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Fort Peck Buffalo Project: A Case Study

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To the Nakoda and Dakota people, bison are seen as a people, Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate, or Buffalo People. In 2012, the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana (Sioux and Assiniboine) had the opportunity to bring back a herd of heritage bison from Yellowstone National Park to Fort Peck reservation lands; in 2014, an additional herd was returned to reservation lands. Seeing this as an opportunity to connect and re-connect with their relations, Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate, and to educate the young people in their communities about the historic and cultural importance of buffalo, the Fort Peck Tribes embarked on a community initiative in conjunction with the return of the buffalo to reservation land. In this article, Roxann Smith, Robert McAnally, Lois Red Elk, Elizabeth Bird, Elizabeth Rink, Dennis Jorgensen, and Julia Haggerty, collaborators from three different institutions involved in this initiative, document the efforts to educate about and re-connect with the buffalo, as well as their own research inquiry process, which involved utilizing community-based participatory research methods to investigate four strands of inquiry, education, and service: the impact of buffalo restoration on the Fort Peck Tribes, the Buffalo People Summit (a community education and outreach event), an oral history project documenting the history of buffalo restoration in Fort Peck, and the Buffalo Values Survey, an effort to understand community perception and needs regarding the management of the buffalo herds and wildlife conservation. This initiative, involving a collaboration among the Fort Peck Tribes, Fort Peck Community College, Montana State University, and the World Wildlife Fund, is collectively known as the Fort Peck Buffalo Project.
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Roxann Smith, Robert McAnally, Lois Red Elk, Elizabeth Bird, Elizabeth Rink, Dennis Jorgensen, and Julia Haggerty
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Fort Peck Buffalo Project: A Case Study
Roxann Smith, Fort Peck Community College
Robert McAnally, Fort Peck Community College
Lois Red Elk, Fort Peck Community College
Elizabeth Bird, Montana State University
Elizabeth Rink, Montana State University
Dennis Jorgensen, World Wildlife Fund
Julia Haggerty, Montana State University
Abstract
To the Nakoda and Dakota people, bison are seen as a people, Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate,
or Buffalo People. In 2012, the Fort Peck Tribes in Montana (Sioux and Assiniboine)
had the opportunity to bring back a herd of heritage bison from Yellowstone National
Park to Fort Peck reservation lands; in 2014, an additional herd was returned to
reservation lands. Seeing this as an opportunity to connect and re-connect with their
relations, Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate, and to educate the young people in their
communities about the historic and cultural importance of buffalo, the Fort Peck
Tribes embarked on a community initiative in conjunction with the return of the
buffalo to reservation land. In this article, Roxann Smith, Robert McAnally, Lois Red
Elk, Elizabeth Bird, Elizabeth Rink, Dennis Jorgensen, and Julia Haggerty,
collaborators from three different institutions involved in this initiative, document the
efforts to educate about and re-connect with the buffalo, as well as their own research
inquiry process, which involved utilizing community-based participatory research
methods to investigate four strands of inquiry, education, and service: the impact of
buffalo restoration on the Fort Peck Tribes, the Buffalo People Summit (a community
education and outreach event), an oral history project documenting the history of
buffalo restoration in Fort Peck, and the Buffalo Values Survey, an effort to
understand community perception and needs regarding the management of the
buffalo herds and wildlife conservation. This initiative, involving a collaboration
among the Fort Peck Tribes, Fort Peck Community College, Montana State
University, and the World Wildlife Fund, is collectively known as the Fort Peck
Buffalo Project.
Introduction
This article tells the story of an integrated research, education and service
project conducted on the Fort Peck reservation and led by current and retired faculty
of Fort Peck Community College (FPCC) in partnership with Montana State
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University (MSU) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It describes four strands of
interconnected work in the form of a meta-analytic case study, i.e., a case study that
reviews the purpose and outcome of each of the strands in relation to each other and
draws lessons from each strand and from the integrated whole to inform further
research, education, and service initiatives. The connecting thread in these strands is
the significance of the Fort Peck buffalo herds for the health and well-being of the
Fort Peck peoples.
