How US Tribes are Rekindling their Bond with Bison Through Restorative Practices

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On Wednesday in Colorado, lots of bison were taken from a mountain park near Denver and moved to different Native American tribes across the Great Plains. After they sang, played drums and said thank you to all the tribes that used to live nearby, they loaded them onto trucks so they could travel to their new homes.

Six bison from Colorado are going to help create a new herd for the Yuchi people who now live near Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is part of an effort to restore an important spiritual and physical connection that was lost two hundred years ago when bison were almost killed off and the Yuchi people had to flee from their home.

He said that bringing the big animals back was like reviving the Yuchi language and it is impossible to have the land without either of those. He also said that the bison were “the special guardians” of this land.

Grounds said that due to colonialism, people have lost their connection to the buffalo. We Yuchis are trying our best to maintain these relationships and reconnect with them. We want to have a strong bond with nature, animals, as well as plants again.

17 bison were transferred to the Northern Arapaho Tribe and 12 bison were sent to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in Wyoming. Also, one bison was sent to the Tall Bull Memorial Council, which is made up of members from different tribes and city representatives.

Two weeks ago, the US government announced an order to help increase the number of bison herds on Native American lands. They also said that they would give $25 million to tribes in order to build new bison herds and to move existing bison from federal lands to tribal ones.

American bison, which you might call buffalo, were almost completely wiped out in the 1880s but have since made an amazing comeback. Across the United States, 82 tribes now own over 20,000 of these animals and their herds have been getting bigger and bigger recently. They got these bison from other tribes, from governments on the federal, state and local levels as well as from private ranches.

Millions of bison roamed across North America a long time ago until white settlers and hunters sadly killed nearly all of them. This had a huge impact on the Native American tribes who relied on bison for food, clothing and shelter.

The animals transferred to tribes on Wednesday were descendants of the last few left from large groups. Before that, they lived with the Denver Zoo in a park there.

For many years the city would sell too many animals from their herd at auctions. But recently, instead of selling them, officials gave them away to tribes, according to Scott Gilmore from Denver Parks and Recreation.

Mr. Gilmore said when a statement was read out loud during Wednesday’s ceremony, it reminded everyone of the Native American tribes that used to live in that area. But he also said simply reading words off paper is not enough.

Gilmore said that bison are an important part of Indigenous people’s lives as they are a part of the land and their family. So far, 85 bison from Denver have been sent to different tribes and tribal organizations, and this will continue until 2030.