Photo credit: Albert Mason
WRTBI Marks Indigenous Peoples Day with Third Annual Buffalo Bash Celebration
Story by Taylar Dawn Stagner
October 20, 2025
Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, WRTBI, welcomed around 200 community members to this year’s Indigenous Peoples Day. Tribal members and allies from all over central Wyoming came to celebrate the day with the Buffalo.
The day started off with Wyoming Outdoor Council, or WOC, putting on their first Tribal Conservation Summit where workshops included chokecherry patty making featured on Wyoming Public Radio, Buffalo Jump workshops from Peaks and Prairies led by Yufna Soldier Wolf and Crystal Reynolds, and Buffalo hair cordage braiding by WRTBI’s own Science Director Albert Mason.
During the middle of the Summit around 70 kids from Wyoming Indian Elementary School visited. In teepees they made tiny clay Buffalo, learned about the importance of all the parts of the Buffalo, and were taught about important plant medicines. Afterward, the kids played traditional games like Double Ball provided by Peaks and Prairies while everyone ate lunch provided by Indigi-Meals.
After the afternoon Summit activities, the Buffalo Bash started with performances by Northern Arapaho musician Big Wind as everyone ate Buffalo stew. Then after a sunset Buffalo tour, acclaimed entertainer and musician Jackie Bird and members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribe of South Dakota performed songs and hoop danced. Closing out the night was punk band Pigasus, whose lead singer Sean Francis is Eastern Shoshone.
Below are some photos from the day courtesy of WRTBI Science Director and photographer Albert Mason.
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