Udall Legacy Tour highlights Native American projects across the country

by Terri C. Hansen
Environment and Science Writer

News from Indian Country
Native American Times

WASHINGTON, D.C.--He championed the rights of Native Americans.

He was a fierce advocate for tribal sovereignty.

He sponsored the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Former Congressman Morris K. Udall, better known as Mo, saw 184 bills affecting Native American interests enacted during his 14 years as chairman of the House Interior Committee. He served 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives until 1991, when Parkinson’s disease precipitated a fall causing irreversible brain damage and loss of speech. The following year Congress established the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Protection Foundation in honor of his distinguished congressional career.

Scholarships, internships and fellowships totaling $4.6 million have been awarded to students pursuing careers related to the environment and Native Americans engaged in health care or tribal policy studies. The Udall Legacy Bus Tour is drawing attention to the programs laudable accomplishments and mark the 10th anniversary of the Udall Foundation’s education programs.

Thirteen Udall scholars embarked from Washington, D.C. on an 8,600 mile, 54 day journey June 12. “This bus tour is about honoring Mo Udall's legacy by bringing attention to young people nationwide who are finding solutions to pressing environmental and Native American issues,” said Udall Scholar Bob Filbin, the tour photographer.

“At a time when we are faced with so many problems, we felt that this bus tour could tell a different story – a positive story about young public servants leading the country in new directions.”

Projects related to Native communities will be highlighted during much of the Tour. They arrive at the Penobscot Nation June 19, where Boys and Girls Club members will be given digital cameras and lessons on digital photography on nature hikes featuring Arcadia’s natural history.

Members of the Cornell American Indian Program and representatives of local tribes will host a dinner there June 23, followed by a presentation by the Transboundary Indigenous Waters Program Initiative and a discussion of healthy environments to Native Peoples.

The United Houma Nation is sponsoring the Legacy Bus stop July 6, where several tribal members will join the Udall scholars in exploring the swamps, bayous and canals of southern Louisiana by boat, learning the importance of these local ecosystems in the Houma culture. The afternoon will be spent touring the United Houma Community. Scholars will meet with tribal council members to discuss the devastating effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Houma Nation.

In Haskell, Kansas the group will tour the Haskell/Baker wetlands July 9 to learn the historic, cultural and ecological importance of the site and the environmental justice issues and concerns surrounding it.

The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde hosts the Legacy Bus July 25. Scholars will join tribal members in helping develop a number of campsites on the reservation in order to mitigate environmental damage and facilitate enjoyment of the reservation’s natural beauty. Other tribal outreach includes a Native American Healthcare Symposium in Oklahoma City, and an irrigation and tree planting project with Salish and Kootenai College students on the Flathead Reservation in Montana.

These projects were made possible by alumni of the Udall Foundation scholarship and internship programs. Udall intern Brian Mercier coordinated the Grand Ronde venture. The Salish and Kootenai College project involved connections made by Udall Scholar Lauren Caldwell.

Tribal coordinator Martina Gast, Ojibwe and a 2006 and 2007 Udall Scholar said she really wanted to be involved in the Native American aspects of the tour. “I hope to bring more Native people doing awesome work into the public eye since so often they are not.” Gast plans to network with people throughout the tour to further her insight into their tribal nations. Future plans are law school to further her career in tribal public policy.

Jennifer Vazquez joined the tour as a tribal coordinator while working at traditional farms, community centers and eco-villages in Japan. “I was so amazed at the network of people and ideas that I became part of, then the opportunity came up to do the same thing in the U.S.” Her work with tribal communities in Wisconsin was some of her most rewarding experiences, so the tour “presented me a way to continue working within Native communities, only now, all over the country.”

The Legacy Bus is “not your average bus.” It runs on B-20 biodiesel and ultra low-sulfur diesel, and is equipped with real time emissions-monitoring hardware. Their goal is a carbon-neutral tour—carbon dioxide being the pollutant that is contributing to global warming—by purchasing carbon offsets from Native Energy, a corporation largely owned by Native Americans.

