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Update from the Field
Dear Buffalo Friends,
Last night, close to 8pm, after dinner and our general
meeting, we walked out of the warmth of the cabin into
the frigid, clear night air, down the snowy driveway
to watch the total eclipse of the Moon. She was so beautiful
in her fullness, lighting up the white snow with such
brightness every move of your eye caused crystals to
sparkle and glitter. The full moon on a snowy landscape
can make even the most practical-minded believe in some
kind of Magick. Slowly, the Moon's glowing was eclipsed
by the earth, her strong light fading with the creeping
of a red shadow moving across her pale face. I certainly
can't speak for everyone, but I think it's safe to say
that, while reveling in this celestial phenomenon, each
of us couldn't help but turn our thoughts to the blood
of the buffalo being spilled all over the winter landscape.
Even the Moon reflects the season of buffalo slaughter
now full upon us.
Along the north boundary, near Gardiner, Yellowstone
National Park has captured and sent to slaughter 290
of America's last wild buffalo. It is so hard to imagine
the stress and horror these buffalo go through as they
are captured and separated from their families by age
and sex. Frightened, they run around in a panic, goring
each other as they try to find a way out of this thoughtless
prison. The sacred buffalo, being loaded onto livestock
trailers and hauled to the dark nightmare of the slaughter
house, to be processed and cut to pieces. How dare Yellowstone
National Park condemn the buffalo under their care to
such a fate.
Here in West Yellowstone, Montana Department of Livestock
(DOL) agents have plowed the 610 Forest Service road
that leads to the Horse Butte trap site. This morning,
patrols began witnessing the livestock agents assembling
the trap. According to the DOL, hazing, capture and
slaughter could begin any minute now. The buffalo scattered
throughout the Madison Valley and Horse Butte Peninsula
are doing the best they can just to survive the winter.
Now their true enemies are back in town ready to dominate
the landscape and terrorize every creature that lives
here. There are never any cattle on Horse Butte, at
any time of year, so why must the DOL make a presence
here at all? Why don't they go to their precious feedlots
and cattle pastures and mind their widgets and leave
the wild buffalo alone?
All this killing and preparation for killing is happening
while the Nez Perce are engaging in their treaty hunt.
Near Gardiner the Yellowstone River divides the types
of death the buffalo are dealt: to the west, slaughter
and to the east the hunt. But here along the western
boundary all these actions take place on the same landscape.
Will the DOL and other agencies haze and capture buffalo
that the Nez Perce are trying to hunt? What conflict
will this incite? Already on Horse Butte conflicts between
Nez Perce hunters and state and federal agents have
taken place. Hunters are none too pleased to know that
a buffalo trap is being set up by the government while
they are trying to hunt buffalo; their treaty rights
are being infringed upon, to be sure. The response of
the Nez Perce to these actions remain to be seen, but
things may heat up. Yesterday, on Horse Butte, seven
buffalo were taken by Nez Perce hunters; unfortunately,
they killed the buffalo in the middle of the bald eagle
closure, an area closed to all human activity from December
through August to protect nesting pairs of bald eagles.
Their thinking was that this area didn't apply to their
treaty rights to hunt on the landscape. While this violation
is tragic, even more telling is how the Forest Service
immediately ticketed the Nez Perce, but have turned
a blind eye to white hunters who have also violated
the closure, and have practically ignored the hundreds
of snowmobiles who have disrespectfully trashed this
protected area. It's selective law enforcement, and
the Forest Service even admits to it.
Either way, the buffalo lose. They are being killed
by the hundreds.
More than 400 of the country's last wild buffalo have
been killed just because they stepped foot into or approached
Montana's borders. Always, the decision-makers try to
justify their actions by touting the threat of brucellosis.
Yes, brucellosis is a threat, but not to cattle. It
is a threat to the buffalo because it is being used
by the government and cattle interests to keep wild
American bison from reclaiming their native, historic
range. This is their land! It's infuriating how the
industry-backed media reports how these mismanagement
actions take place to prevent bison from transmitting
brucellosis to non-native cattle, when it is the cattle
that infected our native wildlife to begin with. And
wild bison have never transmitted this disease back
to cattle. There are upwards of 100 million cows in
the U.S., and wild American bison number fewer than
4,300 individuals. Brucellosis is an excuse that is
being used to control and kill wildlife, and give cattle
interests dominion over our national heritage - it's
not just bison; it's elk and wolves and bears and grasslands
and water, and so much more. Cattle make the land and
the people sick. The cattle industry believes their
profits are more important than the health of the land,
and has the government's support in every possible way,
using our tax dollars to kill the buffalo.
