The Pryor Mountains near Billings, Montana. Photo by Sara Goth via Wikimedia Commons
Montana State Rep. Carolyn Pease-Lopez (D), a member of the Crow Tribe, urges federal agencies -- including the Bureau of Indian Affiars -- to come together and manage the Pryor Mountains:
As representative for House District 42, I’ve spent the last seven years serving a landscape that stretches south from the outskirts of Billings to the Wyoming border. As a member of the Crow Nation, my roots in this landscape go back much further, to a time before lines on a map shaped how we experience, value, and manage the places my ancestors called home. The Pryor Mountains lie at the heart of this region. Their precious communities of plants and animals, their proud prominence rising above the plains of the Bighorn and the Yellowstone, have made the Pryors a sacred place for the Crow for generations. These mountains once thrived in unbroken connection to neighboring basins and ranges. But short-sighted, fragmented management has resulted in the erosion of the Pryors’ natural and cultural heritage. With management of this special place split among the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Crow Reservation (Bureau of Indian Affairs), its beauty and history have been lost in the fragmentation.Get the Story:
Carolyn Pease-Lopez: Let's unite to manage sacred, scenic Pryor Mountains (The Billings Gazette 5/14)
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