Udall Foundation programs have provided hundreds of awards and opportunities to Native American student leaders. Any Native American student interested in learning more about the scholarship or internship programs can find information along with applications on the Udall Foundation web site: http://www.udall.gov/.

© Terri Crawford Hansen 2007

Successful appeal to keep hiking trail off burial ground disregarded by port district

by Terri C. Hansen
Environment Writer
News from Indian Country

Cathlamet, Wash.--Thirty years ago, the eternal resting place of the Chinook Chief Skamokawa was plundered.

Skamokawa was unearthed for the peace medal he received from Lewis and Clark. Other artifacts were stolen along with the medal.

Skamokawa's body, too, was stolen.

Circa 1805

Wahkiakum Indians waiting atop basalt cliffs
over Cathlamet, looking for the white men
they had heard were coming. When they spotted
Lewis and Clark's Corp's of Discovery they sent
out canoes to lead them to their village to trade.

The Chinook Nation fought Wahkiakum County Port District No. 2 to stop the trail from accessing the site, used by tribal members for religious ceremonies. And they prevailed.

Or so it had seemed.

In March, the state Shoreline's Hearing Board ordered the trail rerouted and shortened, if necessary, so that no point would come within 400 feet of the perimeter of the site, to be designated by an independent archaeologist hired by the port. Further, no access from the trail to the site would be permitted, and no signs allowed except for general information at the trailhead concerning the history of a site "in the area."

The port voted April 19 to move ahead with the trail without contracting for an independent archeological survey, as required by the Board's order, Tarabochia said. Instead, the Chinook Nation received a map from the port with a revised trail route allegedly allowing for the 400-foot buffer zone roughly marked in. Their revision is based on an old survey, leading the tribe to question how the port could determine the new trail route with no new information.

Carol Carver, a port commissioner, said that the port was undecided about hiring an independent archaeologist. The Commissioner suggested that the Chinook Nation should think about paying for the survey themselves. Carver said, “They,” the Chinook Tribe, “should think about paying part of the cost of any archaeological survey.”

But the port's latest plans for the trail are in violation of that order, says Chinook tribal spokesman Tim Tarabochia. "We feel the port hasn't met the conditions ordered by the Shoreline's Hearings Board," he says. "The tribe is opposed to the trail. It still provides access to the site."

Celilo Falls Legacy Blog Launched

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Launch Celilo Legacy Blog

March, 2007

Portland, Ore.—The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) unveiled a new online blog as part of its Celilo Legacy project. The blog will serve as a clearinghouse for public discourse, information, events, activities, and memorials in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the inundation of Celilo Falls on March 10, 1957.

"There is tremendous interest in Celilo Falls right now among the educators, media, arts communities, historians and the public," said Jeremy FiveCrows, CRITFC editor and webmaster. "By hosting this blog, we hope to provide links between these groups and open a dialogue among them. By coordinating these efforts and offering this resource, we can show how meaningful Celilo Falls was to the tribes, indeed to the entire region."

A blog is an online journal providing opinion, commentary or news on a particular subject. The Celilo Legacy blog features an online journal, photo album, and calendar. The journal will include announcements, historical stories and essays, a photo album of Celilo Falls photographs, and a calendar listing Celilo-related events happening throughout the region leading up to beyond the March 10th anniversary. "Celilo Falls evokes images, emotions and passions for many people in this country. This blog is intended to give people an accessible forum to express as well as listen," added FiveCrows. "Visitors have the ability to make comments on the entries and are encouraged to add their own perspectives, stories and announcements."

Located between Oregon and Washington, Celilo Falls was a unique natural feature formed by the Columbia River approximately 100 miles east of present-day Portland, Oregon. During high water, nearly one million cubic feet of water per second -five times the flow of Niagara Falls - would pass over the basalt rocks, creating a roar that could be heard many miles away. For centuries, the salmon caught here drove tribal economies and created one of the Western Hemisphere’s great market places.

