Tribes: Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The CSKT Bison Range

In 1855 and 1856, the Treaty of Hellgate was negotiated then ratified, establishing the boundaries for the Flathead Reservation on 1.3 million acres in northwest Montana. The property within that boundary was for the exclusive use of the Bitterroot Salish, the Upper Kalispel (Qlispe), and Kootenai peoples, respectively. Around the turn of the 19th century, the National Bison Association noted that bison across the Central Plains and Eastern Montana were facing extinction, due in part to settlers immigrating to the region, and to U.S. strategies to exterminate Indigenous food sources – "Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone". Out of concern, the association contacted the University of Montana and requested that they find land for a bison reserve, and in 1910, the university found an allotment in the heart of the Flathead Reservation. With Congress’ assistance, an 18,766-acre range of land was taken out of trust and put into federal status and purchased for roughly $120,000 (just over $4 million in 2025) thus creating the National Bison Range. In addition to the establishment of the National Bison Range, the University of Montana built a bio-station on the land. The Tribal herd of bison on the land was rounded up and sold by their owners after failed negotiations with the federal government – some went to buyers in Canada, and some went to Yellowstone National Park. Descendants of that herd later came back as the seed herd for the National Bison Range.

Land Back – The CSKT Bison Range
After over a decade of advocating and negotiations, The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) – Montana Compact was ratified in 2021, which restored the implied reserved water rights that should have been given to the Tribes upon the establishment of the Flathead Reservation boundaries. The Compact also rightfully transferred the National Bison Range to Tribal management and mandated that the Tribe continue to maintain a herd on the land, keep it open to public visitation, and provide educational opportunities. Now renamed the CSKT Bison Range, it occupies the same 18,766 acres and serves as a wildlife park and model for other Tribes looking to regain land and bison.

Whisper Camel-Means, the Division Manager for the CSKT Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation Department, was eager to come on board to manage the Bison Range when it was returned to the Tribes. She understood some of the frustrations CSKT Tribal members had with the Bison Range while it was under US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) management and sought to remedy those frustrations. The first thing that changed under new CSKT management was the language in the Visitor Center, repealing decades of misinformation, colonial language, and erasure of Indigenous Knowledges on co-existence with the bison.

New Management, New Initiatives
In the revamped Bison Range Visitor Center, there’s a small museum with taxidermized animals from the Range, examples of plants that can be found in the region, and Tribal histories. For decades, this museum misrepresented the CSKT people as a monolith. Signs in the Visitors Center had Sioux words for plants and animals found on the Bison Range – despite Sioux territory spanning North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming – not Northwest Montana. Stories of how bison came to the land were false, and villains were portrayed as heroes. Immediately upon regaining managerial authority, the CSKT remodeled the museum and adapted the information shared to better represent the region and the CSKT people that inhabit it. Language was changed to be regionally appropriate and showcase the CSKT people, and accurate accounts of the bison’s introduction to the land were published. Local schoolchildren now come to the CSKT Bison Range on field trips, and for the first time in generations, are shown an accurate depiction of their heritage.

One disadvantage of the Bison Range no longer being under federal management is the loss of reliable federal dollars. To recoup this loss, the CSKT Bison Range now has a $20 per vehicle fee to enter the reserve, which is waived for enrolled CSKT Tribal Members, but prohibitive to some guests and a controversial change as entry used to be free. However, the fee goes directly towards operations and maintenance, including essential services such as roads and restrooms. As countless projects, lands, and people are experiencing a loss in dedicated federal funding, the fee also covers the Range’s loss in federal grants that assisted with critical operations and maintenance.

Due to visitor safety and the danger of interacting with bison, only cars can drive around the CSKT Bison Range, not motorcycles or trailers, so CSKT purchased electric cars with the intention of renting them to visitors who didn’t arrive in appropriate vehicles. For the same reasons, hiking is not permitted in most areas, and visitors must be within an arm’s distance of their car if they get out, emphasizing the importance of an appropriate vehicle. CSKT purchased a few electric vehicle charging stations, intending to charge their new electric rental vehicles, and to entice visitors heading to nearby Glacier National Park to stop and charge their vehicles at the CSKT Bison Range. A $12,000 charging port was installed in the front parking lot in the Visitor Center, and despite the hefty price tag, the CSKT Bison Range staff believed it to be a worthwhile investment. Visitors could pay $20 to enter the CSKT Bison Range, and while they waited for their car to charge, they could spend time in the Visitor Center, refuel at the café, and pay to charge their vehicle. Unfortunately, the return on this investment would never come to fruition.

