfere with any ceremony.
'We were acting in accordance with the interim operating plan of disposing diseased bison, which roam from Yellowstone National Park into the state of Montana onto private property, and we were acting upon a private property complaint,' Tierney said.
While the ceremony was held barely within the boundaries of the national park, the state officials killed the buffalo less than a mile away, just outside of the park, Little Thunder said.
'We heard the gun shots,' she said. After the ceremony was over, some of the local people told us what had happened and led us to the site of killing.
After viewing the site, Little Thunder said she was arrested for criminal trespass.
'I was arrested for asking questions, really,' Little Thunder said.
Police Lt. Gary Tanascu, from the Park County Sheriff Office, was the officer who arrested Little Thunder.
'She was on private property,' Tanascu said. He told Little Thunder she was welcome to stay and protest on the area owned by the county, but she couldn't enter the actual site of the killing, which was privately owned.
Tanascu said Little Thunder ignored his warnings and stayed on the private property, even after being asked to leave.
'She said she wanted to be arrested,' Tanascu said. 'I think she just wanted to make a point.'
Within the boundaries of the Yellowstone National Park, buffalo may not be killed legally. All bison migrating from the park, however, may be killed by Montana agricultural officials, to avoid wild buffalo transmitting brucellosis to cattle.
Brucellosis is a contagious disease originally transmitted by cattle to wildlife, and now found in wild elk and bison of the Greater Yellowstone area.
'There have been no documented cases of bison transmitting the disease to cattle,' said Kelly Milliman, office manager of the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center of the National Wildlife Federation.
Milliman disagrees with the current policy of killing bison migrating from the national park.
'We want the slaughtering to stop, and eventually reintroduce them to tribal and public lands,' Milliman said. 'We want them to be treated like wildlife, not like livestock.'
Stephanie Hanna, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Interior, said Babbitt has already given suggestions to Marc Racicot, governor of Montana, that may stop the killing of bison.
'The fact is, you could shoot and slaughter, and shoot and slaughter the Yellowstone bison herd into extinction, and still not eliminate brucellosis,' Babbitt said during a press conference Monday.
'There is no need for this obsession with bison, because even in the most extreme scenario, this would not eradicate brucellosis,' he said.
Hanna said the Department of the Interior is not opposed to reintroducing wild bison to tribal lands.
'If any tribe wants to do that, we certainly wouldn't stand in their way,' Hanna said.