Star Tribune
By Josephine Marcotty and Dave Hage
Jerry Blanks took careful aim through the scope on his black hunting rifle as the buffalo surrounding the pickup truck watched him quizzically.
He focused on the dark fur behind the ear of a young bull that stood slightly apart from the group.
The sudden crack of the rifle fractured the winter silence and the bull toppled slowly into the snow — just another of the millions upon millions of buffalo that have been killed on these northern plains in the past two centuries.
But this time it’s different. That buffalo is part of an audacious mission by South Dakota rancher Dan O’Brien, who says Americans can save one of their country’s most revered wild animals by eating it. He’s one of a small but growing number of bison producers — including billionaire-turned-philanthropist Ted Turner — who want to preserve the great landscapes of the west by changing how America gets its protein.