Over the weekend we were blessed with a visit from BFC
co-founder and Lakota elder Rosalie Little Thunder.
See below for a special message from her. She, her sister
Donna, and Donna's son Robert came to stay with us and
talk about how we can bring the Buffalo Culture tribes
together to make something happen for the buffalo. Rosalie
reminded us that, while we may feel that change seems
to never be in site, things are moving in a positive
direction. It's like a pendulum, she said, and it can
only swing so far one way before it must start back
in the other direction. We are on the cusp of that counter
swing.
Roam Free,
~Stephany
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* Week of Action Wrap-up
What a week! Thank you so much for participating in
all the National Call-in Days! We really made the phones
ring off the hook, and it's apparent by the reactions
of the decision-makers we contacted that they are trying
to hide from the shame of their part in the 21st century
buffalo slaughter. They were either out of town, on
vacation, hired someone else to take names and numbers,
passing the buck, or shirking their responsibility in
any way they could. We should all be outraged at their
lack of responsiveness, and perhaps it's time to take
it to Congress. Many of you already contacted your House
and Senate members, and we encourage others to do the
same. And, of course, keep contacting the decision-makers
we called this week and let them know you are not going
to go away until the slaughter stops and wild buffalo
are free to roam! Contact info for everyone we called
this week, as well as other involved agencies and your
own members of Congress can all be found here:http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/politicians.html
Our Week of Action also consisted of a rally on Saturday,
the 16th (see Photo of the Week below), which was a
great way for us here in West Yellowstone to draw attention
to the buffalo slaughter for the Park's numerous winter
visitors. It also gave us hope. We received a lot of
positive response from all the tours that passed our
"free speech zone" where we donned masks,
held banners, chanted for the buffalo, and performed
skits with amazing puppets made by BFC volunteers. We
were approached by two media organizations, and were
also very lucky to meet supporters that traveled from
Bozeman to join us in solidarity for the Buffalo.
We must also thank the people who helped make this Week
of Action a success. Here at home, Seeds of Peace joined
us, cooking amazing meals for the many people who participated,
and offering medical and moral support. Seeds is an
amazing collective of incredible people that do everything
they can to provide what the activist community needs.
Learn more about Seeds of Peace:
http://www.seeds-of-peace-collective.org/
Also, the following groups were hugely instrumental
in helping spread the word for our National Call-in
Days, rallying their supporters to take action for the
buffalo. They were able to get the word out to many
tens of thousands of people. In particular, we are grateful
for the efforts of the Animal Welfare Institute, the
Humane Society of the United States, In Defense of Animals
and the Gallatin Wildlife Association. We also thank
the many bloggers who are out there, posting the information
and helping to spread the word to save these special
herds. Keep the pressure on! Don't let up until the
slaughter stops and the wild buffalo roam their homeland
wild and free!
THANK YOU ALL FOR A GREAT WEEK!
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* BFC Needs Cameras & Walkie Talkies for
the Field!
One of the main reasons were are here in the field,
on the front lines with the buffalo, is to document
all actions made against them and thereby tell the world
what is happening in order to create positive change.
We can only be effective at this when we have working
cameras and radios to document and communicate with
one another in the field.
Currently, BFC is in dire need of video cameras, still
cameras, and walkie-talkies. Without these tools, we
cannot be as effective as we need to be. With hazing,
capture, slaughter, and hunting happening on both boundaries,
we are stretched and sometimes unable to run as many
patrols as we need to.
PLEASE SUPPORT BFC by helping
us get the gear we need. As we say around camp, "these
are the tools we use to save the buffalo." We are
specifically in need of:
* Mini DV video cameras, preferably 3CCD
* 5 (or greater) megapixel digital still cameras
* Walkie-Talkies
If you can help us with monetary or in-kind donations
for these items, you will help ensure that nothing done
against the buffalo will go undocumented. Help us tell
their story to the world! Thank you! Contact us at gear@buffalofieldcampaign.org,
406-646-0070, or by mail at
BFC, P.O. Box 957, West Yellowstone, MT 59758.
Thank you all so much for your continued support!
