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Narrator For centuries, bison have roamed the vast
landscape of the Great Plains. Known as tatanka by the Sioux, tribes here
depended on this robust animal for food, clothing and shelter. The Plains Indians led a nomadic
life, following the herds throughout the ever changing seasons.
Today, bison are still greatly valued by Native Americans. In fact, Sitting Bull College,
Sinte Gleska University and Fort Berthold Community College have partnered with North
Dakota State University in a unique research project centered on this great animal of the
prairie.
Kevin Sedivec/North Dakota State University In this study we initially wanted to look
at what the selenium potential is from the soil and the vegetation. So what we did here
is come out and collect the soil on five different bison herd pastures. Looked at the soil and
vegetation.
Narrator Selenium is a natural mineral found in prairie
grasses. It has strong anti-cancer properties. The project’s goal is to find out which
grasses are high in selenium, raise the herds on this mineral-rich feed, and then market
bison meat as a value-added health product.
Kevin Sedivec Natural selenium- this high selenium protein
complex- can reduce colon cancers by as much as 60% and other cancers by 20-60%
Great marketing potential. If you can create a niche market with it, the potential to provide
a high-end product that’s healthy – not only healthy for Native Americans but also
healthy for the general public – is a great thing to look at.
What you find with the natural selenium, whether you see it in a meat product or a grain product,
is it gives you the proper selenium protein complex that gives you the most powerful anti-oxidant
or selenium in the diet that gives you the biggest benefit in terms of anti-carcinogens.
We knew we had high selenium potential in this region on the tribal lands. Well, I thought
it would be a natural fit for the tribes to look at some economic development.
The high selenium product that we created here really comes from the soil. It is that
parent material that comes from the cretaceous shale, which is a rock that is broken down
to create soil.
We actually brought in the bison herds and selected 12 animals and looked at the selenium
content...in the hair and the blood to see if we are getting that selenium from the plant
to the animal.
Narrator Once the samples were gathered on reservation
lands, they were transported to the labs at North Dakota State University. Kevin and his
team ran the samples through a spectrophotometer to determine selenium content. By correlating
which grasses the animal grazed on, data would reveal the optimum plants for raising bison
with selenium-rich meat.
Kevin Sedivec The reason we looked at the hair…was there
was some initial research that showed there is a great correlation between hair and meat.
So we looked at the hair because it gave us the potential to say, “Yes, this tribal
herd will have a highest level market potential. And this one will not.” What was interesting
is that out of the five different pastures we’ve looked at, there’s a difference
among pastures. Some pastures seem to have a high level of selenium. Some seem to have
very normal levels of selenium.
Some of the tribes will have a potential to create a niche market. Others will not because
of what they have for initial parent material. Our next step is to look at where we are getting
selenium in the muscle tissue.
Narrator Once the research is complete, the tribal
colleges and North Dakota State University will turn their attention to getting the value-added
product to the consumer.
Kevin Sedivec We’ll go through the next year to see the
marketability and what kind of return that they can get from this high niche, high selenium
bison meat.