On the morning of March 10, 1957, the gates of The Dalles Dam closed and choked back the Columbia River. Six hours later Celilo Falls was gone.

Primary contributors for the Celilo Legacy blog are: Jeremy FiveCrows (Nez Perce), CRITFC publications editor and webmaster; Charles Hudson (Mandan-Hidatsa), CRITFC public information manager; Elizabeth Woody (Warm Springs), renowned author, poet and the director of the Indigenous Leadership Program at Ecotrust; and Carol Craig (Yakama), author and outreach director for the Yakama Nation Fisheries Department.

CRITFC's Celilo Legacy project is an outreach effort that uses the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Celilo Falls' inundation to educate people about the past historical importance of Celilo Falls and gather oral histories from those who fished there, discuss the effects of the falls’ inundation on the tribes and salmon today, and open a region-wide dialogue in the hopes that we can all work together to prevent such an act of environmental, cultural, and biological violence from ever happening again.The blog is accessible by going to www.critfc.org and clicking on the "Celilo Legacy blog" image, or http://web.mac.com/fivecrows/iWeb/Celilo/Blog/Blog.html.

Pesticide exposures stop ability of second-generation Yaqui girls to breastfeed babies

by Terri Crawford Hansen
Environment and Science Reporter
Native American Times

SONORA VALLEY, Mexico—The problems began ominously with the Yaqui pueblo peoples who accepted pesticide practices during the 1950s.

Long-term research led by Professor Elizabeth Guillette, Ph.D., of the University of Florida found compelling proof that exposure to pesticides has produced negative health impacts over the years to the exposed Native American Yaqui communities.

Her latest research findings indicate some pre-adolescent daughters of mothers exposed to pesticide spraying will never be able to breast feed their babies—ever.

With others there is uncertainly. Although there is breast growth some daughters have not developed the mammary tissue needed to produce milk, or have developed a minimal amount.
As the pesticide-exposed girls matured breast size became much larger than normal, yet they had less mammary tissue and often none at all, while the unexposed girls were normal.

“Some of the most devastating injustices [are] visited on indigenous farming communities around the world,” an article in the Magazine of Pesticide Action Network said in response to the study. “High exposure to pesticides suffered by many indigenous peoples is a frequent indicator of these injustices.”

Guillette, whose research was published in the March 2006 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives said, “A large study, using my techniques, was done in India showing the exact same results.”

“The results underscore the importance of women protecting themselves from manufactured chemicals beginning at birth because they stay in the body,” Guillette told the University of Florida News Bureau.

The study proves pesticide exposures can cross generations and that daughters of mothers exposed to the spraying of agricultural chemicals can be affected.

The intensive industrial agricultural pesticide approach, called the “Green Revolution,” was born in the Yaqui homeland in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora’s Yaqui Valley. The poverty-stricken Yaqui were split between accepting pesticides, herbicides and other agricultural toxicants. The valley Yaqui agreed to grow wheat treated with pesticides for export and for other purposes. The other Yaqui removed themselves to the foothills, avoiding pesticide use or exposure.

Guillette, who frequently consults with Theo Colborn, Ph.D., lead author of “Our Stolen Future,” a book that brought widespread attention to hormonal changes called endocrine disruption being wrought to wildlife and humans by common contaminants, said her own interest was piqued by the changes Colborn noted in wildlife. Another anthropologist referred her to the Sonoma Yaqui Valley, where research was promising with two groups virtually identical except for their exposures to pesticides.

Her first long-term study, published in the journal EHP in 1999, tested Yaqui children aged four and five. Study results indicated key differences between the two populations in fine motor skills such as hand-eye coordination, balance, short-term memory, simple problem solving and even the ability to draw a human figure.

Concluding her interview Dr. Guillette stated, “The future of our society depends on today’s children. Preventative action to protect them from contamination must occur now, including individual, national and global levels.”

