WYOMING'S INDIGENOUS CONTINUUM

For millennia, North America thundered with the hooves of 30-60 million Buffalo. They formed the backbone of Indigenous life across the continent, with herds stretching from Alaska to Mexico. Buffalo Nations, those who rely on and have lived with the massive herds for millennia, understand their relationship with Buffalo as sacred reciprocity—the animals provide food, shelter, clothing, tools, and guidance, while Indigenous Peoples cultivate environments to create abundance for all living things. Historically, Buffalo thrived in the grasslands shaped by Indigenous cultural burns, following the intentionally burned areas to graze on the fresh new growth. In return, Indigenous peoples learned from the Buffalo and relied on them for hundreds of different uses, making the relationship deeply symbiotic. Today, the reciprocal relationship remains.
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In 2026, Buffalo exist on remnants of their formerly vast territories. Wyoming is one of the only places with a continuously wild population since time immemorial. For over 130 years, like most places in the U.S., the physical presence of Buffalo was absent from Wind River Indian Reservation lands, a void created by the mass slaughter of the 1800s that severed Indigenous ties to their main food source and land. Despite their absence, the Buffalo remained ingrained in cultures, languages, stories, and ceremonies of the Buffalo Nations.
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In 2016, ten Buffalo were released onto the Wind River Indian Reservation. It was the first time since the 1880s that wild Buffalo set foot on WY Tribal lands. Now, two Tribal herds have grown to nearly 300 animals and are cared for by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes with help from the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative. The Buffalo herds are designated as “wildlife” and are descendants of the ancient herds.

As a keystone species, they create microhabitats for prairie dogs and birds through their wallowing, and their grazing patterns revitalize native grasses. As a cultural keystone species, Buffalo serve as a source of Indigenous knowledge and nutrition. A key part of bringing back the Buffalo includes getting the highly nutritious meat into the diets of community members. Through respectful cultural field harvests, Buffalo meat increases healing from the inside out. It also reduces the risk of diabetes and other diet-related diseases that disproportionately affect Native communities.

The return of the Buffalo restores culture, language, traditions, and food sovereignty while reaffirming a matriarchal tradition shared by Buffalo herds and Arapaho culture. In both Buffalo herds and Arapaho culture, women are the decision-makers. The lead female in a herd is the one that encourages the rest of the herd to move to a different habitat, sometimes dozens of times throughout the day. Likewise, women are the decision-makers for many protocols in Arapaho culture. These shared traditions reflect thousands of years of living alongside Buffalo and recognizing them as relatives.

Wind River Buffalo herds are shifting the paradigm from a patriarchal management of nature to a matriarchal relationship with it. Buffalo rematriation transforms the narrative from "extinction and loss" to "revitalization and sovereignty." This rematriation process restores ecological balance and cultural practices. With the Native-led restoration efforts thriving as a model for other Indigenous people, and the protection of Buffalo under Tribal law as wildlife, the continuum of Buffalo in Wyoming remains unbroken.

Celebrating National Bison Month calls on us to contemplate reciprocity, history, resilience, and the protection of wildlife and their habitats. Together with the Buffalo, we can all benefit from ecological balance, community ties, collaboration, and respect for the land.