Please tell Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener and Montana Governor Steve Bullock to let the people of Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Indian Reservations have the bison! 

The state has been very clear that it expects the tribes to provide all the labor, shoulder all the expense, and accept all the responsibility for the bison Montana translocated to these reservations.  However, they refuse to commit to letting the tribes own the bison.  The state of Montana needs to give the tribes full, legal ownership of these bison with no strings and hidden agendas attached. 

If the bison happen to step off the reservation, they should still remain tribal property; they should not suddenly belong to the state of Montana because they crossed an imaginary line. Thousands of years of cultural heritage and interdependence connect these bison with the people of Fort Peck and Fort Belknap.  The state of Montana should not deprive them of any of these bison or their offspring in the future.  If the state of Montana wants some of the tribes' bison, they can buy them for a fair price, just like anyone else would have to.

The state of Montana needs to acknowledge that these bison are the property of the tribes and that taking any of them in the future for any reason without a legal bill-of-sale is theft.