Jaedin and I returned to Gardiner on Saturday, March 15. We met up with friends — human and wild — inside Yellowstone National Park along Old Yellowstone Trail. One of those friends included RFN board member, Cindy Rosin, who had been in the Gardiner Basin for about two weeks. We hung out with a family group of buffalo for hours, watching them graze, play, and just be buffalo at peace.
The buffalo were just a little east of Yellowstone’s Stephens Creek buffalo trap, and barely a mile from the infamous Beattie Gulch. Yellowstone had been actively capturing and hunters were in town to make their kills. For some time it appeared that the buffalo were going to move further south, where they would be safe from trap and rifle. When most of them were just out of our sight, something must have spooked them because they came running back, heading north.
For hours more we monitored them, watching them inch slowly to the north. There were plenty of hunters in town and they all had their eyes on this group, too. Not too far from them was a group of four bulls. They had also been closer to Beattie Gulch than any of us cared for, and hunters were watching them as well. At some point in the day, the bulls crossed the Yellowstone River and came into a large grassy pasture where they were relatively safe. The larger family group continued to make their way north, making us all uneasy. As the sun went down a veritable blizzard rolled in making it impossible to see the buffalo at all. We had to call it a night and gather again in the morning.
In the morning, the buffalo were still south of Beattie Gulch but still dangerously close. The bulls had joined them. As they got closer to the boundary and the hunters lay in wait, we repositioned to better document the tragedy we thought was going to take place. The whole group came all the way to Reese Creek, which is the border between Yellowstone and Gallatin National Forest. Hunters were already out of their vehicles, walking up the carcass retrieval road, rifles in hand. We waited for the worst. But, wild buffalo are full of surprises. As it turned out, they just came to get a drink of water from the creek and headed south again, much to the chagrin of the hunters.
Later that day, though, part of the family group broke away from the herd and joined the bulls who were once again heading north towards danger. We returned to our positions to bear witness to what was about to take place. Just before getting to Beattie Gulch, the smaller family group joined back up with the other herd. But, the bulls kept coming. We could also see three hunters at the boundary line, and another nineteen people — most with rifles — positioned in the middle of Beattie Gulch. The bulls couldn’t be seen from our position, but we had other people in the field who had eyes on them. At the time, they were safe. But suddenly the larger group of hunters got down on their knees. Moments later a volley of shots were fired. As we wondered what in the hell had just happened, thinking maybe they shot some elk, our other patrol showed up to say that the hunters along the boundary hazed the bulls further north and into the kill zone as soon as they stepped over Yellowstone’s boundary. Twenty-two hunters on four bulls. Sure, that sounds fair. Three of the bulls were killed then, and one managed to escape. Dark was coming and there was very little visibility. Apparently that didn’t matter to the hunters. The fourth bull was killed by them in the night. Tribal hunters can pretty much do whatever they want, no matter issues with ethics or safety. We are all pretty sure the bull came back to his fallen comrades to mourn, and the hunters took advantage and ended him, too.
When we got back to our room, we saw a Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes truck and trailer. From that, we knew that buffalo would be shipped to slaughter in the morning. Getting out there at the break of day, we had eyes on Yellowstone’s trap. Sure enough, two trucks with trailers were leaving the trap. We got into position to document. The two trucks — metal coffins on wheels for the country’s last wild buffalo — bumped down Old Yellowstone Trail escorted by law enforcement. They turned onto Highway 89 and headed for the slaughterhouse.
The family group from the day before was still pretty much in the middle between Yellowstone’s trap and Beattie Gulch. We took advantage of the respite to head up Travertine Road which is in the high hills east of the trap. We took our scopes out and noticed a couple other groups of buffalo moving into the Gardiner Basin. We set our sights on the trap and counted around 330 in the outer pens. To date, more than 400 have been captured.
Nearly 350 of the country’s last wild buffalo inside Yellowstone’s nefarious Stephens Creek trap. Video by Michelle McCarron for Roam Free Nation.
In Gardiner, wild buffalo are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. For a while they seemed to be inching their way south, away from the hunt zone. But early in the afternoon, they changed their minds. They were moving north and it did not look like they were going to stop.
We got our cameras ready, had our binoculars and scopes out. As the buffalo moved into Beattie Gulch, they were still a couple hundred yards away from the kill zone. We noticed a man on foot slowly moving towards them and skirting around them. He was attempting to haze them into the kill zone. Like night shooting, hazing is also legal. Real hunting, huh? He was waving his hat around in his hand, getting closer. Part of the group got the message and bolted past him back into the Park. About twelve buffalo were still in danger. He kept trying to haze them, running them in circles. At one point one of the adult females bluff charged him. But the man was joined by two others who had rifles and they eventually succeeded to haze them into the kill zone. One shot, one buffalo down. Three more shots were fired, but the rest of the group — or so we thought — made an about face and bolted back into the Park. Both groups of the original herd took off running and didn’t stop running until they were in the vicinity of the trap.
We posted up across the river from the Trap and set our scopes up. These buffalo who had just been harassed and “hunted” were perilously close to the trap. We could see two men in the blue shirts of Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) walk out and open the gates to the trap. They both took out handfuls of hay, attempting to lure the buffalo into the trap. As we watched in horror, seven buffalo, in single file sampled the hay and one by one walked into the trap. Our hearts sunk. But, as we were watching, they each turned around and headed back out and kept going. One of the DOL agents came back out and shut the gate again. Disaster narrowly averted!
As we were giving thanks for this miracle, and for the fact that we saw only one buffalo get shot, we got a text from another patrol who said that, in fact, three more buffalo had been killed in that “hunt”. We couldn’t believe it. We were watching the whole time. We went back to the scene, set up our scopes and could see other groups of people scattered about. We also saw a rope tied to two trucks that went behind a hill. Sure enough, one of the trucks drove up the carcass retrieval road, while the other acted as an anchor, and a dead yearling was drug out. But, the yearling was not alone. He had a passenger. One of the hunters was actually riding him! Show some respect for your relatives, for crying out loud. We could then get a visual on two other carcasses, all yearlings. So four were taken in that “hunt”.
Right as we got home that night, two Confederated Salish & Kootenai trucks and trailers pulled in to our parking lot. Yes, more buffalo would be shipped to slaughter in the morning. We were there to say goodbye to our friends as the metal coffins drove them to their doom. Over the next two days, two more trailers full of the country’s last wild buffalo left the Gardiner Basin. With so many buffalo still in the trap, and others possibly in danger of being captured, this will be a regular occurrence until the trap is empty, while simultaneously buffalo outside the trap are consistently threatened with rifles.
What can we do about this? How do we stop it? There is really nothing we can do about the tribal hunts, other than pray very hard that the buffalo are granted Endangered Species Act protection. Under the current administration that doesn’t seem very likely. But we can continue to put pressure on Yellowstone.
Call Yellowstone’s Superintendent Cam Sholly at (307) 344-2002
Email: Yell_Superintendent@nps.gov
Comment on their social media pages:
This senseless, needless, disrespectful, selfish maltreatment of the country’s last wild buffalo must end! Until it does, we will endlessly apply endless pressure and show the world was is taking place with these gentle giants. We are able to do that because of you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for allowing us to stand with the buffalo and tell their story, sharing their perspective.