Faculty and staff of FPCC and MSU have been engaged in these several strands
of work with diverse community partners, starting in 2013. Four key milestones in
this collaboration, which serve as strands of inquiry in this study, include:
1) Impact of Buffalo Restoration: Qualitative research investigating the way in
which the return of the buffalo to Fort Peck can improve individual
and community health and well-being
2) Buffalo People Summit: Organization of a community educational
outreach event, focused on re-building and strengthening knowledge
of and cultural connections to buffalo, held during Native American
Week in September 2015
3) The Path Back: A History of Buffalo Advocacy by the Fort Peck Tribes: An
oral history research project documenting the recent history of
buffalo restoration on the Fort Peck reservation
4) Buffalo Values Survey: A joint project with the World Wildlife Fund to
survey the people of Fort Peck in summer 2015 to understand what
they want from their buffalo herds’ management, how the
management can be improved, and attitudes toward wildlife
conservation in general
All four of these strands of work exhibit collaborative strength-based strategies to
improve community health, well-being and resilience. We refer to these initiatives
collectively as “The Buffalo Project.”
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Central Research Question
In 2012, FPCC was in the midst of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-
funded project in collaboration with Montana State University researchers called,
Ceremony of Research, with which several of the authors of this article were involved.
The purpose of Ceremony of Research was to build research capacity within the Fort
Peck College and community, and in particular to establish a reservation-wide
Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure any human subjects research happening
on the reservation met ethical and cultural consonance expectations. This initiative
built upon a longstanding partnership between Fort Peck Community College and
Fort Peck Tribal Health Department in Poplar, Montana, and MSU in Bozeman,
Montana, and had a Project Advisory Board (PAB) consisting of five individuals from
the college (including author McAnally) and from the community, and a lead FPCC
staff member (author Smith) working alongside the early MSU partners (authors Bird
and Rink).
Simultaneously in 2012, the Fort Peck Tribes, led by its Fish and Game
Department, gained an historic opportunity to improve the well-being of the Sioux
and Assiniboine Tribes of Fort Peck through the return of a small herd of bison free
of cattle genes from Yellowstone National Park (YNP) to Fort Peck reservation land;
in 2014 the herd was expanded three-fold, adding 136 additional buffalo originating
from YNP (see video of the historic 2014 event, and the work leading up to it, at:
YouTube, 2012; YouTube, 2014). A World Wildlife FundNorthern Great Plains
Program Officer (author Jorgensen), also based in Bozeman, Montana, among other
conservation NGOs, brought resources to bear on this process to facilitate the bison
herds’ transfer.
In reflecting on the return of buffalo to Fort Peck lands, Ceremony of Research
PAB members identified a concern and a hope for the implications of the return of
buffalo. We asked (to paraphrase), “What difference will the buffalo make for the
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health (mind, body, spirit) of the people of Fort Peck?” In particular, we posed this as
a research question: How can we know and measure the impact the buffalo are having on the
health of our people, and how can we enhance that impact?
We wanted to enhance the Tribes’ buffalo relationships, while answering
western critics who had failed to fathom (or directly opposed) the value of the buffalo
as our Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Dakota (Sioux) relatives. These questions arose in
the context of long discussions in our IRB planning and training sessions. A question
was proposed, with a deeply felt need to know if there could be such an impact, and
off we went conducting a community based participatory research project.
Background and Context for the Buffalo Project
For millennia, the buffalo held a primary role in American Indian daily life,
traditions, culture and cosmology. In pre-colonial times American Indian tribes of the
Great Plains, such as the Nakoda and Dakota, relied intensively on buffalo for their
food, clothing, shelter and tools. Further, the buffalo were, and continue to be, at the
heart of Nakoda and Dakota spirituality; the buffalo constitute a central figure in their
stories and ceremonies. To the Nakoda and Dakota, the Buffalo (Tatanka in Lakota
and Dakota and Tatanga in Nakoda) were a people, the Buffalo People
(Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate), with which they shared a life: learning from, talking, praying
and listening to, and relying upon the Tatanka/Tatanga (Deloria 2006; Sullivan 2003).
