Buffalo co-evolved
with the Great Plains grasslands and are revered
as sacred by tribal peoples from the eastern seaboard
to the
Pacific Northwest.
Once
numbering 60 million the great herds were systematically
decimated in the 1800's and numbered
less than 400 by the turn of the 20th century.
Twenty- three of these buffalo found refuge in Yellowstone National Park.
For
the past decade the State of Montana has adopted a shoot and
kill management policy of buffalo migrating out of Yellowstone
Park in search of winter forage.
During
the winter of 1996- 1997, Montana Department of Livestock
officials slaughtered over 1,100 buffalo, one third of the
herd.
Some
were captured, penned,sent to slaughterhouses, butchered, and auctioned
off.
Others were shot on public and private lands outside Yellowstone
Park.
Ostensibly, buffalo are targeted for slaughter based on
the unscientific rationale that they will
transmit brucellosis to domesticated cattle.
Cold
Mountain, Cold Rivers is one of the co-founding organizations of Buffalo
Nations, now the Buffalo Field Campaign,
the
front line activist group that has been working every day in Yellowstone
Park to sheperd
the buffalo away from the guns of the Montana Department
of Livestock.
Check out their
web site for the latest updates from Yellowstone.
Cold
Mountain, Cold Rivers has been video documenting this issue for years.
Contact CMCR for
news footage and a documentary video concerning the tragic slaughter of
the last wild buffalo herd.
The
video is
Native
Wildlife compilation contains:
Buffalo Bull
Plan B, The Buffalo's Alternative;
Where the Buffalo Roam;
The Big Bad Wolf
A
Future for the Grizzly?
Here's a short video clip of the State of Montana hazing a wild buffalo - Please bookmark this site first....
Papers/ Resources
Horse
Butte LawSuit Press Release: May 10, 2001:
Montana Department of Livestock's Buffalo Management Plan Endangers
Yellowstone's Wildlife;
Environmental Groups File Suit
COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
National Elk Refuge (NER) Comments
Right to Know Lawsuit (State of Montana); PETITION FOR v. WRIT OF MANDAMUS OR OTHER APPROPRIATE RELIEF
Right
to Know (RTK) Press Release; July 11, 2001; 
Montana Department of Livestock violating Montanan's Right to Know
Groups charge state agency is illegally withholding public records
11/29/01:
Buffalo Field Campaign, The Ecology Center Inc. and Cold Mountain, Cold
River's petition for a writ of mandamus was heard in Helena before Montana's
First Judicial District Court Judge Honzel. This legal action was taken
against the Montana Dept. of Livestock for violating our constitutional
Right-to-Know. Since early this year, our efforts to inspect and copy
public records held by the livestock agency on their bison management
activities has been repeatedly thwarted. For a look at the issues at
stake and why we went to court, Here's our petition
and pre-hearing brief.
October 2000: Honor the Earth Rocks Montana to Get Out the Indian Vote ÑSave the Yellowstone Buffalo!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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