Copyright © 2007 Terri Crawford Hansen

EPA fines Ag Air for use of toxic pesticide on Yakama lands

by Terri Crawford Hansen
Environment and Science Reporter
Native American Times

Illegal use of the highly toxic pesticide “Warrior” on the Yakama Nation by an outside company resulted in a $3,120 penalty last month.

Yakama Nation Inspector Rodney Guske teamed with the Environmental Protection Agency in investigating Ag Air, an aerial pesticide applicator who sprayed the insecticide contrary to the product’s label instructions, a direct violation of the law.

As part of Federal Indian Policy, EPA recognizes the primary role of Tribal Governments in regulatory activities that impact reservation environments.

“EPA and the Yakama Pesticide Program are committed to ensuring that all pesticides are applied responsibly and all label instructions are followed,” said Mike Bussell, Director of EPA Region 10’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement.

“Whether applicators are on or off reservation property, they must do whatever it takes to prevent accidental drift or overspray episodes. Protecting human health and the safety of our food supply is serious business.”

Philip Dickey, a staff scientist with the Washington Toxics Coalition—who has successfully sued the federal government to put a stop to pesticide use that jeopardizes endangered or threatened species—said, “Anything such as the insecticide Warrior that paralyzes the nervous system is a neurotoxin—a nerve gas,” adding there are safe and far more effective alternatives.

Warrior is extremely poisonous to fish, aquatic invertebrates, and honeybees. It pollutes groundwater and is persistent in river sediments.

Ag Air of Granger, Washington, sought relief from the judgment, appealing to a federal administrative law judge who ruled against the Company and then to the Environmental Appeals Board, which upheld the Judge’s decision.

To learn more about Pesticide safety, visit: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/
The PAN Pesticides database: http://www.pesticideinfo.org/

Call for submissions: Indigenous Wisdom, Enduring Love - Reclaiming the Teachings of Our Ancestors

Responsible: Maynard (Mike) and Ruth Hansen, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; John Yuille Ph.D., British Columbia, Canada; IICRC, network formerly represented by Mark Hansen J.D. Why: Deschutes County Family Court, Brie Arnette.

Call for submissions:

To Native Poets, Storytellers, Teachers, Farmers, Herders, Gatherers, Fishermen, Mid-wives, Craftspeople, Carvers, Pullers, Wildcrafters, Artists, Musicians, Authors, Spiritual Leaders… Mothers, Fathers, Grandmothers, Grandfathers, Aunties and Uncles… And those who want to offer their knowledge and spirit to our children as they face the future, you are invited:

Indigenous Wisdom, Enduring Love

Reclaiming the Teachings of Our Ancestors

An Anthology of Native and Indigenous Voices

The changing climate is threatening our children's sense of well-being. We know, from our own feelings of sadness, grief, anger, and despair that we cannot shelter our children from the fears they may feel. Yet we, as Native peoples, have our traditions, values, wisdom, strength, and resilience to offer to them.

As I call on my own life lessons in guiding my daughter, I appreciate what it is I don't know. But what I can't see, others do. This project hopes to pool our collective voices and empower our next generations, as they look to the twenty-first century and beyond. Your words may comfort, offer a steadying path, be a practical guide. With the love we have for our children, I know your words can offer the gleam, and the know-how, of ever-ending hope. These are the personal stories, essays, and poems I envision in this work. I hope you’ll join me.

Submissions are encouraged no later than June 30, 2008. This work is from the heart. Though I can't offer any fees, I will donate a book to the library of your choice.

Please email typed submissions to: submissions@terrahansen.com, or send by regular mail to: Terri Hansen, 2325 SE 66th Ave., Portland , OR 97215. Word format is preferred. Please include your bio, and full contact information. We will not publish your contact information unless you specifically request inclusion of a URL.

To contact me personally, please email: terri@terrahansen.com. Kindly post or forward this call for submissions to those who you feel it may interest.