------------------------------
* A Message from Rosalie Little Thunder
"Ahniyan" is a Lakota word that is difficult
to translate to English. It is a transitive verb, with
behavior or emotion being transferred from subject to
object. Rather than having narrow meaning, "ahniyan"
has range and describes emotion; from gentle to intensely
aggressive. You can "ahniyan" a baby; it's
smallness or softness causing one to want to gently
squeeze it. You can also "ahniyan" your worst
enemy; harboring a heavy desire to do violence. This
is the word that comes to mind when trying to comprehend
the human behavior involved in the ongoing Yellowstone
buffalo slaughter. At the far dark end of the emotional
scale, it's the simplest and clearest description for
this whole bloody mess. It doesn't have to be logical
and sensible. It's an intense, murky emotion that grips
frail, undisciplined human beings and compels them to
brutally and systematically wipe out millions of living
beings. These Holocausts are enacted at different places
and different times in history. For the last generation,
we have been witness to the Holocaust of the Yellowstone
Buffalo.
Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the
buffalo slaughter operation to protect so few cows that
can be elsewhere. No one yet has backed up the disease
accusation with the sound scientific proof that a wild
buffalo ever transmitted the disease (back) to a cow.
The U.S. Army brought infectious dairy cattle to Yellowstone,
to the wildlife of Yellowstone. Native legend tells
us that the buffaloes eat medicinal plants and heal
themselves. The buffaloes show no ill effects from brucellosis
and they will NOT breed with cattle. While they migrate
to lower elevations for forage in harsh winters, they
will return to the park long before the cattle are brought
onto the cheap grazing allotments on public lands. These
arguments have been made and some serious questions
were raised by sensible folks within responsible agencies;
Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Yellowstone
National Park and so on, but those good folks are all
gone now, swept away by pathological politics.
So here we are now, over a decade of the on-going "woahniyan"
of a species, that still doesn't make sense, when exaggerations
and lies are told without shame. The case has been made,
the bigger ecological picture has been drawn, the cultural
stories have been told and yet the mindlessness of humanity
prevails and our woolly relatives continue to perish.
There are human beings who see the big picture, who
know from deep within their ancestral memories, who
have the capacity to comprehend the significance of
the buffalo. They feel the energy of the Earth and they
know what Sacred is. Some of them are there in Yellowstone.
Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers are with the buffalo.
From early dawn, they give their energy toward its survival
and in the evening, they weep when they know that the
buffaloes have been captured and are on their way to
slaughter. But In the morning, they will get up and
do it all over again. There is hope.
------------------------------
* Contact Major News Outlets
Why aren't major news networks covering the slaughter
of America's last wild buffalo? We must all make an
effort to bring this issue to their attention, and let
them know this is an issue of national, and even global
significance. Please take some time to contact the various
media outlets listed below and help share the story
of what's happening to the last wild buffalo! Thank
you!
ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3068843
CBS News:
http://www.cbsnews.com/
*scroll down to the very bottom of the page and choose
"Contact Us." You can send messages to one
or multiple news programs
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams:
drop him a line at nightly@nbcuni.com.
You can also send video mail if you have the capability:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19935021/
MSNBC - send them an email suggesting
they cover the buffalo slaughter in Yellowstone and
Montana: letters@msnbc.com
CNN - email them at ireport@cnn.com
or send video mail regarding the buffalo to CNN at http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/topics/forms/breaking.news.html
CNN's Larry King Live:
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.lkl.html
Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/get_involved/contact?to=1
Real Time with Bill Maher
http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do?title=
Real%20Time%20with%20Bill%20Maher&questiontype=realtimewithbillmaher
To contact major print news media, please visit our
Letters to the Editor page at
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/actnow/lte.html
Anyone who gets a buffalo-friendly letter printed wins
a FREE "Let Buffalo Roam" t-shirt! Please
send a hard copy or email copy of your letter appearing
in the paper, along with your t-shirt size and mailing
address.
------------------------------
* Photo of the Week
An assortment from our rally at the west gate of Yellowstone
National Park. Buffalo advocates got the message to
hundreds of Yellowstone visitors, and marched through
town to draw attention to the Park's role in the slaughter
of the American bison. Thank you all for a great day!
Photos by Chris, Cricket and Cat.
http://gallery.buffalofieldcampaign.org/v/photo_of_the_week/actionweek_1.jpg.html
------------------------------
* Last Words
"His heart was like the wind roaming over the land
with a roar of might and many. And ending in a sigh
of solitude and sorrow, not for himself, but for the
ignorance of man".
~ Zorgreen
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