Last Monday, the Blackfeet Nation released 30 wild bison back onto their land, a project 9 years in the making that the tribe believes will also be a momentous occasion for scientists to study the animal in its natural state.

The bison, or Iinnii arrived from Alberta, Canada, in 2016 and were placed in a special grazing enclosure to test for disease. From there, the herd grew until they were loaded up into trailers and moved to the release site near Glacier National Park in Montana, around the perimeter of Chief Mountain, an area steeped in Blackfeet significance.

A temporary area was made for them while they shed the stress of the road journey, and then a worker opened up the gate and all 30 rushed out into the wild, a moment which Blackfeet Councilman Lauren Monroe Jr. called "absolutely epic."

There at Chief Mountain, the bison will roam free, something which almost no bison herd in the country can do. There are massive fenced-in reserves and parks for bison—so large that the bison might never see the fences for years at a time, but the fact that they're there changes the bison's natural behavior.

"Bison are almost always behind a fence, even when in a large area," said Rosalyn LaPier, a historian from the Blackfeet and the Metis. "One thing scientists don't know is where bison want to go," she told The Missoulian.

"They've always been fenced in so we have no idea, as scholars and scientists, where they want to go when they roam. Even in Yellowstone, the bison are killed or relocated when they leave the border of the park. So this will be really interesting to see what happens."

For Monroe Jr. however, it was his ancestors, rather than scientists, who he was really excited for, imagining what they would think, say, and feel if they knew that land, bison, language, and culture would come back one day.

While these are the first truly wild bison to roam freely on this particular landscape, the Blackfeet's domestic herd of bison is 700 head, from which the tribe harvests 20 individuals to ensure the food security of the lowest earners in the community.

They recently offered the first bison trophy hunt, whereby interested parties could donate $75,000 to the tribe's coffers in exchange for hunting a large bull, and the tribe is excited to see how the wild bison might offer further tourist opportunities.

WATCH the "absolutely epic moment" below… 

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