It鈥檚 a sure harbinger of spring in the high country around Yellowstone National Park: grizzly bears emerging from their winter dens over the next several weeks, ravenous. They鈥檒l stick close to home at first, eating the carcasses of elk and bison that have died during the winter and the first tender grasses shooting through the snowpack. But if the lumbering giants don鈥檛 find enough food in the backcountry, they will descend to lower elevations, wandering into neighboring states and potentially people鈥檚 backyards and ranches, where they will seek out garbage cans, fruit trees, and livestock. That is why every year at this time, the National Park Service broadcasts warnings to be on the alert for bears.

Those public service messages have gotten increasingly shrill in recent years, according to some residents who live around the park. Grizzly numbers are up and so are encounters鈥攕ometimes deadly鈥攚ith humans. In 24 years, there were no fatal grizzly attacks on humans in Yellowstone. In the last three years, there have been four.

Once near extinction, protections afforded by the allowed the grizzly population to rebound from less than 200 to an estimated 600 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone area today. The bear has done so well, in fact, that federal officials are ready to strip the grizzly of its protected status in the Yellowstone ecosystem by early 2014 and declare North America鈥檚 greatest conservation victory.

鈥淚t鈥檚 taken us 30 years to get to this point,鈥� says Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is heading up the delisting effort. 鈥淲e consider the species recovered.鈥�

But while their numbers have rebounded, conservationists say that with civilization encroaching on their habitat and climate change shrinking their food supplies, grizzlies may still be very vulnerable.

鈥淭he gains are precarious,鈥� says Louisa Willcox of National Resources Defense Council, a conservation group. 鈥淕rizzles are low-reproducers. You can turn increased numbers into a decline very quickly.鈥�

Such a decline could accelerate, conservationists say, once federal protections are removed and management for the grizzly is turned over to the states that border Yellowstone: Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Citing problems with 鈥渘uisance bears,鈥� Wyoming has already asked federal officials to fast-track the delisting process.

鈥淭he states want the keys to the car,鈥� says Willcox. 鈥淎nd when they get them, they will do what they鈥檙e doing with wolves now鈥攖hey鈥檒l hunt them.鈥�

In fact, before the bear has even been removed from the Endangered Species List, Wyoming has already signaled its desire to allow hunting. Wyoming officials and ranchers argue that bears have been taking too heavy a toll on livestock and become an increasing threat to humans living near the park.聽

鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 just backcountry issues anymore,鈥� says Steve Ferrell, policy adviser to Wyoming Governor Matt Mead and former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director.

But Chuck Neal, retired ecologist for the Interior Department and author of Grizzlies in the Mist, says those concerns are overblown. The chances of being injured by a bear at Yellowstone are approximately 1 in 2.1 million, according to the .

Neal said that politics, more than science, drives policy regarding large animals in the West. Ranchers have gotten their way, Neal said, because of the deep pockets and influence of the livestock industry and what he calls 鈥渢he cowboy mystique.鈥�

鈥淵ou would think people would love wildlife more than a stinking, fly-infested, shit-smeared cow,鈥� says Neal. 鈥淏ut everybody loves John Wayne.鈥�

While many ranchers and state officials argue that there are too many grizzlies, some conservationists contend there are too few.

When Lewis and Clark explored this region in 1805, between 50,000 to 100,000 grizzlies roamed from the plains to the Pacific Ocean. But the Wild West was settled in the late 1800s, when large animals and Indians were cleared to make room for ranching, mining and homesteading. After that, the grizzly鈥檚 range was , according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Today, rather than roaming freely, grizzlies are boxed into designated 鈥渞ecovery zones,鈥� areas of federally protected land in the northern Rockies where federal officials monitor them and ensure they have everything they need to survive, including food.

鈥淭hese are postage-stamp populations,鈥� says Willcox. She argues that with the loss of a major bear food source鈥攚hitebark pine鈥攚ithin the recovery zones, grizzlies must be allowed to disperse in order to find food.

