On Thursday, a pair of butchers drove out to a pen where the buffalo were being held, and dispatched them with a shot to the head. Working quickly as a biting wind raked the rolling plains, they cut up the bison, giving the animals’ heads, hides and tongue to the tribe to use for ceremonial purposes.
The meat was hauled back to the butcher shop in the town of Valier, where it was ground up and packaged. Some of the meat was given out at a distribution site, while the rest was ferried to more remote corners of the reservation.