My very best wishes,

Terri

Francis posthumously awarded Lifetime Achievement Award

Francis posthumously awarded Lifetime Achievement Award

by Terri Crawford Hansen
News from Indian Country

A close circle of Native writers gathered at the 2004 Returning the Gift Festival to pay tribute to the late Dr. Lee Francis III, Laguna Pueblo.

The internationally-renowned educator, speaker, author and poet was awarded the 2004 Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of his visionary conception in founding The Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.

He created the non-profit organization in 1992 at the first annual RTG Festival. Accepting the award on his behalf was his only son, Lee Francis IV, who assumed, by consensus of the Wordcraft national caucus, the position of The Wordcraft Circle national director after his fathers' untimely passing in July 2003.

In accepting the award Francis said, referring to the space flight Dr. Francis and his wife took, "Astronaut Commander Herrington related to me that after my fathers' crossing over, he spoke of speaking from the heart, because that is what my father always did, and that is what he encouraged everyone else to do." He also talked about his father's Wordcraft family and what his father had accomplished.

Prolific Native writer Joseph Bruchac was unable to attend this year's event, but put his feelings into words. "When I learned of Lee winning the award I had a sudden feeling as if wings were opening in my chest," he wrote.

"It was a mixture of both joy and sorrow. Joy for the well-deserved recognition of Lee's work as a superb writer and a positive, fathering force in the lives of so many young (and old) Native writers. And a deep sorrow - that I will never ever lose - because of his untimely departure. I am smiling as I write this, and there are also tears in my eyes.

"There's an old saying among our Native people here in the northeast that those who die are no further away than the other side of a leaf that has fallen. It's that way with Lee. I believe that his gentle and supportive presence will always remain close to everyone who knew him and was touched by his boundless energy, infectious enthusiasm and belief in the power of all our stories."

The festival was more of an awards ceremony than a festival this year, Francis said. Many of his fathers’ relations including his wife, Mary Francis, and his aunt Frida Stewart attended, along with several Wordcraft Circle and Native Writers' Circle of the Americas' members, his fathers’ friends, colleagues and an assembly of Oklahoma University instructors.

"It was a very nice event," Francis said. "There were 12 to 14 beautifully catered banquet tables full of delicious foods. After the awards ceremony, we spent the evening together mingling and chatting with friends."

In Wordcraft's latest online newsletter, www.wordcraftcircle.org/home.htm, Francis wrote, "A big thank you to everyone who was there and everyone who voted. I'm sure that my father was smiling and thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone." He also promised that pictures would be available soon on the web site.

Wordcraft Circle was a success story from its very beginning. Dr. Francis' concept was to form an organization of Native writers and storytellers at all levels of skillfulness, then link established writers and storytellers as mentors to beginning and emerging writers. Many of those writers who began at Wordcraft have gone on to see their works published in anthologies and books.

Of all his honors, awards and accolades, in June of 2003 Dr. Francis said Wordcraft Circle was his greatest achievement. To date, Wordcraft Circle includes over 300 members from 135 Indigenous nations. In his work with Wordcraft Circle, Dr. Francis taught, inspired, encouraged, served and selflessly gave himself to Indigenous peoples throughout the world.

Among his many books, Dr. Francis wrote Native Time: A Historical Time Line of Native America, co-authored Reclaiming the Vision - Past, Present and Future: Native Voices for the Eight Generation, and wrote his final book of poetry titled On the Good Red Interstate: Truckstop Tellings and other Poems.

Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Paula Gunn Allen, Joseph Bruchac, Vine Deloria, Jr., Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, N. Scott Momaday, Simon J. Ortiz and Leslie Marmon Silko.

Prepaid Mental Health Care Plan for Native Americans/Alaskan Natives

Prepaid Mental Health Care Plan for Native Americans/Alaskan Natives

by Terri Crawford Hansen
News from Indian Country

Mount Vernon, Wash.—Federal and state laws now require collaboration with tribes to access traditional and cultural mental health services for enrolled Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, in addition to or instead of incorporating standard psychological or psychiatric services.

