HELENA — The Montana Historical Society and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes person reached an statement to instrumentality Big Medicine, a achromatic bison calved astatine the National Bison Range successful 1933, to the Flathead Indian Reservation.
White bison calves are uncommon and considered ineffable to tribes.
According to an grounds astatine the MHS, Big Medicine held large value to some autochthonal and non-native radical successful Montana. Prior to his decease successful 1956 the Historical Society arranged for him to beryllium preserved and moved to the authorities depository successful Helena.
Shane Morigeau, CSKT Deputy Executive Officer, called Thursday a historical day, saying Big Medicine "holds tremendous traditional, cultural, and humanities value to us. He’s an ongoing root of pridefulness and his medicine represents the past that had carried guardant to the contiguous and the enactment yet to beryllium done to support our identity, culture, and wellbeing into the future. We are grateful to the MHS for proceeding america and knowing his significance. We are besides grateful for the enactment of the Montana American Indian Caucus and the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders. And though helium volition beryllium connected short-term indebtedness with the MHS until we bring him back, his tone is coming location with america today."
"The Montana Historical Society is pleased to spot Big Medicine’s ownership transferred to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, arsenic per their request, with a unanimous ballot of enactment by our trustees," said MTHS Director Molly Kruckenberg, "As portion of our agreement, the MTHS volition clasp carnal possession of Big Medicine until the Tribes person a harmless situation successful which helium tin beryllium displayed."
MTHS said successful a connection the instrumentality of Big Medicine is not a repatriation nether the Native American Graves Act but comes from an statement betwixt 2 governments.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes program a solemnisation erstwhile they person competed operation of a abstraction for Big Medicine.
The statement to instrumentality Big Medicine comes a little much than a year aft the Department of the Interior completed a transportation of the National Bison Range successful the Mission Valley to CSKT from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which had operated the Bison Range for decades.
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