Rancho Rescue

Much of the tension between Lotah and Quiñones seems to have stemmed from the fact that David Saunders, the original owner of the bison, signed ownership of the herd over to Quiñones when she complained that it was impossible to get any cooperation with state and military agencies without it.

“I was powerless without ownership of the bison,” Quiñones says. “And yet, at the time, we were the only ones willing to take responsibility for them.”

Over the remainder of the month of March, things suddenly looked up. With the help from John Ludkiss, the 1995 Cutting Horse World Champion rodeo rider, and assisted by special buffalo-herding dogs, Lotah rounded up another 18 of the bison and transported them to his land.

But on April 30 tragedy struck again. Sometime after dusk Quiñones received a call that a car had struck and killed a bison. She hurried to the scene of the accident on Jolon Road. By the time she’d arrived, CHP had “dispatched” three bison, which had been “darting in and out of traffic lanes.”

“We don’t like to say they’re dead. They’re in the spirit world,” Quiñones says. “Hours after the bison passed, we did a ceremony and asked for help from the ghost bison. They’ve been helping us find the others ever since.”

But the month of May proved to be frustrating and slow. With Ludkiss gone, paid with four buffalo for his services, Quiñones and her family were more or less on their own. They spent their days tracking small herds, responding to rumors and remaining “lawful” in their dealings with the community.

Little by little, the remaining bison were found and isolated, with the help of a bunch of local ranchers. Six were corralled on Stan Clark’s land, then four were seen out on Bill Miller’s place. Quiñones was standing in the Lockwood Market, a lonely outpost that serves as a kind of community center, when she got a call that two bison were running around out on Highway 101 south of King City. By the time she got there, Joe Roth had managed to safely corral one, but the other had disappeared and was eventually found dead near Lake San Antonio.