Why this WA tribe manages a bison herd — and how to see it

TOPPENISH, Yakima County — On a frigid winter morning at the Yakama Nation’s Satus Ranch, a herd of 150 American bison ranged on the valley floor, backdropped by snowy Mount Adams.

Right now, you can see the spectacular sight for yourself.

For three decades, the Yakama Nation has managed these 1,000-pound herbivores, as well as other big game on the reservation, with the bison program focused on food sustainability, education and conservation of these majestic animals. That’s why the tribe encourages the public to visit the herd of American bison, known colloquially as buffalo. 

“We just ask that people let us know when they would like to come out so we can have the crew available,” said big game biologist Kristi Olney. “Right now, the buffalo are being fed in the front winter pasture, so it makes it a better time for viewing.”

On that cold January morning, a dozen newcomers were penned together, jostling for space. “They got here at 6:45 yesterday morning,” said herd manager Darwin Sockzehigh of the new, genetically pure bison, freshly delivered from Yellowstone National Park. “I thought it would be wilder. They just jumped off the truck and that was it.” 

The bison enjoy roaming across the ranch’s 500 acres of open land, though they’re hard to slow down once they’re moving, and “they can be really sneaky about it.” 

Sockzehigh said “they’ll be all calm and cool laying around one day, and the next day you come out and they’re gone. They go through the fence!”

The Yakama Nation website has details about setting up a window to see the herd. Now is the best time, from December to April, during winter feeding months. 

The bison herd is more than a tourist attraction and a food source. The Yakama use the herd to educate the larger community, including individual visitors and local schools, about Native American culture, the environment and the relationship between man, animals and the Earth. 

In 2016, the American bison was named the national mammal of the United States. We’ve come a long way since the 19th century, when the near-eradication of the species upended life for hundreds of Native communities that relied upon bison to survive. 

Thanks to the efforts of the Yakama (who don’t have a longstanding historical association with bison as a tribe), organizations like the InterTribal Buffalo Council and countless others, American bison populations have endured. So have the Indigenous peoples who have cultivated and traded for these animals for countless generations.

The Yakama Nation has managed this herd of bison since the early 1990s, initially purchasing a dozen animals from a member of the tribe. The group has since grown piece by piece.  

“We really didn’t know if they were crossed with bovine already or what the deal was,” Sockzehigh said of the first members of the herd. “From then on, (the tribe) just were buying buffalo from here and there.” 

As the herd grew, the tribe joined the InterTribal Buffalo Council, an organization “committed to reestablishing buffalo herds on tribal lands in a manner that promotes cultural enhancement, spiritual revitalization, ecological restoration and economic development.” 

Membership in the ITBC gave the tribe the ability to apply for and acquire free-range bison from herds in Wyoming and Montana. 

In 2021, the Yakama received a delivery of 26 bulls, cows and calves from Yellowstone. Integrating into the existing Yakama herd, they’ve thrived, despite being a species that isn’t native to Washington. 

“They stay more where the dry grasses are, but we have areas back there that are kind of swampy wetlands,” Sockzehigh said. “They deal with the mosquitos just like we do.”

Those 12 new bison, delivered just a day before my visit earlier this winter, are among the most genetically pure specimens of American bison on the planet, culled from the last remaining wild herd in Yellowstone National Park. Their presence is crucial.

“We want to increase the genetic diversity in the herd,” said Olney, the wildlife biologist. “The Yellowstone buffalo are the pure genetic buffalo. They haven’t had any bovine in them at all. We want to have the good genetics and incorporate the Yellowstone genetics into our herd to know where they’re coming from.”

Beyond preservation, “the buffalo generate revenue for themselves,” Olney said. 

“Whatever buffalo make off meat sales just goes right back into them. Eventually we want to get to where we can … purchase it from ourselves and donate it for free (to our elders),” she added. 

For years, the Yakama packaged and sold bison meat wholesale to tribal members, but that proved to be cost-prohibitive. These days, anyone is welcome to buy the meat in smaller quantities for about $12 per pound. 

“Being a cattle person, too, I don’t want to piss the cattlemen off — but I like the dried bison meat more than the regular domesticated cattle,” Sockzehigh said. “There’s just something about it.”