!["Big Medicine, Sacred White Bison: born, lived, died on the land of the Flathead Nation, his sacred body now in the State Capitol (Helena, Montana) must be returned to his rightful place, our Tribal homelands as a symbol of Montana's willingness and intent to maintain respectful relations with all Indians." "Our people's Treaty Rights are not being honored by capture and slaughter and artificial limitation of bison range and habitat. No wholesale trucking and slaughter of bison can be substituted for Treaty hunting rights, which include a healthy range and habitat for the original pure strain of bison to survive," Dubay continued, adding: "Bison are not cattle. Limiting or fencing the bison or isolating herds in quarantine to appease the cattle industry is not good management policy. Range for bison should be expanded to include all usual and customary lands and territories that our peoples inhabited and used in a balanced and respectful way since time immemorial." Yellowstone buffalo are America's last wild, migratory herds and the most important bison population that exists. They are the last to identify as a wildlife species and ecologically extinct throughout their native range. They've been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List for being "threatened with near extinction," and even Montana designates the species "in greatest conservation need" with conditions "making [bison] vulnerable to global extinction."](http://protectthewolves.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/yellowstone-wolves-whats-at-stake.jpg)
Snaring could be banned
Three bills were introduced in the Minnesota Legislature on Feb. 5, including one that would require wolf trappers to obtain permission from a landowner to use the property. A second bans snaring, which is the use of a cable that the organization Howling for Wolves calls a noose.
“People celebrate the value of wolves,” Sen. Charles Wiger, D-Maplewood, says about why he is backing the wolf package.
Wiger says 300 contacts he has had about the wolf situation is the most of any legislative issues in the past three years.
The third main wolf-related bill calls for more money in a fund used to pay farmers whose livestock are killed by wolves. Livestock kills likely will rise after the federal court ruling because it stopped a Minnesota provision that allowed farmers to shoot wolves who were after livestock.
A House committee last month heard that protecting livestock from wolves is one of the most important issues for farmers in parts of the state where wolves live.