Buffalo were exterminated from the Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Sioux (Dakota)
tribal homelands during the nineteenth century when the U.S. government was
determined to eliminate or assimilate the northern plains’ American Indian
populations (Miller, Smith, McGeshick, Shanley, & Shields, 2012, pp. 121-122). Euro-
American conquest and colonization of these profoundly place-based cultures,
including the eradication of buffalo from the plains, have wrought historical trauma
with its many manifestations of depression, loss of the sense of self-(or community or
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cultural)-efficacy, fragility in many people’s sense of identity and belonging, and
pessimism and lack of social capital, all challenging constructive cultural evolution
(Calloway, 2016).
Beginning in the late 1990s, after several years of social and political advocacy,
the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation acquired 100 buffalo
from their Fort Belknap neighbors. These buffalo have mixed genetics reflecting early
experiments of interbreeding cattle and buffalo for the purposes of livestock
production. In 2012, the Tribes gained a significant opportunity to provide a home
for expelled Yellowstone National Park buffalo which have the distinction of being
among the few surviving direct descendants in the U.S. of the buffalo known to the
Nakoda and Dakota ancestors (Gates, Freese, Gogan, & Kotzman, 2010). The Tribes
manage these buffalo from Yellowstone separately from the herd they acquired in
1999 in recognition of this genetic distinction; the Yellowstone buffalo constitute the
“cultural herd” while the others form the “business herd.” Fort Peck’s adoption of
Yellowstone buffalo has special significance: it showcases the leading role the Fort
Peck Tribes are playing in finding a solution to a decades-long dilemma involving
buffalo that migrate out of Yellowstone National Park onto private land where they
are not tolerated and have been culled in large numbers (Bidwell 2009; Lancaster,
2005). The Fort Peck nations and their buffalo relatives are thus working together to
heal and grow from a traumatic past. By returning the buffalo to their reservation
lands, the Fort Peck Tribes were, and continue to be, in a unique position to
reconstruct their relationship with this cultural keystone species (Garibaldi & Turner,
2004a, 2004b; Platten & Henfrey, 2009). The Buffalo Project seeks to redress
historical ills of colonization through a community-wide initiative that broadens and
enhances the impact of buffalo restoration on Fort Peck lands.
In a recorded conversation, author McAnally describes the significance of the
buffalo and the importance of the Buffalo Project:
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The Indians believed that these People, these Tatanka Oyate, were put
here as brothers and sisters to be helpful to us. And before anyone was
taken, any buffalo was taken, there were several orders of prayers and
ceremonies that were done of thanks. Okay, so the last buffalo [here
was killed in] 1882 -- so in this century, now we began to develop our
own buffalo herd. The first efforts were years ago to develop a herd
here by the tribes as an economic potential. Also it was a health issue
because it’s been proven many times that buffalo meat is a leaner, higher
protein meat, and therefore it would be good for diabetics and other
people to have this meat available to them at no cost or low cost. So
there were economic and health reasons to getting the buffalo back. But
there was also a huge spiritual reason, a huge psychological, emotional
reason that we told the United States, we told the State of Montana, that
we needed these People back not only for our health, but our well-being,
okay? Our psychological health, and to teach our history, teach our
culture to go back to that way and say, “We are related.” This is what we
believe, we’re related. Every… meaning not just people, but all animals,
birds, everything. It’s a natural spirituality. It’s not a religion, per se, but
it’s a natural way of believing and living, and it’s sustained millions of
people for thousands and thousands of years, that daily belief.
