And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: sent by JDK Chipps -----Original Message----- From: Tom Beno [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 23, 1999 5:38 PM To: Recipient List Suppressed Subject: Buffalo Commons Indians are making 'Buffalo Commons' a reality, author says By JOHN STROMNES - the Missoulian Frank J. Popper, author, presents idea at national conference in Polson POLSON - The idea of "Buffalo Commons," a vast space of the American West to be reserved for restoration of the buffalo and other native wildlife and native prairie grasses is becoming a reality. So said "Buffalo Commons" co-author Frank J. Popper Tuesday at a national conference in Polson titled "Sacred Buffalo: Into the Millennium." But how it is coming about is quite different than how he and his wife Deborah E. Popper envisioned it when they wrote the famous "Buffalo Commons" article in 1987 for Planning magazine, he said. Deborah E. Popper teaches geography at the College of Staten Island-City University of New York, and Frank J. Popper teaches land-use planning at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. "We foresaw the Buffalo Commons being created after major population crashes," he said. The scenario they envisioned was this: Because of unsustainable agricultural practices by white farmers, land prices would plummet, landowners would rush to sell "worthless" farm and grazing land, and the federal government would step in as land buyer of last resort in order to restore some political and economic stability to the region. Under federal ownership, the Great Plains could then revert to native prairie, where the buffalo could return. Ill-advised, unsustainable land use on the native prairie of the northern plains would come to a welcome end. But it hasn't worked out that way, and Popper said he doesn't regret it. "The big crash we foresaw - with the federal government becoming the last-minute owner of last resort (of Great Plains farmland) probably is not going to happen," he said. Instead, private groups, primarily American Indian groups, have emerged to bring the American bison back incrementally to the American prairie. The federal government has paid a minor, supporting role, he said. "We did not imagine in 1987 that all kinds of private groups and activists that didn't exist then would achieve the Buffalo Commons in a way we didn't anticipate," he said. Such organizations and activists include the Intertribal Bison Co-Cooperative (which sponsored this week's conference at KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson), the Northern Plains Bison Education Project (a tribal college group), the Nature Conservancy (which buys up development and other property rights for conservation purposes), plus newer "NGOs" (nongovernmental organizations) like Honor the Earth and The Great Plains Restoration Council. "The Buffalo Commons is happening way faster, way more creatively and far less federally than we could have imagined in 1987," Popper said. One frustration: There is no single community, even in Indian country, that has gone "full bore into the Buffalo Commons" as a commitment for the future. But Indian Country - land within the boundaries of America's Indian reservations or Canada's native reserves - will most likely be where it will occur, he said. He expects such a community commitment within 10 years, quite possibly first on the Cheyenne River (Sioux) Reservation in South Dakota, which has a sizable bison restoration program now in existence. Indians naturally affirm the idea of a "Buffalo Nation," Popper said. The American bison was integral to many Plains Indians economies before European invasion. The animal is sacred within the Native American spiritual belief system, and serves as a fulcrum for many tribal cultural activities. . "Indians are also willing to experiment (with land use on the prairie) because they are not tied to the existing economy of the Great Plains," he said. Perhaps most important, historical trends are on the Native American's side. "For the first time in history, economics, and population flows are on the Indians' side. There is a white retreat (from the Great Plains) of the kind Indians have not seen for 150 years," he said, referring to the continuing crisis in family farm economics in the American prairie states, and the population decline in many rural areas of the Great Plains, including much of North Dakota, South Dakota, and eastern Montana. He warned against relying on federal dollars or grants from well-meaning but fickle foundations to establish Buffalo Commons territories in the Great Plains states and provinces. Federal help depends on national politics, which can change overnight in a national election. Trends in nonprofit foundation giving are notoriously short-lived and fickle, he said. But the concept of bringing the buffalo back to vast areas of the North American prairie offers tribal people an extraordinary opportunity for economic self-sufficiency , cultural growth and reconciliation, he said. "Something new is happening on the Great Plains," he said. "For the first time in history, economics and population flows are on the Indian's side." http://www.missoulian.com/display/inn_montana_news/news04.txt .................................. Buffalo Rescue http://woptura.com/rescue.html Help Stop the Slaughter Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