Not everyone agrees. Ferrell says the land is already stretched too thin, arguing, 鈥淭he bears are crowding their habitat and putting stress on resources.鈥�

But Neal says there鈥檚 plenty of land for bears鈥斺€渉undreds of thousands of acres鈥� of biologically suitable habitat. He argues that bears are also good for the land. Large predators such as grizzlies are considered 鈥渦mbrella鈥� species: Because they are omnivores that eat a variety of food, both plants and animals, they help preserve biodiversity. Protecting large wild areas for predators to live and roam in effect protects the land for many more plant and animal species, says Neal. 鈥淏ut Wyoming seems more interested in game farming than it is in managing for healthy, wild ecosystems.鈥�

In fact, Wyoming officials have made it clear that they want to contain the bears to prevent them from interfering with ranching, one of the state鈥檚 three biggest industries, along with minerals and tourism. An article in Wyoming鈥檚 Casper Star-Tribune titled “,” declares, “By killing grizzly bears, Wyoming should be able to determine where the animals live.”

The minimum population estimate for Yellowstone grizzlies is currently 600, but Wyoming wants no more than 500 grizzlies in the Yellowstone region.

Neal says that, at 600, the Yellowstone bear population is not truly wild and free-ranging, but more akin to that of an 鈥渙pen-air zoo.鈥� In order to be self-sustaining, their numbers in all the interconnected Northern Rockies ecosystems suitable for bear habitat should be a minimum of several thousand.

The grizzly has been on the Endangered Species List since 1975. It was removed briefly in 2007, then after a challenge from environmental groups, re-listed again in 2009. An appeals court ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not fully consider dwindling whitebark pine numbers when the agency sought to drop grizzlies from the threatened list. Servheen’s committee is analyzing data on whitebark pine now, and he expects they will complete the study in early 2014. He said he hopes that it will pave the way for delisting to go forward.

This spring, when grizzlies come out of their dens, they can roam to their heart鈥檚 content with a designated recovery zone around Yellowstone the size of West Virgina. If federal protections are removed and neighboring states are allowed to resume hunting, things might look very different for a bear coming out of hibernation at this time next year.

When a bear leaves Yellowstone then, said Neal, 鈥淏eyond that magic line that a bear can鈥檛 see, that bear will be subject to the tender mercies of the state of Wyoming.鈥�

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For Navajo activist Klee Benally, the San Francisco Peaks mountain range in northern Arizona is where the world was created. The four tallest mountains there, like pillars, uphold his universe. Even people who don’t follow his religion, known as the Navajo Way, may be able to relate to the feeling that comes from being in a silent forest鈥攚hat Emerson called, 鈥渁 sanctity which shames our religions.鈥�

For Benally, the Peaks are nothing short of holy, and that is why, for 10 years, he’s fought Arizona Snowbowl’s upgrade plans that include clear-cutting 74 acres of forest and piping treated sewage effluent onto the mountain to make snow.

His most recent act of protest against Snowbowl has landed him with a complaint accusing him of violating federal law by disrupting work in a U.S. Forest Service office in Flagstaff, Arizona. He and three other protestors face fines of up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail each for the misdemeanor charges, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

The Forest Service owns the land where Arizona Snowbowl is located.

Wearing white suits and masks, the group displayed large banners, according to the complaint (PDF). Members of the public trying to buy permits and maps felt “intimidated” by the protestors and worried that they would not “be able to escape out of the building,” it contends.

The complaint, which was based on video surveillance that did not contain audio, goes on to say that the group began chanting loudly.

However, Benally said regional forester Earl Stewart received the group politely, shaking his hand several times, and that it was “a very cordial meeting.鈥�

A video taken by a member of the protest group shows a couple conducting business at the front desk and protestors quietly standing around the perimeter of the room holding signs. Benally is so soft-spoken that his voice can scarcely be heard above the near-constant sound of a camera shutter as a photographer takes pictures of him.

