Oregon tribes exercise treaty rights for bison hunt in Montana

Thursday, February 24, 2011  

Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon are exercising their treaty right to hunt bison in Montana.

Tribal leaders had just returned from a hunt when they signed the treaty in 1855. "Our tribe has been hunting buffalo for centuries. It's one of our traditional foods," Jim Marsh, who sits on the tribe's Fish and Wildlife Commission, told the Associated Press.

The tribe entered into an agreement with the state of Montana to hunt bison on federal lands outside Yellowstone National Park. Tribal members hunted for the first time in Montana in more than a century earlier this month.

Get the Story:
Oregon Tribes Pursue First Bison Hunt In Century (AP 2/24)