So that was part of the reason for getting our buffalo herd started. And
then we got the great opportunity to get the only purebred, or genetically
pure buffalo in the United States up in Yellowstone Park who were
quarantined for over five years, checking for brucellosis and everything
else. Finally, through great effort on the part of our fish and wildlife
director and his people and other people who were concerned, and the
governor as well as [State of Montana] fish and wildlife officials, we were
able to almost secret sixty-one buffalo up here, bringing them up,
because we were going to be stopped by the court system because of the
opposition by non-Indian farmers and ranchers who believed that
bringing the buffalo up here would be a bad thing, brucellosis being only
one of the conditions. But they’re back, okay? They’re here. They’ve
been here a lot of years now. However, they’re sequestered up north,
forty miles north or more, which makes it difficult for us to visit with
these People, to pray with these People, to look at these People, to smell
these People, to hear these People. But to me they’re bringing back
these People, it’s an extraordinary event. You know, it’s one of the
biggest events we’ve had in over a hundred years on this reservation, yet
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it is not talked about in the general public, in the schools. You know,
there are a smattering of discussions about it, but there’s no real--that
I’ve seen--buffalo plan, buffalo management, development, whatever
you want to call it, plan. … But I think that these People, the Tatanka
Oyate [Buffalo People] can be and should be really important in the
lives of our elders and us and our young people. … I think we’re sitting
on a piece of our culture and our history that we’re not doing anything
with, okay? We’re big on powwows, we’re big on other ceremonies, but
including the Tatanka is something that we haven’t done yet.
I know it’s a long process, since they’ve been gone so long, but I think
that now that they’re back, we need to actually promote their presence
more.
Methodology
This paper offers a case study of a community-based participatory initiative.
The community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework provides the
foundation for established research studies with, for, and about Indigenous
communities that have demonstrated the importance of Indigenous nations’ proactive
production of their own knowledge and the need to ensure that research with
Indigenous populations has relevancy for their culture and communities (Christopher
et al., 2011; Koster, Baccar, & Lemelin, 2012; Salois, Holkup, Fripp-Rumer, &
Weinrent, 2006). The Buffalo Project is both community-based and participatory,
exemplified by the fact that it is rooted in the engagement of community partners and
initiatives well beyond FPCC, MSU and WWF. In addition, the Fort Peck (tribal) IRB
reviewed and approved this manuscript prior to its publication.
The inception of The Buffalo Project was in 2013 when we conducted research
on the ways in which the return of the buffalo to Fort Peck can improve individual
and community health resiliency (Rink et al., 2015). In late 2014, as we considered
fresh options of how to move forward from there, we were challenged by author Red
Elk, who urged, "Let's not just talk about this. Let's do it!” We then began organizing
for a “Buffalo People Summit” to share and strengthen the Fort Peck buffalo culture
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through school field trips, story telling and reenactment, and a workshop for adults
concluding with a community “Taste of Buffalo” feast. During this organizing
period, authors McAnally, Rink, and Haggerty initiated complementary research to
understand and document the history of these efforts in, The Path Back: A History of
Buffalo Advocacy by the Fort Peck Tribes. Finally, aiming to build on the World Wildlife
Fund’s ongoing efforts to support sustainable management and expansion of the Fort
Peck buffalo herds, we added the WWF Buffalo Program Officer as a collaborator.
In particular, the interest of WWF lay in conducting a survey to understand the values,
needs, and aspirations members and residents of Fort Peck Reservation hold with
respect to buffalo and buffalo management, and more broadly their attitudes toward
wildlife conservation. Other Buffalo Project participants informed and expanded
upon the questions within this survey. These four pillars of the Buffalo Project
constitute the four strands under study in this inquiry. The work on the first strand
started in 2013, with much of the work on the additional strands taking place during
2015, and continuing. Current and future research inquiries aim to answer the original
PAB’s core question: What difference will the buffalo make for the health (mind, body, spirit) of
the people of Fort Peck?
