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[from Pat Morris via AIM_AUTONOMOUS_PA@onelist.com]

Mon, 14 Feb 2000 06:52:21
Buffalo Wars Transcript - part 1

http://abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/transcripts/nl000209_trans.html

Buffalo Wars
Nightline

Wednesday, February 9, 2000
(This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)

Prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services,
which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of
transcription.

ANNOUNCER February 9th, 2000.

CHRIS BURY, ABCNEWS (VO) They are the last wild herd in America.

JEANNE-MARIE SOUVIGNEY, CREATOR YELLOWSTONE COALITION These
Yellowstone bison are very unique. They are the descendants
of the last two dozen bison, wild bison, that we had in this
country at the turn of the century.

CHRIS BURY (VO) But when they wander out of the park and
enter Montana, they are stalked, slaughtered, and sometimes
shot.

MIKE MEASE, BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN Everyone’s right to know
what’s going on with this herd.

CHRIS BURY Protesters use guerrilla tactics to try to
stop it. But in Montana, cattle is king.

KEITH ONEY Where there’s property damage or there’s a
concern for exposure of brucellosis to cattle, bison will
continue to be shot.

MICHAEL FINLEY, SUPERINTENDENT YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Some poor bull bison stepped outside and crossed this
imaginary line looking for a blade of grass, and then
someone either shoots him or drives around on a snowmobile
and says, ‘We’re just protecting the cattle industry,’ that
doesn’t sell. That doesn’t sell anywhere.

CHRIS BURY Tonight, the BUFFALO WARS, isn’t there a better way.

ANNOUNCER From ABCNEWS, this is Nightline.
Substituting for Ted Koppel and reporting from Yellowstone National Park, Chris Bury.

CHRIS BURY Even in winter, perhaps especially in winter,
Yellowstone National Park is unquestionably one of the most
spectacular and sentimental places in the country. After
all, Teddy Roosevelt established this rugged territory as
the first national park, and to this day, it’s still one of
the most popular. But every winter, this majestic setting
becomes the scene of perhaps the most ugly, bitter, and
protracted fight in the West. It pits the federal government
and a rag-tag band of animal rights activists on one side,
the state of Montana and its powerful cattle industry on the
other.
Like so many skirmishes in the West, this one is really
about balancing precious national resources. In this
case, America’s last herd of wild buffalo against the
economic interests of those who live here. And because
this is Yellowstone, the crown jewel of the national park
system, the outcome matters far beyond these canyons.
In this fight, in this place so filled with symbols of the
Old West, passions run so strongly they sometimes
overpower reason on both sides. And now, as winter
settles in for a long, cold stay here at Yellowstone, the
buffalo wars are heating up again.

1ST WOMAN Right there.

CHILD Back directly across from us.

1ST WOMAN Right there. I can see them.

MIKE MEASE Right behind the tree.

CHILD Get ready. We got three!

MIKE MEASE Four-six, you’ve got a DOL coming in right now,
three buffalo.

CHRIS BURY On a snow-swept ridge top just outside the
national park, a motley group of volunteers keeps vigil for
its enemy, the snowmobile patrols from Montana’s Department
of Livestock.

MIKE MEASE You can see that one popping out right now. There
it is. You can see the buffalo.

1ST WOMAN I cannot believe they’re doing this.

MIKE MEASE There he is.

CHRIS BURY (VO) The Montana officials are chasing a solitary
old buffalo back inside the park boundaries, scaring it with
blank shotgun rounds, though they have every legal right to
capture it or shoot it.

MIKE MEASE All right. Get me some good video please.

CHRIS BURY Armed only with cameras and walky-talkies,
activists in the buffalo field campaign, dedicated to
protecting the last wild herd, try to get in the way and
block the Montana patrol, documenting its every move. On
this day, as is so often the case, harsh words and insults
are exchanged.

2ND WOMAN I just finally got pushed down. They got around
me.

MIKE MEASE I would press charges against the DOL member that
ran you over with the snowmobile.

CHRIS BURY Is that kind of thing typical, what goes on
around here?

MIKE MEASE Exactly. And as you know, we’re just down there
documenting, so we’re not in their way causing any protest
and yet they’re going out of their way to harass and hurt
us.

ROB TIERNEY, MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF LIVESTOCK I have been
spit on. I know of one personnel that has been
physically—his life has been threatened. He has been told he
will be killed.

3RD WOMAN Get off of me. Don’t lean on me. Hey, quit it.

PATROLMAN Put your leg down.

ROB TIERNEY It isn’t peaceful.

PATROLMAN You’re under arrest.

ROB TIERNEY They tend to try to push your buttons and get
right in your face.

CHRIS BURY (VO) These are the front lines in the acrimonious
struggle to manage the last wild buffalo in North America.
In other places, bison have been cross-bred with cattle and
domesticated on farms. But the ones here are the last living
link to a notorious chapter in American history. The great
bison slaughter of the 19th century, most recently etched
into the public consciousness in the film “Dances with
Wolves,” nearly wiped out the wild buffalo population, once
60 million strong.

KEVIN COSTNER, DANCES WITH WOLVES Who would do such a thing?
Voices that had been joyous all morning were now as silent
as the dead buffalo left to rot in this valley, killed only
for their tongues and the price of their hides.

MICHAEL FINLEY There was great carnage and hide hunting and
the bison were reduced to a few dozen animals. It just so
happened that these animals were here in Yellowstone
National Park. This is the place where they survived. This
is the place where they regrew their population. This is
where—the place where they roamed free.

DON BARRY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR This
bison herd is as important to this country as Old Faithful,
as the Statue of Liberty, as the Grand Canyon. This
particular bison herd is the most genetically pure bison
herd we have in America today. They’ve not been interbred
with cattle, they are exactly the way they were a thousand
years ago.

JEANNE-MARIE SOUVIGNEY You look at these bison, and they
remind me, at least, of the prehistoric animals. You watch
their movements, the way they swing their head, the way they
create pathways, the way they go single file. They’re well
adapted to this environment, and there’s a lot that we can
learn from these animals that are native to this country.

[...]

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