InterTribal Buffalo Council
Formation1992 (1992)
HeadquartersRapid City, South Dakota, U.S.
President
Ervin Carlson
Websiteitbcbuffalonation.org

The Intertribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), also known as the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, is a collection of 82 federally recognized tribes from 20 different states whose mission is to restore buffalo to Indian Country in order to preserve the historical, cultural, traditional, and spiritual relationships for future Native American generations.[1][2]

Surplus bison from places such as Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona are relocated to member tribes. Collectively, the ITBC manages over 20,000 bison on over 1,000,000 acres of tribal lands.[3]

History

In February 1991, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society hosted nineteen tribes to discuss ways to reestablish healthy buffalo populations on tribal lands. They decided to form an organization to assist tribes with buffalo programs. That June, Congress appropriated funding for tribal buffalo programs. Tribal representatives met in December to discuss how these appropriations would be spent.

In April 1992 tribal representatives gathered in Albuquerque, NM and officially formed the InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC). Officers were elected and began developing their criteria for membership, articles of incorporation, and by-laws. In September 1992, ITBC was incorporated in the state of Colorado and that summer ITBC was headquartered in Rapid City, South Dakota.

In 2010 it was reorganized from a nonprofit to a federally chartered Indian Organization under Section 17 of the Indian Reorganization Act as the InterTribal Buffalo Council.[4]

On September 25, 2014, in Browning, MT, eight tribes, including four ITBC member tribes, from the US and Canada signed the Buffalo Treaty committing to returning the buffalo to their lands and into their lives.

On May 9, 2016, US Congress signed into law the National Bison Legacy Act, establishing the American bison as the national mammal.[5] The ITBC was part of a coalition that helped pass the law.

Currently the ITBC is working to pass the Indian Buffalo Management Act, which would establish a permanent program within the Department of the Interior to develop and promote tribal ownership and management of buffalo and buffalo habitat on Indian lands.[6]

Since its formation, the ITBC has grown from 19 member tribes to 82 and continues to grow.

Members

As of December 2021, its members included:[7]

  1. Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor
  2. Blackfeet Nation
  3. Cherokee Nation
  4. Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
  5. Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
  6. Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Reservation
  7. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation
  8. Confederated Tribes of Umatilla
  9. Crow Creek Sioux Tribe
  10. Crow Tribe of Indians
  11. Eastern Shoshone Tribe
  12. Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe
  13. Forest County Potawatomi
  14. Fort Belknap Indian Community
  15. Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes
  16. Ho-Chunk Nation
  17. Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma
  18. Jicarilla Apache Nation
  19. Kalispel Tribe of Indians
  20. Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
  21. Lower Brule Sioux Tribe
  22. Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians
  23. Meskwaki Nation (Sac & Fox Tribe of MS in IA)
  24. MHA Nation (Three Affiliated Tribes)
  25. Modoc Nation
  26. Nambé O-Ween-Gé
  27. Native Village of Ruby
  28. Northern Arapaho Tribe
  29. Northern Cheyenne Tribe
  30. Oglala Sioux Tribe
  31. Ohkay Owingeh/San Juan Pueblo
  32. Omaha Tribe of Nebraska
  33. Oneida Nation
  34. Osage Nation
  35. Picuris Pueblo
  36. Pit River Tribe
  37. Ponca Tribe of Nebraska
  38. Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
  39. Prairie Island Community
  40. Pueblo de Cochiti
  41. Pueblo of Pojaque
  42. Pueblo of Sandia
  43. Pueblo of Tesuque
  44. Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma
  45. Red Lake Nation Band of Chippewa
  46. Rosebud Sioux Tribe
  47. Round Valley Indian Tribes
  48. Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska
  49. Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
  50. Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska
  51. Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
  52. Seneca-Cayuga Nation
  53. Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
  54. Shoshone Bannock Tribes
  55. Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
  56. Skull Valley of Goshutes
  57. Southern Ute Tribe
  58. Spirit Lake Nation
  59. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
  60. Stevens Village
  61. Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians
  62. Taos Pueblo
  63. Tonkawa Tribe
  64. Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa
  65. Ute Indian Tribe
  66. White Earth Nation
  67. Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
  68. Yakama Nation
  69. Yankton Sioux Tribe

References

  1. ↑ "InterTribal Buffalo Council". InterTribal Buffalo Council. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ↑ Brown, Matthew (2022-11-21). "Bison spread as Native American tribes reclaim stewardship". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  3. ↑ "Bison's relocation to Native lands revives a spiritual bond". AP NEWS. 2022-11-22. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  4. ↑ "ITBC Today". InterTribal Buffalo Council. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ "National Bison Act". GovInfo. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  6. ↑ "H.R. 2074: Indian Buffalo Management Act". GovTrack. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  7. ↑ "ITBC Member Tribes". InterTribal Buffalo Council. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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