The Buffalo Project has been built on lessons learned from Ceremony of Research
focus groups and the principles of collaborative strength-based research with tribal
communities (Rink et al., 2016). Focus group participants indicated that any research
that is carried out in their community should be: 1) relevant to Indigenous community
needs and interests; 2) respectful of community history, customs, members and ways
of knowing; and 3) in alignment with community ethics of reciprocity. Each strand of
the Buffalo Project has followed these guidelines, and each is focused on investigating
and supporting community strengths rather than highlighting problems to be
addressed. A problem-focused approach has been criticized for perpetuating colonial
attitudes (with its presumption of white/western culture’s superiority) and
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dependency relationships by emphasizing tribal community deficits (Jervis et al., 2006;
Whitbeck, Adams, Hoyt, & Chen, 2004; Whitbeck, Chen, Hoyt, & Adams, 2004).
Specific methods used for each of these Buffalo Project strands are described below.
Strand 1: Impact of Buffalo Restoration
To gather perceptions of community members, focus groups and key
informant interviews were used in this study. These methodologies have been
identified as effective ways of collecting data with Indigenous peoples because their
descriptive nature allows research participants to share and exchange information
through story telling and discussing their life histories, experiences and beliefs
(Kovach, 2012).
The research team worked together to develop the focus group guide.
Following review of focus group transcripts, a separate guide was used for key
informant interviews. Questions in the focus groups had two parts: 1) What do you
feel or believe is important about the role of the buffalo? 2) What are your thoughts
about how people’s relationship with the buffalo influences their well-being? The key
informant interview guide asked for participants to elaborate regarding the Fort Peck
peoples’ relationship to the buffalo and the potential impact of their return.
One FPCC researcher and one MSU researcher facilitated the focus groups.
Focus group participants were provided with a light snack and a small gift to thank
them for their time and participation. One FPCC researcher and one MSU researcher
also conducted the key informant interviews. Key informants received a small gift for
their participation in the project. The presence of the FPCC primary researchers was
critical to our success in eliciting in-depth and often profound responses.
The focus groups and key informant interviews were audio recorded and
transcribed. After our analysis was completed all of the files were archived in the tribal
archives at the James E. Shanley Library at FPCC. The Fort Peck Institutional
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Review Board gave ethical approval for the focus group and key informant interview
protocols. Ethical approval was also received from Montana State University. The
focus group (N=41) and key informant interview participants (N=7) revealed that
virtually all of the respondents (selected both based on diversity in
cultural/community affinity and age, and by random off-the-street recruitment)
yearned to have a relationship with the bison herd and characterized a potential
relationship in terms of both physical and emotional/spiritual health.
Strand 2: Buffalo People Summit
During early winter of 2015, Fort Peck partners identified a community
education and outreach agenda to accompany the previously initiated research related
to hopes and aspirations regarding impacts of the return of the buffalo. Partners
decided to organize a major community event aimed at re-building cultural
connections and individual relationships with the buffalo as spiritual relatives and
teachers. By spring, a loose-knit group of advocates named themselves the Pté Group
(Pté translates into female buffaloin both the Dakota and Nakoda languages) and
began organizing for a September 2015 “Buffalo People Summit” to be held during
the local school districts’ Native American week (in conjunction with the last Friday in
September so designated statewide). MSU and WWF partners wrote grant proposals
and gathered funds to support the summit. WWF funds in particular supported
community organizing for the Summit as part and parcel of engaging the Fort Peck
populace in the Buffalo Values Survey. During this time we also had many discussions
concerning what shape the Buffalo Summit might take. We invited many people to
participate with the Pté Group and ended up with a core group who attended our bi-
weekly meetings.
The Pté Group envisioned the Buffalo People Summit as an opportunity to
engage tribal members reservation-wide in a community building initiative intended to
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rejuvenate ongoing and life-giving connections with their buffalo relatives. Our work
was founded in the belief that as the bison prosper, so will all people who connect
with them for learning, for spiritual development, and for physical and mental health
and well-being.
Members of the Pté Group and partners organized activities aimed at building
momentum for the Summit throughout the summer by convening three buffalo
cultural activities:
1) Buffalo hunt and traditional butchering to feed the populace during
the Summit (organized and conducted by the Fort Peck Fish &
Game and Language & Culture Departments).
