About Bison Range Restoration
In 1908, the federal government established the National Bison Range in the middle of our treaty-reserved home, the Flathead Indian Reservation, on land taken without our consent. The bison herd there descends from a free-ranging Reservation herd started by Tribal members in the 1800’s when plains bison were near extinction.
Through Public Law 116-260, Congress has now restored the Bison Range to federal trust ownership for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) so that our award-winning natural resource managers can take over as stewards of the Range’s buffalo, wildlife and land.
We are working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to transition from federal to Tribal management.
The Tribal Council has adopted, as its interim Bison Range management plan, the current Comprehensive Conservation Plan that was developed and adopted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2019 (for which CSKT was a cooperating agency).
See the plan here and see the Tribes’ resolution adopting it as the interim Bison Range management plan here.