According to the North Sound Regional Support Network, a network of eight tribes within the Pacific Northwest North Sound region, when a client so requests, providers are required to make arrangements with one or more tribes to provide treatment from traditional or cultural practitioners, such as tribal healers, medicine men and women. Services will be reimbursed by the program to those practitioners.

These services help providers assure that treatment is culturally appropriate, that client history is complete, and that the necessary follow-up will be in place. This partnership gives Native Americans and Alaskan Natives greater opportunities, where traditions can be essential for recovery.

Each tribe has its own culture, beliefs, and practices. In a Rapid City Journal article, Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs, of the Lakota Nagi Kicopi (calling the spirit back) children's mental-health program, said, "In Western beliefs, when a person hears voices or sees hallucinations, they are considered symptoms of mental illness. In our Lakota culture, it is our belief that they may have a spiritual meaning. That is the first thing we have to find out -- and it can mean there is a mental illness.”

The newspaper reported that research provided by Mark Daniels, a psychology professor at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, and a member of three tribes, has so far has revealed that Indians, depending on the tribe, used many traditional ceremonies to deal with mental illness.

In February 2001, Indian Health Service statistics indicated that more than one-third of the demands made on tribal health facilities involve mental illness and social service related concerns. The IHS related that Native Americans and Alaskan Natives “tend to underutilize services, experience higher therapy drop-out rates, are less likely to respond to treatment, and have negative opinions to non-Indian providers.” They also reported that the suicide rate for Native Americans is 72 percent higher than the general population.

A 1999 Surgeon General’s Report on the need for a mental health care study for Native Americans and Alaskan Indians has not yet been published on a large-scale, epidemiological basis, although much smaller studies have been done.

NSRST, federal and state programs provide a grievance process for any individual who is not satisfied with the services he or she receives from any contracted provider. That client has the right to complain to an Ombudsperson, who is required by law to keep all complaints strictly confidential. On the client’s behalf, the Ombudsperson will contact the provider to attain a satisfactory resolution. If the client is still not satisfied, the Ombudsperson will file a formal complaint and/or grievance on their behalf. If the client is not satisfied with the results of the formal complaint, the Ombudsperson will arrange for a fair hearing before a judge.

For further information, contact your tribal Mental Health and Social Services program, or the IHS Public Affairs Staff at 301-443-3593.

Author of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," dead at 94

Dee Brown, author of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” dies at age 94

by Terri Crawford Hansen
News from Indian Country

Little Rock, Ark. - Novelist and historian Dee Alexander Brown died Dec. 12, 2002. He had been suffering from heart disease and was living in a hospice at the time of his death.

Born in 1908 in Alberta, Louisiana, Brown lived in Arkansas for a number of years following the death of his father when Brown was four. His writing career was centered there.

He graduated from Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. At age 17 he published a magazine story for which he was paid one hundred dollars.

He received his bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1937, and his master's degree from the University of Illinois in 1952.

He is best remembered for writing the best selling book on the West, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” By his own account, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" was an eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the 19th century. When first published in 1971, both reviewers and readers responded first with shock, then a deep sense of shame, calling it "shattering" (Washington Post), and "heartbreaking" (The New York Times).

It went on to sell over a million copies in hardback and four million copies in paperback, and was translated into 15 languages around the world.

Just one example of the many readers’ comments states, "Every member of Congress and every politician who is tempted to criticize American Indian Nations for such things as gambling or fishing rights should read this book. This powerful and comprehensive narrative is only the beginning of what was done in the name of Christian Manifest Destiny and war profiteering.”

Another: “The book reads like a fast paced novel hard to put down. The eloquence of this writer brings to crystal clarity the shame of much of our past and what reparations we owe the American Indian tribes.

"Humanity does not seem to learn from its lessons. That's why this book, which contains dramatic stories enough to create a hundred great motion pictures, should be read by everyone so we may remember."

Brown wrote 29 books, and 36 folklore stories which, according to Book News, Inc., drew on the oral traditions of a variety of different tribes.