2) Dry Meat preparation class taught by a community elder.
3) “Winter count” buffalo hide painting, history, and culture class taught
by the Fort Peck Cultural Resources Director, creating a replica of
the historical/ancestral Lone Dog Winter Count.
Throughout the summer we worked out who and how best to recruit
presenters for the Summit events. A key focus was always school children and how
we could promote their interest and understanding of the buffalo and the land. We
met with local school principals and superintendents about including the Buffalo
Summit in their schedules for Native American week and arranging for transportation
to the Turtle Mound Buffalo Ranch, which was to be the site of the school field days.
We recruited tipi owners and builders to create the setting for the school field days.
We worked with teachers to help them prepare their students for the Buffalo Summit
adventure. We organized catering and recruited a number of community members to
receive a portion of the buffalo meat to prepare their favorite dishes for all
community members at the “Taste of Buffalomeal. We developed a Buffalo People
Summit logo for use on publicity and educational materials. There were more than
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half a dozen of us working as primary organizers and publicizers (largely on
Facebook), and twice that many more helping with ideas and resources and key tasks.
Considered in the context of the legacies of conquest, buffalo restoration to
Fort Peck tribal lands offers profound educational opportunities, including the lessons
of past generations that experienced buffalo as part of their economies, daily lives and
spiritualitylessons that many community members cherish. Other educational foci
of the Buffalo People Summit included the changing politics of nature in Montana,
and buffalo management and natural history. Youth from schools on the reservation
learned that before the bison were deliberately exterminated from the Assiniboine and
Sioux (and other Plains) tribal homelands, as a US federal government strategy to
eliminate or assimilate the northern plains’ American Indian populations, the tribes
had relied intensively on buffalo for food, clothing, shelter and tools in addition to
honoring their central spiritual role. They learned the importance of the White
Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman (Pté San Win) and the seven sacred rituals she taught. High
schoolers attending the third field day had the opportunity to witness the first annual
reunion of signatories to the Northern Buffalo Treaty. These tribal leaders from a
dozen Montana, Alberta and British Columbia tribal nations were eager to come to
Fort Peck and make their gathering a part of the Summit.
The five-day Buffalo People Summit reflected all these agendas and provided
momentum for existing efforts by Fort Peck Community College and the Fort Peck
Tribes’ Language and Culture Department to greatly enhance the impact of the
buffalo’s restored presence on the reservation. A Sunday evening opening ceremony
for families provided a reenactment of the Pté San Win story. After three days of
school field trips there followed a day of presentations for adults, featuring similar
content. The Summit concluded with the community “Fort Peck Taste of Buffalo”
feast.
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Strand 3: The Path Back: A History of Buffalo Advocacy by the Fort Peck Tribe
The oral histories collected as data in this strand of the inquiry seek to
document the recent history of buffalo restoration on the Fort Peck reservation with a
focus on environmental governance. Specifically, the project has been documenting
in detail how tribal members and their allies worked to overcome the legal, political
and institutional barriers to hosting buffalo at Fort Peck. Buffalo restoration was not
an easy undertaking; it played out over many years and required persistence and
leadership from a number of individuals and communities within Fort Peck. The
approach also considers what systems and strategies the tribes have deployed to work
with the buffalo upon their return. The theory driving our approach is that the
process of clearing a path for buffalo to follow back to Fort Peck both drew upon
and enhanced community resilience. Resilience is a broad term that generally
describes capacity for recovery and persistence in the face of stressors and shocks.
Features of community resilience include cultural adaptations, levels of social and
financial capital, personal coping mechanisms, and governance processes that facilitate
social learning, among many other social and cultural characteristics of communities
and their members. Buffalo restoration was not an easy undertaking; it played out
over many years and required persistence and leadership from a number of individuals
and communities. The assembled oral histories can help explain exactly how it did so,
thereby communicating positive messages about the capacity for contemporary Native
Americans to assert sovereignty in ever-increasing and creative ways.
