A bison that killed a 70-year-old Canadian hiker on the Grace Coolidge Trail in Custer State Park last month has been spared the death penalty. South Dakota Game Fish and Parks initially moved and monitored the bull and was considering killing it, but on Wednesday, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe GF&P announced that it was taking custody of the bison to prevent the state from putting it down.
Rosebud GF&P director Matt Tucker indicates this clemency comes with Governor Larry Rhoden’s blessing:
“I was contacted by Troy Heinert, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Branch Chief about the situation. Already aware of the situation, I said, ‘Let’s do it; we’ll save him.’ Troy said that he had already talked to Governor Rhoden and Secretary Robling and we would be able to take the bull. I was lucky enough to be the first one to answer the phone.”
Tucker said the decision for them to step in and save the bison was a no brainer and they are very grateful to the State of South Dakota, so that the tribes were considered to take and care of their relative [punctuation added to clarify quote; Michael Doorn, “Rosebud Sioux Tribe: ‘It’s Our Duty’ as Bison Enters Care,” KELO-TV, 2026.06.12].
RST GF&P’s FB announcement also includes Governor Rhoden at the top of its Pilámaya list.
According to Tucker, the bison has to leave Custer State Park. If the bull passes a veterinary exam at Dakota Partnership Ranch east of Fairburn, the tribe will move it to their buffalo range southwest of Rosebud.
Just 150 years ago bison would be clearing the grasses that drive large wildfires. Indigenous peoples set at least 47% of fires in the Interior West between 1776 and 1900 because smoke from Indigenous cultural fire has been long-applied to control tree pests. Today, restoring and rewilding American ecosystems are parts of the Green New Deal.
The Anthropocene is now and time to rewild some of the American West eventually becoming part of a Greater Missouri Basin National Wildlife Refuge connecting the CM Russell in Montana along the Missouri River through North Dakota to Oacoma, South Dakota combined with corridors from Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon in the north and south to the Pecos River through eastern Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.