Shortly after installing the charger, Camel-Means received an early morning phone call from staff at the CSKT Bison Range. Despite locking the park’s gate every night, someone had broken in and ripped the charger out of the ground – or so they speculated. After reviewing security cameras from the parking lot, the true story unfolded. A herd of elk – mostly cows – was mingling and eating grass in the parking lot. A bull came into frame, attacking the charging station and getting it caught in its antlers. The bull took off running, leaving a trail of sparks through the dry fall grass, which posed a massive fire hazard. The charger was damaged beyond repair, and the unpredictable safety hazard it posed to wildlife has prevented CSKT Bison Range staff from attempting to install another. The charger in the back of the Visitor’s Center, for CSKT work vehicles, has a protective kiosk around it to prevent a similar accident from occurring. However, this charger is largely offline, as there’s a $150/month subscription fee just to turn the charger on, and the model is designed to charge large fleets of vehicles. These slow charging times have led CSKT Bison Range staff to simply charge the two electric vehicles they have on the wall. Unfortunately, they cannot sell the one functional charger, as there’s no market for it.

As charging infrastructure for electric cars increases in demand, it’s essential that information regarding styles, speeds, and capabilities of chargers is widespread. There’s a desperate need for electric car charging infrastructure across rural regions in America, and the installation at the CSKT could have helped combat range anxiety and encourage cleaner modes of transportation.

Although the car charging improvements to the CSKT Bison Range are on pause, they do have new projects in the works. For example, the CSKT bison herd is not a production herd – meaning that none of the bison on the Range are used for subsistence. When the herd is culled every 2 years, bison who are too genetically similar to others in the herd are sold in a closed bid. CSKT staff doesn’t dictate where the culled bison go, but some are sold to seed new herds or to existing conservation herds, and others go to production herds or to slaughterhouses. One idea that CSKT is discussing is the possibility of no longer selling the culled bison but instead keeping them to seed a production herd. The concept would tie in with the Tribe’s food sovereignty initiatives to provide a reliable source of protein to Tribal members, increasing resilience against food insecurity in the community.

The boundaries of the CSKT Bison Range are over 100 years old, and Camel-Means would like to see that boundary blurred. There are wildlife corridors along Highway 93 that would allow bison to travel south of the highway, marking the border of the range, without causing traffic disruptions or accidents. She hopes to continue to acquire land around the range, so that it can be expanded, not only for wildlife, but for an additional Visitor Center and Museum. Expanding the Range would also improve safety and evacuation routes, as there is currently only one entrance and exit on the Range, which could pose a threat to visitors and staff in the event of a natural disaster.

Before boundaries can be expanded south, the CSKT Fisheries Program must complete their project of rechanneling the Jocko River. In the 1950s, to maximize pasture lands and agricultural fields in the region, the Jocko River was forcibly channeled against the hillside of the CSKT Bison Range. This increased erosion hazards, and after decades of following a manmade path, the Jocko River is being rechanneled to its natural meanders. After the Jocko River fortifies – roughly 10 years from now – the CSKT Bison Range south boundary will be pushed back. In this time, Camel-Means hopes to acquire more land and expand the boundary even further than to the riverside.

Inspiring Indigenous Reconnections to Bison Across the Region
The National Bison Range’s shift to the CSKT Bison Range was instrumental in Land Back efforts, an Indigenous-led movement which seeks to reclaim lost land and decision-making power over said land. It has paved the way for other Tribes across Montana to advocate for Land Back, and for accurate accounts of their respective histories and cultures to be public in spaces that are currently showcasing misrepresentation. For example, the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Northern Montana is discussing starting a bison herd on their land and wants to pair it with a Visitor Center to display their connection to bison and their stories, and the Blackfeet Reservation in Northwest Montana is actively bringing bison back to their lands. The new management of the CSKT Bison Range is just one step in the path to restore connections to bison to Indigenous communities across the Plains Region.

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This profile was developed in 2025 by Taryn Bell, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, Northern Arizona University with support from a non-federal entity. The profile is available on the Tribal Wellbeing for Seven Generations Program website: www7.nau.edu/itep/main/tcc/Tribes/. The tribal profiles featured on the website are intended to be a pathway to increasing knowledge among tribal and non-tribal organizations interested in learning about environmental hazard mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Special thanks to Whisper Camel-Means for her assistance in developing this profile. More information on the CSKT Bison Range can be found on their website: https://www.bisonrange.org/ .

Citation: Bell, T. (May 2025). The CSKT Bison Range. Tribal Wellbeing for Seven Generations Program, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, Northern Arizona University

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