This research involved semi-structured interviews and document analysis.
Author Haggerty supervised an undergraduate student at MSU in conducting
document analysis. The partners conducted 20 semi-structured interviews during
summer and fall of 2015. Interviewees were those who had actively participated in
buffalo restoration efforts whether in formal tribal government or informal capacities.
They were selected with a purposive sample approach and snowball sampling through
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referrals. The Fort Peck IRB and MSU IRB gave approval for the research.
Preliminary analysis of these interviews is in publication (Haggerty, Rink, McAnally, &
Bird, 2017).
Strand 4: Buffalo Values Survey
The primary purpose of the survey was program evaluation for both the WWF
Northern Great Plains buffalo restoration program, and the Fort Peck Fish & Game
buffalo herds managers. It was conceived to inform their collaborative efforts to
develop a business and conservation plan for the tribal buffalo business and cultural
herds. Team members identified a need to secure a better understanding of the
values, beliefs, and desires of tribal members in relation to buffalo and wildlife with
the goal of enhancing future outcomes and benefits of tribal Fish and Game programs
to community members by improving alignment and communication between the
Fort Peck Fish and Game Department and community members. Partners hope this
will result in greater community satisfaction and long-term buffalo program
sustainability (financial, cultural, and environmental). World Wildlife Fund also
sought to benefit from the survey as a means of assessing how it can be most effective
at Fort Peck in its own efforts to contribute to tribal wildlife (particularly buffalo)
restoration efforts.
Throughout the summer we reached out to the Fort Peck communities (six
towns across the reservation) and presented the survey to the residents. We invited
residents of Fort Peck to participate in the survey by organizing community feeds,
through Facebook outreach, and personal contacts. Throughout the summer we
didn't have many people coming to the community feeds, but those who did respond
were happy to have a voice in putting together a strategic plan for the buffalo. In
addition to the feeds, organizers elicited responses using both digital and paper
versions of the survey distributed via social media and visits to community gatherings
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such as senior center meals. People were encouraged to fill out the survey by being
entered in a drawing for 60 $50 gift cards. The survey itself, both on-line and on
paper, was anonymous.
Demographic questions sought to identify whether respondents were tribal
members, which communities they lived in, gender, age, and income level. Four
pages of survey questions were posed with a five-point Likert scale and one open-
ended narrative question. Questions covered respondentsvalues regarding the
purpose of a buffalo program, how the buffalo herds should be managed and to what
ends (e.g. economic development such as eco-tourism, food, spiritual relationships),
perceptions of the current management program, values regarding distribution of
buffalo hunts, meat and products, patterns of current and preferred buffalo meat
consumption, and general wildlife value orientations. Questions stemmed from the
need for greater understanding of the values, perceptions, and desires held by tribal
members in relation to buffalo to enhance the tribal buffalo program in the future,
and the benefits delivered to tribal residents. The portion of the survey concerning
wildlife values had been validated by Colorado State University’s Department of
Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, and tested extensively in the American
West, though not specifically among American Indians, and around the world in
diverse countries including China, Estonia, Mongolia, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, and
throughout western Europe (Manfredo, Teel, & Henry, 2009; Teel, Manfredo, &
Stinchfield, 2007). Qualtrics was used by the MSU Human Ecology Learning &
Problem Solving (HELPS) Lab to gather responses, and the qualitative question was
analyzed by identifying themes.
Data & Analysis
One common theme across the findings of each project strand is the
enthusiasm among the Fort Peck population for connecting with the buffalo,
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contrasted with a distinct lack of information about how to do so (for various
purposes, such as ceremonies, hunt and buffalo product access, and simply observing
the buffalo on the ranch). In addition, knowledge concerning common tribal buffalo
songs, stories, protocols, and arts is limited among tribal members. These data
suggest there is ample space and indeed demand on the reservation for educational
programs, ceremonies and events that could help fill this gap between the desire to
know and appreciate buffalo culture and the current availability and distribution of
this knowledge.