The photographer, Laura Segall, was there to shoot a聽New York Times聽聽that ran just days after the protest and featured Benally.

Benally said he thinks the charges are trumped up and that the complaint, brought three months after the fact, is meant to “deter further protests鈥� at Arizona Snowbowl as the resort gears up for its first ski season making the wastewater snow.聽

He also noted a bitter irony in the timing of the complaint, which was brought the same day that the Department of the聽Interior issued a . The Peaks are sacred to 13 Native American tribes, who view Snowbowl鈥檚 wastewater snow as a desecration.聽

The timing of the complaint “sends a message,鈥� said Benally. “It shows the government’s lack of good faith.”

Benally and two of the other protesters turned themselves in to U.S. marshals Tuesday and were arraigned hours later. One of the conditions of their release, pending trial, is that they stay away from the National Forest offices and from Arizona Snowbowl. Benally, however, is allowed to visit the area so he can continue to practice his faith. Their next court appearances are scheduled for December 27.

聽is a freelance journalist who has written for the聽New York Times,听Associated Press, the聽Boston Globe, and others.

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Around the time of Christ鈥檚 birth, while the Roman Empire was reigning over the civilized world, a group of Indian hunters in what is now Sarpy Creek, Montana, chased a herd of 2,000 wild bison into a narrow drainage area and launched an attack, filling the sky with a sheet of arrows. As the wooly beasts lay bleeding to death from their wounds, the hunters then set upon them with their flint knives, scouring the animals for meat, hide, and bones. These mass hunts went on for a millenia, and were a super-efficient way to get all the things the tribes needed in order to last through the brutal winters.

Some elements of the archeological site were still intact last summer. Many of the bison bones shown here were broken so that their marrow could be extracted.

Different types of prehistoric “projectile points” chiseled out of stones that would have been used as weapons鈥攐n the ends of spears, arrows or as knives鈥攖o kill bison and other animals.

Today, hundreds of 鈥渂ison kill sites鈥� dot plains and prairies of North America鈥攃ompacted bone beds littered with arrowheads and other artifacts. What makes the Sarpy site special, archeologists say, is that it seems to have been closed in a religious ceremony: the hunters laid their weapons鈥攎any of them unused鈥攁s offerings on top of the roughly 30,000 pounds of bison bones then buried it all.

For 2,000 years, those spears, flint knives, and projectile points lay under a carpet of prairie grass, untouched.

Until 2005, when the site was uncovered by Westmoreland Resources, a company seeking to expand its Absaloka coal mine, who found that the massive bison bone bed was in the way. Working in compliance with federal laws, the company hired a consultant who excavated the site for two years, salvaging enough artifacts and bone to nearly fill a semitrailer. Then, in a plan backed by the federal government, he plowed 98 percent of the site into a heap with a backhoe, a move that amounts to 鈥渘othing less than controlled, federally sanctioned looting,鈥� according to archaeologist and Utah State University professor Judson Finley.

The site should have been painstakingly excavated with delicate hand tools over a period of several years,听said Kelly Branam, a cultural anthropologist and professor at St. Cloud State University.聽

But Tom Durham, vice president of planning and engineering of Westmoreland Resources, maintains that the 鈥渁rtifacts were treated with the respect they deserve. We don鈥檛 just go in and rape and scrape.鈥� The bone bed sits on the Crow Indian reservation, as does the Absaloka mine, which Westmoreland has been operating under a lease from the Crow since 1974. 鈥淲e have a lot of respect for that culture,鈥� said Durham, 鈥渁nd have tried very hard to work with those folks.鈥�

LAST AUGUST, WITH THE temperature hovering just over 100 degrees, Berdick Two Leggins, tribal historic preservation officer for the Crow tribe, pulled an arrowhead from beneath a rock where he had hidden it away. 鈥淭hese offerings were made because people were thankful,鈥� he told me, turning the gleaming stone in the palm of his hand. 鈥淔or the food, the hides, and bones.鈥�

To him, bulldozing the site into a heap is a desecration and has invited a curse on the land, one that was foretold by Crow Chief Blackfoot when he signed away Crow land in a treaty nearly 150 years ago.

