The Northern Arapaho Tribe has applied for a $175,000 grant from the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund in pursuit of a bison restoration program on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

"The tribe wants about 47 miles of fencing so they can enclose bison on about 32,000 acres in the northeast corner of the reservation," said Bob Budd, executive director of the trust fund.

The grant proposal is one of 59 applications pending before the trust fund board this month.

Ken Trosper, director of the tribe's traditional resources department, said the tribe wants to establish a genetically pure, disease-free bison herd of 300 head on the Arapaho Ranch, bounded on the east by Boysen Reservoir and Wind River Canyon.

The proposed range for the bison project has been evaluated by Bureau of Indian Affairs range scientists, who say the 32,000 acres can provide forage for 450 cattle, Trosper said.

The project rests on both cultural and health goals for the tribe, he said - both to renew the Northern Arapaho's cultural ties to bison, as well as for the health benefits associated with bison meat.

Indeed, the 1868 federal treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, signed at Fort Laramie, recognized the tribes' hunting rights for bison and other big game. The National Bison Association extols bison meat as nutritionally dense - more protein and nutrients with fewer calories and less fat. Readers' Digest magazine has even listed bison as one of the five foods women should eat because of the high iron content. Meanwhile, the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, which has a membership of 57 tribes, is conducting research on how a diet that includes bison meat can improve the health of diabetics, Trosper said.

Once the bison herd hits the 300 mark, excess animals would be culled for their meat, he said. Otherwise, they'll be left alone.

The Northern Arapaho hope to start with 20 bison in October, culled from the genetically pure and disease-free herd at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, Trosper said. Many commercial bison herds have been crossbred with cattle, while Western ranchers fear bison as a source of brucellosis, a disease that causes cattle to abort. The Wind Cave herd has neither problem, he said.

Trosper said Wyoming wildlife trust fund money is needed for fencing to keep bison out of Wind River Canyon and for the unfenced boundary of Boysen State Park. Sheer cliffs above the canyon can keep bison out of the canyon, but there are a few draws that lead down into the canyon that would need to be fenced.

Trosper noted that Wyoming is a "fence out" state, meaning that if you don't want livestock, it is your responsibility to fence them out, not the owner of the animal to fence them in. Nevertheless, the Northern Arapaho want to avoid public relations problems associated with their bison going where they shouldn't.

He doesn't anticipate that the bison would travel to Boysen Reservoir, as the countryside there is extremely arid, and there's plenty of forage and water elsewhere on the Arapaho Ranch.