The grant will support a range of buffalo work on the northeast Montana reservation. The projects include expanding the buffalo ranch’s acreage, fencing and staff, building an 11-mile trail around part of the ranch, creating interactive story poles for visitors to engage with, and supporting buffalo educational programs.

Robbie Magnan, director of the Fort Peck Fish and Game Department and grant leader, said he’s thrilled with the award, which will generate improved herd and grassland health and benefit the buffalo program and tribal members.

“To Native Americans, buffalo are very important species to be around. We call them our relatives, because they provided everything that we needed,” Magnan said in a February interview. “We need to teach our children the way the buffalo are raised and we need to follow their ways.”

MSU first became involved in the work when they connected in 2016 with the Pté Group, a coalition of leaders at Fort Peck supporting buffalo education and restoration efforts.

As a partner on the grant, MSU architecture students will help expand the existing 0.6 mile trail around the buffalo ranch’s southern end and support the creation of interactive story poles.

“When the Pté Group formed, one of the themes that came out fairly early in discussions was that they and other tribal members needed ways to connect with buffalo physically,” Elizabeth Bird, an MSU grant specialist involved in the work, said in a press release. “(They needed to) be in their presence, see them, smell them, hear them, pick up sloughed fur.”

In those early conversations, the idea of a trail emerged as a way for people to connect with the land and buffalo on the reservation, Bird said.

Smaller grants supported the initial trail construction in 2018 that included trail design, environmental review and building of the first half mile stretch along with a parking lot, toilet and picnic area.

MSU has already helped installed one story pole, which is designed to catch bison fur when the animals rub it, and plan to add up to five more. Ideas for the next poles include a musical one that makes different tones in the wind, and one with an internal staircase that children can climb on for a better view of the herd.

Suzanne Turnbull, co-chair of the Pté Group and key partner for the grant, said in the release that all the proposed work “helps ensure that our wonderful, restored Yellowstone buffalo herd also advances the cultural, physical and economic health of our Fort Peck communities.”

The grant will also help fund education initiatives for the Pté Group and Fort Peck Community College, allowing tribal members of all ages to become more involved on the buffalo ranch. There are plans to augment the trail with native plants and incorporate the ranch and grassland health into K-12 science lessons.

Bird said she hopes by the time the grant ends in 2027, the groundwork is set for people to strengthen connections to the buffalo for years to come.

“My hope is that by the time this grant ends it will be multi-generational and robust and those people will be able to carry the work forward,” Bird said. “To me the goal of this grant is to firmly establish the infrastructure for achieving the intentions of the Pté Group. If we can establish strong infrastructure and a set of lessons for and connections to (Fort Peck Community College) and (local) schools, that will go a long way.”