ASSOCIATED PRESS
CASPER, Wyo.
– The Wind River Reservation in Wyoming is experiencing an increase in buffalo
as two Native tribes attempt to re-establish a herd of the animals.
The “Casper Star-Tribune”
reported Oct. 20 that the Northern Arapaho Tribe brought its first 10 buffalo
to the reservation last week.
Officials
say the reintroduction of buffalo to Wind River follows an absence of more than
130 years.
Buffalo once
numbered between 30 million and 60 million in North America but were nearly
exterminated by overhunting and habitat loss.
The Northern
Arapaho share the reservation with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, which has
increased its wild buffalo herd to 33 animals since reintroducing them in 2016.
Crystal
C’Bearing of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office says the
yearling buffalo came from the National Bison Range in Montana.
