The $1 million federal grant received by the InterTribal Bison Cooperative in Rapid City this year is the same amount it received last year, but down about 75 percent from the $4 million it was receiving five years ago, according to cooperative executive director Jim Stone.

The $1 million grant for fiscal year 2008 was included in the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress this week. Stone said he was grateful to South Dakota's congressional delegation for helping to ensure the continued funding.

But he said the reduced level of funding over the past few years has cut down on the grants that the cooperative is able to award to its 57 member tribes in 19 states.

The tribes apply for grants to develop their bison herds and to provide meat for their members.

"We've had to scale back significantly on some of our health initiatives on the amount of meat we can distribute," Stone said.

Last year, the bison cooperative distributed 80,000 pounds of bison meat to tribes for health programs.

He said not all of the tribes apply for grants each year.

In many cases, InterTribal Bison Cooperative buys bison from the tribes, has them slaughtered and then gives the meat back to the tribes for distribution to their health or elderly programs or to individual tribal members.

The cooperative arranges to slaughter between 100 and 200 bison a year for distribution to the tribes, Stone said.

"Sometimes, we're a middleman for tribes that want to sell animals into their local school systems," he said.

The tribes sell some bison on the open market to return revenue to their herd programs, but their primary focus is to provide meat to their tribal members, Stone said.

He said tribal bison programs, like the nontribal bison industry, have been affected by drought.

Approximately 15,000 head of bison are grazing on tribal lands, he said.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com