Native tribes from Canada, U.S. sign treaty to restore bison to Great Plains

BILLINGS, Mon. — Native tribes from the U.S. and Canada signed a treaty Tuesday establishing an inter-tribal alliance to restore bison to areas of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains where millions of the animals once roamed.

Leaders of about a dozen tribes from Montana and Alberta signed the pact during a daylong ceremony on Montana's Blackfeet Reservation, organizers said.

It marks the first treaty among the tribes and First Nations since a series of agreements governing hunting rights in the 1800s. That was when their ancestors still roamed the border region hunting bison, also called buffalo.

The long-term aim of Tuesday's “Buffalo Treaty” is to allow the free flow of the animals across the international border and restore the bison's central role in the food, spirituality and economies of many American Indian tribes and First Nations — a Canadian synonym for native tribes.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/native-tribes-from-canada-u-s-sign-treaty-to-restore-bison-to-great-plains-1.2021030