American Bison... "The Return"

If you follow my Twitter feed, you're aware that I'm fairly obsessed with the return of bison to the Great Plains. The legal kerfuffle kicked up over the recent high-profile move of a herd of genetically pure bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation even managed to catch the attention of the NY Times:

"Sioux and Assiniboine tribe members wailed a welcome song last month as around 60 bison from Yellowstone National Park stormed onto a prairie pasture that had not felt a bison’s hoof for almost 140 years.

 That historic homecoming came just 11 days after 71 pureblood bison, descended from one of Montana’s last wild herds, were released nearby onto untilled grassland owned by a charity with a vision of building a haven for prairie wildlife. Some hunters and conservationists are now calling for bison to be reintroduced to a million-acre wildlife refuge spanning this remote region".

My interest in the subject started with research that I did for my first two books, The Third Revolution and its sequel, Middle America. Both were "liberty" stories, and I found that including the return of the bison to the Montana grasslands not only added color to the story, but nicely amplified the theme.

Here's a recently produced video documenting the reintroduction of the bison to the Fort Peck Reservation:



Read the entire Times article here: As Bison Return to Prairie, Some Rejoice, Others Worry

And while you're at it, please consider reading The Third Revolution and Middle America as well...