He used a manual typewriter throughout his life. He especially liked to write nonfiction, and preferred to write about the past. He won the Clarence Day Award from the American Library Association in 1971.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Sara Baird Stroud Brown. He is survived by two children, James Mitchell Brown and Linda Brown.

766 and counting: Yellowstone buffalo dying to be free

by Terri Crawford Hansen
News from Indian Country
Bureau Chief/Pacific Northwest Bureau

Yellowstone National Park, Montana—Severe winter conditions at Yellowstone National Park have caused starvation among this countries last free-ranging buffalo. Unable to forage, hundreds are following snowmobile tracks to lower elevations in search of food. For those who make it to the park's boundary, it's a collision with butchery.

The slaughter stems from a fear that brucellosis, a bacterium that causes cows to abort, could spread to area cattle. About half of the park's buffalo have tested positive for brucellosis in past years, and ten percent are infectious.

An Interim Bison Management Plan between Montana and the federal government calls for the slaughter of all buffalo who reach the park's boundary. Over 700 buffalo have been killed this year.

"The plan was meant to restrict migration to areas grazed by cattle in the spring and summer," said Paul C. Pritchard, president of the 78-year-old National Parks and Conservation Association. "The bison do not come within miles of cattle." NPCA advocates vaccination and proper land management to prevent buffalo and cattle contact.

Critics say the park and the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have caved in to Montana's demands. "ADAPHIS is not allowing any animal from this herd to be shipped even though they are testing negative," said NPCA spokesman Mark Peterson. "They have a zero-tolerance policy, but it does not address the 100,000 elk in the park, some of which carry brucellosis."

Dedicated to restoring the buffalo in the spiritual and cultural ways of the people, the 40 tribes that make up the Inter Tribal Bison Cooperative are turning their efforts to populating tribal lands with disease-free buffalo from Yellowstone.

"We are making an effort to get those buffalo out of there alive," declared executive director Mark Heckert. "We are shocked and dismayed that this goes on. The buffalo is sacred to most tribes in the country -- every native culture has a word for buffalo."

A joint agreement between ITBC and the 61-year-old National Wildlife Federation to advocate the quarantine of buffalo under accepted disease management protocols would move disease-free buffalo onto Indian lands.

Montana Governor Marc Racicot rejected any alternative to slaughter, but he later indicated cooperation with the ITBC agreement.

"Not so," said Montana's state veterinarian, Dr. Clarence Siroky. "These animals are from an infected herd. State vets in the 49 other states will determine whether that happens."

Siroky admits brucellosis is transmitted only by close contact, but does not agree that the animals should re-populate tribal lands. "Can you imagine if these animals went to a reservation? They would jeopardize (the tribes') ability to market their cattle."

Those at the scene say the buffalo are being slaughtered without honor. "The scene is tragic," said Pritchard. "Animals goring one another as they are crammed into pens and trucks for slaughter. Three calves had their horns broken off and were bleeding profusely. An adult female was badly gored with broken ribs. Meanwhile, more bison are stacking up near the pens."

Killed buffalo go to participating Indian nations, who must pick up the animals where they were shot. That meant 300 miles for Ken Morin, buffalo manager at the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. The tribe received 27 buffalo this year.

"We do the sweetgrass ceremony and thank Creator before taking the buffalo," said Morin. Every part of the buffalo is distributed to tribal members, and they make use of "all the animal, every part, even the intestines."

On January 31, Heckert confirmed that Racicot agreed to cooperate with the ITBC/NWF proposal to "capture and quarantine buffalo under accepted disease management protocols; bison that pass quarantine will then be made available to the tribes for reintroduction to tribal lands."

Concurrently, spokeswoman Stacy Churchwill said that the park's policy of slaughtering all stray buffalo was still in place.

The Fund for Animals and a number of other organizations around the country are now calling for a boycott of Montana tourism to protest the policy.

Yellowstone's herd numbered 3,500, not including this winter's natural mortality. At January's end, almost 600 of those buffalo had perished, according to five well-known organizations.