NEW TOWN - The chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes and the superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park say they are working on a plan for the tribes to get buffalo from the park when its herd is culled this fall.

Tribal Chairman Tex Hall said he and Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor reached an agreement Tuesday, and he expects it to be in writing by the end of the month.

"We'll see how things go this year. As far as any future agreements, we hope this is a very successful year for the bison program," Naylor said Wednesday.

Naylor said the park will cull about 250 buffalo from its south unit in October.

"We'll negotiate the following year for a long-term agreement for fiscal year 2007 and try to get back to a long-term agreement again," Hall said Wednesday.

Tribal and park officials had agreed that no surplus buffalo would go to the tribes last fall. They said the tribes' pastures needed time to recover from drought.

The decision came after weeks of controversy about the management and condition of the buffalo. Some tribal members said the animals had been mistreated and neglected. Hall and others said they were well cared for, but that pasture conditions were hurt by drought.

Naylor and other National Park Service representatives looked at the tribes' buffalo pastures July 8. Naylor said recent rains have helped the pasture conditions, and she said the tribe has reduced its herd.

Hall said the tribe had nearly 900 buffalo last year. He said the number has been reduced to about 500 animals, most of them at the Figure Four Ranch southwest of Mandaree. The rest are in a pasture off N.D. Highway 22, about five miles south of Mandaree, he said.

Buffalo in the Skunk Bay area last year were moved to the Figure Four Ranch. The Skunk Bay area had poor pasture conditions, and the move was to allow time for the pastures to rest from grazing, Hall said.

"Last year when we had spoken to the tribe and we agreed not to ship bison in 2004, we said we would meet in a year and see how things were faring. It's been a little over a year," Naylor said.

Hall said the tribes need buffalo in preparing for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event in August 2006 at New Town.

The tribes have a chance to market buffalo products, such as meat, hides and skulls, he said.

Tribal officials are working to set up a meat processing plant in Mandaree, to process both buffalo and natural beef, Hall said.