Oral accounts of the tribes recall a man of the Pend d’Oreille tribe named Atatice who knew something needed to be done as the buffalo disappeared. Atatice’s son Latati, or Little Peregrine Falcon, eventually led six orphan bison west to the
Flathead Reservation. His stepfather, Samuel Walking Coyote, sold them to horse traders Michel Pablo and Charles Allard in 1884. The Pablo-Allard herd grew to about 300 when in 1896 Allard died and his half of the herd was sold to Charles E. Conrad of Kalispell by his widow. Pablo’s herd continued to grow and range wild along the
Flathead River. By the early 1900s, the Pablo-Allard herd was said to be the largest collection of the bison remaining in the U.S. Pablo was notified in 1904 that the government was opening up the Flathead Reservation for settlement by selling off parcels of land. After failed negotiations with the U.S. government, Pablo sold the herd to the Canadian government in 1907. The transfer took until 1912, as the bison were captured and shipped by train from
Ravalli, to
Elk Island to establish a
conservation herd. museum in 2005 The
American Bison Society appointed
Morton J. Elrod, founder of the
Flathead Lake Biological Station, to examine potential reserves in Montana and he suggested the Flathead Reservation. The National Bison Range was established on May 23, 1908 out of a portion of the Reservation. President
Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation authorizing funds to purchase land for bison conservation when for the first time
Congress appropriated tax dollars to buy land specifically to
preserve wildlife. The initial herd of thirty-four American bison were purchased from the Conrad herd by the American Bison Society in 1909. To supplement this, Alicia Conrad added two of her finest animals to the effort. The Refuge also received one bison from Charles Goodnight of Texas and three from the Corbin herd in New Hampshire. The Range was established as a native
bird refuge by Congress in 1921. The
Civilian Conservation Corps built many of its buildings. A
white buffalo, "Big Medicine" (1933–1959), spent his life at the Bison Range. Tribal members visited him to pray and held him in high esteem. In the early 1950s the Montana Historical Society made arrangements to move Big Medicine upon his death to the state's museum to be permanently preserved and displayed. As Indigenous artifacts and culturally significant items are being repatriated by many institutions to
tribes, the Montana Historical Society and the state of Montana have committed to transferring ownership to the tribe. The tribe has long desired the return due to the spiritual significance and want to prepare the appropriate infrastructure at the range. ==Tribal management==