Tribe's bison herd is a matter of health

Rolls of wire lay like bales of hay on a pasture near Arlington where members of the Stillaguamish Tribe have been beefing up their fences to keep their bison calves from squeezing through again.

Shawn Yanity, the tribal chairman, made sure to keep a safe distance. The hardy beasts are undomesticated, he noted, and he was wary of agitating them.

"If they want to get through a fence, it doesn't matter what you build," he said. "They'll go through."

Tribal members just bought this herd of eight bison in April, so they're still learning some of the do's and don'ts.

And if they succeed, and their herd grows as expected, the 200-member tribe expects these bison will serve as much more than a mere curiosity. Although bison have plenty of cultural significance, the tribe is hoping the animals will help members of the tribe fight diabetes.

Like Native American people all over the country, the Stillaguamish struggle with much higher rates of diabetes than their white neighbors. It's hoped these bison will grow into a larger herd that could help turn that around.

Bison meat has less fat and more antioxidants, vitamins and minerals than beef and chicken. A steady diet of the meat has been shown to stop diabetes, said Jim Stone, executive director of the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, a collection of about 57 tribes around the nation that are raising bison.

If each person ate 8 ounces of bison a day, a single bison could feed two people for a year, he said. On the other hand, no tribe has a herd so large that it could feed all its members.

The Stillaguamish didn't supply statistics about their own diabetes problem, but nationally about 16 percent of American Indians are diabetic, about double the rate for non-Hispanic whites, according to the federal Indian Health Program.

So, to get started, the tribe has set aside 56 acres, which can support up to about 20 bison. The tribe is looking for a larger plot of land for a new herd.

While the tribe waits for its herd to multiply, it plans to purchase bison meat from the Yakama Nation, which has been raising bison for about 17 years.

Getting started in bison also renews an ancient tradition, tribal members say. Before white settlers arrived, the Stillaguamish often traveled over the Cascades — and sometimes as far as Montana — to trade for goods including bison, Yanity said.

"Culturally, it's providing traditional foods of our ancestors and getting back to a traditional diet," he said. "The other part is continuing the traditions of using the whole animal for cultural uses."

Tribal members plan to make drums from the hides and use the bones for spiritual ceremonies, particularly at powwows.

"Every tribe has had a history of interaction with the buffalo," Stone said. "You need something to spark that history for oral history to work."

At the bison farm, fences split a pasture into two grazing areas. Wetland grass stands in the distance, before a forest of tall trees and blackberry bushes. Songbirds land on a post, a stream trickles along and a young bison pushes its horns into the new wire fence to reach for grass on the other side.

Out of respect for the animals and concern for their health, the tribe hopes to keep the animals as undomesticated as possible.

So tribal members have to be careful when working with the bison. For one thing, they make sure to never turn their backs to them.

Tribal members know the signs that the bison are agitated, such as raising their tails into the shape of a question mark, said Tom Ashley, supervisor of the bison program.

The bison are usually docile but can be very protective of the calves, he said.

Since the Stillaguamish received the eight bison last month, three of the five cows have had calves, which never leave their mothers' sides.

And so far no one has gotten close enough to the calves to determine their gender. Yanity suspects one is a bull, because the other adult bulls harassed it by "flinging" it around, he said.

As the tribal members gathered to show off their herd, the bison surrounded the three calves protectively.

Since purchasing the land a year ago, the tribe has cleaned up a stream, yanking out about 70 tires. There are plans for a caretaker house and a deck for public viewing.

And there have been other benefits. Lately, other local tribes have been getting together more often for healing and funeral ceremonies, Yanity said. The new bison are providing a "reason for our tribes to get together and celebrate," he said.

Celeste Flint: 206-464-3192 or cflint@seattletimes.com