In the ’70s and ’80s, the government created laws, such as the聽, meant to strengthen requirements for permitting processes on both public and tribal land that would affect Indian cultural resources. NHPA requires the lead federal agency to work with either a state or tribal historic-preservation office and get public input in each step of the process.

When scoping for the Sarpy excavation began in 2005, Dale Herbort from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining worked with Montana state archeologist Stan Wilmoth and Gene Munson of GCM Services, a private consultant hired by the mining company. (Mining companies hiring their own consultants is common practice.) However, federal funds established a tribal historic-preservation office in 2007, so Wilmoth鈥攚ho worked for the state鈥攚as then replaced with the new Crow tribal historic preservation officer, Dale Old Horn.

The law requires consultation and public input for every stage of the process, and is thereby meant to create a system of checks and balances. However, critics say the three parties鈥擮SM鈥檚 Herbort, Dale Old Horn, and mining consultant Munson鈥攁cted with a single vision: to move the project along as quickly as possible.

Together, they devised a 鈥渄ata recovery plan鈥� that consisted of putting the material through a powerscreen to filter valuable artifacts from dirt and bone and then plowing the rest with a backhoe.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 make any sense to me and it doesn鈥檛 seem appropriate,鈥� said Wilmoth.

Herbort did not answer phone calls, but the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees OSM, responded in a written statement, saying: 鈥淭he data recovery plans for the site were reviewed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Crow Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. No agency or the tribe asked for further public involvement.鈥澛�

When reached on his cell phone, Munson abruptly hung up.

鈥淚 probably shouldn鈥檛 tell you this,鈥� said Wilmoth. 鈥淏ut GCM used to consult with mining companies all over the West. They don鈥檛 do that anymore.鈥�

Old Horn has since been fired. This week, agents from the FBI and the U.S. Interior Department鈥檚 Inspector General’s Office arrived on the reservation to ask Old Horn questions about the THPO’s finances, according to Burton Pretty on Top, chairman of the Crow cultural committee.聽

As for the artifacts that were salvaged, Pretty on Top said the tribe sent a formal request to GCM Services last Monday asking that they be returned to the tribe, their legal owner.

MEANWHILE, A COLLECTIVE OF tribal officials, environmentalists, and archeologists met last Friday to discuss next steps. They want Westmoreland to conduct a thorough excavation, provide a detailed accounting of the artifacts and potentially reimburse the tribe for damages. This could include building a museum for the artifacts that might attract tourism to the reservation.

The site is near the Little Big Horn Battlefield, where General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry met their fate at the hands of Lakota (Sioux) and Northern Cheyenne warriors in 1876. It was a resounding victory for the Indians, but it was their last. By the end of the 19th century, federal policy had pushed most Indians onto reservations, where the tribes鈥� best money-making option was often to lease the land to coal and other mining operations.

The Crow tribe is in a tricky position, according to Mike Scott of the Sierra Club, which is working with the Crow investigate the situation. It鈥檚 鈥渄ependent on coal for revenue,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淪o they probably don鈥檛 want to wage an all-out campaign on this.鈥�

But while money is a necessity of modern life that bears down on the tribe, so do other, more ancient concerns.

Driving away from the Sarpy site last summer, Two Leggins turned around and flashed a sly grin. 鈥淐oal sales are down,鈥� he said, his glee is perplexing at first, until I understand that this proves a point he鈥檚 been trying to make鈥攁bout a treaty, a chief鈥檚 prophetic words and a curse. 鈥淲hen you destroy something like that site, you won鈥檛 be able to profit from the land anymore. It goes back to what the chief said about the curse of the land when he signed the treaty at Fort Laramie. That curse is still with us,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t affects us to this day.鈥�

聽is a freelance journalist who has written for the New York Times, Associated Press, the Boston Globe and others.

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