Alberta, Montana First Nations sign bison treaty

Leaders of 11 First Nations from Alberta and Montana signed a treaty establishing an inter-tribal alliance to restore bison to areas of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains where millions of the animals once roamed. The ceremony was held on Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation. It marks the first treaty among the US tribes and Canada First Nations since a series of agreements governing hunting rights in the 1800s. The long-term aim of the “Buffalo Treaty” is to allow the free flow of the animals across the international border and restore the bison’s central role in the food, spirituality and economies of many First Nations and American Indian tribes. There are about 20,000 wild bison in North America today.