A January article in Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution (cited below) reviews the potential of bison restoration for Tribal food sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains. Authored by Hila Shamon of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the article has 30 co-authors representing numerous Native American Tribes and three major public conservation organizations (Defenders of Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund).
Diverse values of Tribal bison herds are emphasized: nutritional, economic/commercial, spiritual/cultural/educational values, and the ability of bison herds to ecologically restore native ecosystems on the Plains. These values are emphasized due to overriding and vital needs for nutritional and economic benefits to Tribal communities.
Authors barely, and indirectly, recognize the ongoing domestication and genetic deterioration of wild plains bison.
Moreover, the article injects a semantic complication into the social/political issue of bison domestication vs. recovery of wildness. We have always defined “rewilding” as a condition in which the genome-effects of natural selection are predominant over combined effects of human-caused artificial selection and genetic drift. This article defines this condition as “true restoration”. It defines “rewilding” as an imperfect version of true restoration: “the reorganization and redevelopment of the species and its ecosystem under new environmental conditions”. This justifies the continuing domestication of American plains bison, branding it with a misleading euphemism.
The article offers three Tribal herds in Montana and one in South Dakota as examples in which “overarching goals are to enhance the cultural, economic and ecological health of the Tribes and their lands”. Presented data on sizes of herds and “pastures”, and other management practices, demonstrate the contribution of these herds to plains bison domestication.
We do not criticize Tribal emphasis on nutritional, economic and cultural values in their bison management and agree these are overriding needs. They are exacerbated by limits of available Tribal lands, intermingling of non-Tribal lands within reservations, and by social aspects of competition from Tribal cattle operations on reservations.
Looking to the future, the article suggests allowing bison on large federal lands under Tribal/federal co-management. It is stated that rewilding and Tribal economic/nutritional/cultural benefits from bison “are not mutually exclusive”, implying that each can be produced to a satisfactory degree within one large herd. We disagree and have suggested that wildness, forestalling domestication of bison, will only be adequately maintained in a few large National Parks and Refuges suitable for large bison herds, according to the mandated missions of these agencies. The future of these bison and Tribal bison should proceed on different parallel tracks.
While the article describes Tribal efforts as “leading the way” in overall bison restoration, it clearly demonstrates that restoring wildness of bison and of their grassland ecosystem is not occurring in Tribal herds – and makes the contention that this wildness can be achieved with Tribal/government co-management on federal lands dubious.
Lasting political constraints, generated by the livestock industry and involving perceived states’ rights, prevent the wider USA population from counteracting domestication of plains bison and their habitats. The continued success of this political opposition to bison restoration on federal lands depends a great deal on the indifference of major non-government conservation organizations, including those co-authoring this article.
It is past time for major non-government conservation organizations to work both sides of the bison conservation fence!
Shamon, H. et al. 2022. The Potential of Bison Restoration as an Ecological Approach to Future Tribal Food Sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains. frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.826282/full
