Hides for clothing and teepees, bones for tools and weapons, horns for ladles, hair for rope - a steady supply of bison was fundamental.Īt so-called “buffalo jumps,” herds would be run off cliffs, then butchered over days and weeks. “Those tribes are trying to go back to that, reestablishing that connection that was once there and was once very strong.”īison for centuries set rhythms of life for the Lakota Sioux and many other nomadic tribes that followed their annual migrations. The stories that come from those tribes are unique to those tribes,” he said. “All of these tribes relied on them at some point, whether that was for food or shelter or ceremonies. This fall, Heinert’s group has moved 2,041 bison to 22 tribes in 10 states. He helps them rekindle long-neglected cultural connections, increase food security, reclaim sovereignty and improve land management. Heinert, 50, a South Dakota state senator and director of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, views his job in practical terms: Get bison to tribes that want them, whether two animals or 200. The long-term dream for some Native Americans: return bison on a scale rivaling herds that roamed the continent in numbers that shaped the landscape itself. Such groups more recently partnered with tribes, and some are now stepping aside. Native Americans were sometimes excluded from those early efforts carried out by conservation groups. Bison almost went extinct until conservationists including Teddy Roosevelt intervened to reestablish a small number of herds largely on federal lands. European settlers destroyed that balance when they slaughtered the great herds.
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