At the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, we’re advancing that vision. But Buffalo restoration is more than bringing an animal back to the land. Our mission is to return Buffalo to the Wind River landscape, and in turn, to heal relationships between Indigenous Peoples, ancestral territories, and the natural world that has sustained us for millennia.
Efforts to bring back Buffalo must honor these relationships by ensuring that restoration is guided by the leadership of Native Nations.
Restoration Goes Beyond Conservation
Historically, Buffalo was our primary source of food, clothing, and shelter. This relationship was purposefully disrupted in the late 1800s through U.S. government support of their mass slaughter, designed to force starvation and compliance among Native Peoples.
While we may not use Buffalo hides for modern clothing today, restoration of Buffalo to Tribal lands supports food sovereignty and provides an environmentally sustainable path toward food security and access to an ancestral resource with a wide variety of uses.
By establishing Buffalo herds on the Wind River Indian Reservation, we also create opportunities for economic development that don’t compromise our relationship with the land. This includes Buffalo-based food systems, education programs, and trainings that share Indigenous knowledge while generating revenue for our communities. By (re)creating these systems, we reduce our dependence on external resources and strengthen our community’s resilience and self-determination.
The Future of Buffalo Restoration
Our success hinges on partnerships that recognize Indigenous leadership as essential to effective large-scale conservation. These efforts must come from a place of deep cultural responsibility.
Organizations like the InterTribal Buffalo Council facilitate education and training programs on Buffalo reintroduction. Partnerships between tribes and organizations like The Nature Conservancy have helped move Buffalo from conservation herds to Native Nations, demonstrating a broader shift in conservation thinking — from approaches that excluded Indigenous Peoples, to those that center on our knowledge and sovereignty.
The success of these programs requires honoring the wisdom that sustained the relationship between humans and Buffalo for millennia.
Through our mission of land rematriation, community revitalization, and youth education, we are returning Buffalo to Indigenous lands, managed under Indigenous law. Their protection is essential to the health and balance of grasslands animals, plants, Tribes, and food systems. We are all interconnected, we all flourish when the Buffalo are back.
More Than Increasing Numbers
Restoring Buffalo is not just about increasing herd numbers. It is about returning to Indigenous ways of knowing that colonization attempted to erase. As we reincorporate Buffalo into our lives, diets, and ceremonies, we engage in a form of rematriation that strengthens our cultural foundations. For we are Buffalo People.