Fourth Honor the Earth Concert Tour Kicks Off In Montana on September 30: A Rally Cry to Get Out the Indian Vote and Save the Yellowstone Buffalo

St. Paul, MN–An all star line up, including the Grammy Award winning Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt, with special guest Joan Baez and blues band Indigenous will rock across the state of Montana for seven stops between September 30 and October 4, 2000, marking the launch of the fourth Honor the Earth Concert Tour.

The primary focus of the Montana leg of the tour is to Get Out the Indian Vote and Save the Yellowstone Buffalo. The Montana shows will benefit the non-partisan voter registration and education efforts of the Lame Deer based group, Native Action. Due to the size of the Indian population in Montana, voter turnout from this group will swing the vote for the state in close elections. Native Action's goal is to register 4,000 new voters in the state and to match the Indian turnout at the polls that they secured in the 1992 elections; credit was given to the Indian vote that year for both Pat William's and Bill Clinton's razor thin victories in the state.

The Montana rallies and shows will advocate for the election of pro-Indian, pro-buffalo candidates. Recent statewide polls indicate that the Yellowstone buffalo issue is a top priority for Montana voters. For Native people, who have a deep cultural and spiritual relationship with the buffalo, the issue has particular meaning and could be a determining factor in voter turnout.

"The elections in Montana represent clear-cut choices for Indian people, our land and in particular, the buffalo," says Honor the Earth spokesperson Winona LaDuke. "In the year 2000, it's time to right the historic injustices of the past and create just and honorable relationships with Native people."

Flathead Tribal Judge and Attorney for the Intertribal Bison Cooperative Pat Smith states, "It's time to have buffalo policy based on science and stewardship, rather than the smoking barrel of a gun."

An 11:00 a.m. rally at the Lame Deer High School on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation will kick off the Honor the Earth Montana leg on Saturday, September 30, followed by a concert that night at the Shrine Theater. From there, artists will perform in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation, Great Falls, Bozeman, the Arlee Pow-Wow grounds on the Flathead Reservation and Missoula.

While focusing on swinging Native Vote, the Honor the Earth Tour will address local Native environmental initiatives at each of the three reservation stops on the Montana leg of the tour. These include the environmental impacts associated with development of methane gas near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and the potential for increased wind development on the Blackfeet Reservation.

Methane Gas and the Northern Cheyenne Reservation

Alternative Energy on the Blackfeet Reservation

The Blackfeet (Pikuni) community seeks to capitalize on their vast wind resources and move alternative energy into Montana, a state considered 'the boiler state of the west' due to its fossil fuel production. "We are proud to be moving toward alternative energy at Blackfeet," explains Dennis Fitzpatrick, General Manager of Siyeh Development Corporation, a 100% Blackfeet owned corporation focused primarily on wind energy development. "Wind energy is compatible with the culture of the Blackfeet people and is a resource that will be around for generations and continue to benefit the tribe."

Artists will tour Blackfeet's wind farm pilot project, the reservation's recycling project and the tribe's own buffalo herd. "These forward-thinking initiatives are models of cultural and environmental renewal, and deserve support," said Winona LaDuke.

Buffalo and the home of the Salish-Kootenai on the Flathead Reservation

A third visit and reservation rally will take place at the Flathead Reservation of the Salish-Kootenai, who have historic ties to the Yellowstone buffalo herd. Many of Yellowstone's original buffalo were descendants of the Pablo herd from the Flathead Reservation.

Honor the Earth's Get Out The Indian Vote reservation rallies are sponsored by Rock the Vote, the national youth-oriented voter registration drive. In addition, each of the rallies will be powered with renewable resources, including B-100, a recycled soybean diesel fuel, as a concrete example of safe energy use. Colorful and educational renewable energy and Rock the Vote displays will be set up at each of the rallies and shows.

Outside of Montana, the Honor the Earth Tour will make ten additional stops in western and mid-western cities and states, including Park City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Denver, Colorado; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois and more. The goals for these shows mirror those of the Montana leg of the tour: to garner support and catalyze change around two watershed Native issues: buffalo and energy policy. The tour will wind its way from Montana to Illinois to generate money, awareness and political muscle around these two critical issues of concern to Native people.

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Honor The Earth 2000 Tour: Montana Itinerary

September 30: Lame Deer High School, Northern Cheyenne Reservation
11:00 am
Shrine Theater, Billings
7:30 pm
Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Indigenous, Joan Baez (special guest)

October 1: Browning High School, Blackfeet Reservation
6:00 pm
Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Joan Baez (special guest), Ed Juneau

October 2: Great Falls Civic Center, Great Falls
7:30 pm
Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Joan Baez (special guest), Ed Juneau

October 3: Brick Breeden Field House, Bozeman
7:30 pm
Bonnie Raitt, Indigenous, special guests Emily Saliers and Joan Baez

October 4: Arlee Pow-Wow Grounds, Flathead Reservation
Noon
Adams Event Center, Missoula
7:30 pm
Bonnie Raitt, Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Indigenous

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Honor The Earth Fact Sheet On Yellowstone Buffalo

• The Yellowstone buffalo herd is the last remaining wild herd of buffalo in the United States. These animals are direct descendants of the few survivors of the buffalo massacres of the late 1800's. Those massacres were a deliberate effort of the United States Calvary to conquer plains tribes by eliminating their food source and spiritual connection to buffalo.
• For Indian people, Montana's current buffalo policy echoes the grievous policies of the past. More than 1,200 buffalo have been killed by the state's Department of Livestock outside Yellowstone National Park in the past four years.
• The state is contending that buffalo must be killed to protect livestock from the dreaded cattle disease brucellosis. There is not one single documented case of a buffalo transmitting brucellosis to a cow in the wild. Opponents of the killings point to the lack of proof surrounding the risk of transmission and highlight the political versus scientific nature of the slaughter.
• Brucellosis can only be transmitted through fetal material. Yet, the DOL has unnecessarily killed numerous bulls and yearlings over the past years that pose no threat.
• After close to a decade of study, the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Interagency Bison Management Plan for the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park was completed in August 2000. The government received more than 50,000 comments from the public on the 1998 Draft EIS urging an end to the slaughter. Yet, the final document recommends the continuation of lethal controls (capture and slaughter) in each of the alternatives.
• Tribes have unanimously opposed lethal controls to manage buffalo. The largest Indian organization in the country, the National Congress of American Indians, which represents 365 tribes, officially took a position against the killings and requested meaningful tribal participation in the decision making process.
• The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that impacted tribes be consulted and given the opportunity to meaningfully engage in policy decisions of cultural concern. Yet, Native people have been excluded from decisions on the future of the Yellowstone buffalo herd and denied a seat on the Environmental Impact Statement team.
• Ultimately, the outcome of the Montana gubernatorial election will determine the fate of the buffalo. The positions of the two gubernatorial candidates vary greatly on this decisive issue. Democratic candidate Mark O'Keefe states, "If the current policy is still in place, my first executive order a half an hour after being sworn in as governor will stop the killing of bison that wander outside the park." On the other hand, current Lt. Governor and Republican candidate Judy Martz states, "As long as I am serving on your behalf, you have my full and unwavering pledge that our brucellosis-free status will never be compromised under any circumstances. If we let our cattle become infected, we would sell you down the river–and it won't happen on my watch."
• More than 50 tribes have established buffalo herds. Relocation of buffalo to tribal herds is a common sense, humane and just solution that can be coupled with vaccination programs and the acquisition of additional buffalo range as alternatives to lethal control.

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