For first time in history, Glacier Family Foods sells Blackfeet bison meat

BROWNING — For the first time in history, the Glacier Family Foods grocery store in Browning is selling Blackfeet bison meat.

“It’s been a long, long time since we’ve been able to eat our own buffalo,” said Loren Racine, grocery manager at Glacier Family Foods.

In partnership with the tribe, the Blackfeet Buffalo Program and Siyeh Corporation, Glacier Family Foods now offers ground bison and stew meat at $7.99 per pound. The meat is sourced from the Blackfeet herd, which consists of more than 500 animals that graze on 15,000 acres on ranches across the reservation. The bison are entirely grass-fed, and the meat is processed in Superior.

Otis Talks Different, meat department manager at Glacier Family Foods, said if all goes well, the store hopes to sell Blackfeet bison shish kabobs and jerky.

Glacier Family Foods is selling Blackfeet bison for the first time. To celebrate the occasion, the grocery store offered bison burger samples.

Ervin Carlson, director of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program, said he was glad to see the years-long effort “finally come to fruition.”

“Bison is expensive elsewhere, and we didn’t want to have the price so high that our people couldn’t afford it. This meat comes from their herd, it comes from their animals, so it’s really important that our people can afford it,” he said. “It means a lot to me that we can provide for our people.”

Carlson said the tribe set aside ten bison, so far, for slaughter and said the grocery store will have bison at all times.

“To have tribal buffalo in a tribal store — it just feels so good,” he said.

Mark Magee, project manager at Siyeh Corporation, said the bison meat has already been a huge hit in the community.

Glacier Family Foods is now selling Blackfeet bison meat at $7.99 a pound. It’s the first time the grocery store has been able to sell tribal meat.

“The casino already sold out of bison burgers. There’s a lot of excitement, and they’re going fast,” he said.

Ashley Barto, an Indian Health Service dietician, said bison is a healthier alternative to beef, as it has less fat and fewer calories, particularly when the animal was grass-fed.

“Diet is a multifaceted thing. People think it’s about calories, but it’s so much more. It’s culture, it’s beliefs, it’s tradition and it’s family,” she said, adding that she plans to recommend Blackfeet bison to some of her patients.

Dori Goss, general manager of Glacier Family Foods, put it plainly when she said, “Everything about this is good!”

Millions of bison once roamed much of North America, and the animal is critical in Native culture. Native people used every part of the animal for food, clothing, shelter and cultural ceremonies. But in the 1800s, settlers, white traders and trappers killed millions of bison. The American military also ordered troops to kill bison to devastate Native communities that relied on the animals for food. By the late 1800s, only a few hundred bison remained, according to the Department of the Interior’s website, which states, “had it not been for a few private individuals working with tribes, states and the Interior Department, the bison would be extinct today.”