Strand 1: Impact of Buffalo Restoration
The 2013 focus groups and interviews provided excellent opportunities to find
out exactly how a variety of people felt and what their visions for the future might
entail. There were a range of ideas expressed. On one hand, younger participants
didn't know where the ranch was located; at least one hadn’t heard the Tribes
possessed buffalo. On the other hand, one respondent expressed a feeling of being
upset about how disrespectful people can be in areas of fishing and hunting.
The following strength-based themes emerged from this 2013 qualitative
exploratory research:
1) Buffalo were and are again important to material survival. They can improve
our health if we learn to prepare and appreciate buffalo meat.
! That buffalo sustained us. We were able to get everything that you
needed from that buffalo. The food, they provided some shelter,
provided the clothing, your basic necessities.
! I think nowadays there’s so much sickness, so much cancers, so many
diseases. Way back, I don’t think there was that much because people
ate buffalo meat and not so much dairy, processed foods.
2) Buffalo are central to culture: they are key to many ceremonies. Research
participants discussed a tradition of honoring buffalo through stories and
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songs, noting that many of these stories pay homage to the historical role of
the buffalo in supporting the survival of Native communities. Songs also
honor the strength and beauty of the animal.
! I remember it was cold. It was snowing. Then it was raining. [The
buffalo] come in. But it was interesting too when they got off that
trailer. The bull, they put him off. He jumped off and he just stomped
and he turned around. He looked at all of us ... And then he just walked
out. Then some of them, they would run out. And after about maybe a
half hour the Tatanka Oyate singers lined up and they sing a buffalo
song. [The buffalo] were just running like this because I don’t think they
really knew. But the minute they started singing you should have seen
them. I filmed it. They turned. They turned … The bull on this side,
his legs were doing this … To the buffalo song. “The buffalo are
coming dancing,” is what the song was saying.
3) The buffalo are teachers they model lessons on fortitude, endurance, and
generosity. They teach through dreams, visions, medicine. They connect us
to all of nature. We need them to help educate our youth, and create better
times.
! [The Buffalo] also showed us a way of life…. And I always look at how
headstrong Indian people are. The Buffalo don’t run from a storm.
They meet the storm head on. They don’t turn around and take off and
run the other way. They’re there because they know. Because I really
believe they have that connection and know exactly what’s going to
happen…. And I think for Indian people they’ve done that. When they
talk about wars or they talk about Indians in your history that have had
all these different things happen to them they’ve met them head on.
And whatever those consequences after that or those outcomes they
were what they were.
4) The buffalo are spiritual beings a link to our Creator, our Source. Their
return represents a continuation, renewal, of a spiritual journey.
! We pray to [the Buffalo] because he is with the Great One, this buffalo.
We all come from him. Every animal--even them ants--come from the
good Lord. Everything on this earth…. And we ask [the Buffalo] to
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pray for us. That’s how we do it. That [the Buffalo] will also send
prayers up to our Creator to help us.
5) Buffalo make us happy, contented. Watching them brings peace and joy. If
we participate, they will help heal our people.
! …. We have … an innate feeling, you know, towards animals…. They
just bring their energy, they share their energy with us, you know?
Themes that demonstrated concerns have informed the more recent buffalo project
strands:
6) Self- Efficacy. Most older focus group participants expressed considerable self-
efficacy in their ability to maintain good relationships with land and animals.
Younger participants expressed greater discouragement, or seemed to feel
unable to comment on environmental values, inter-species relationships and
cultural practices. This result motivated the key focus of the Buffalo People
Summit, which was education of the youth about the importance, value and
life-enriching potential of buffalo relations.
7) Social Capital. Social capital can be defined as shared community norms of
reciprocity and mutual trust and multiple social network ties that lead to a
“united view of a shared future” and capacity for collective action (Flora,
Flora, & Gasteyer, 2015, p. 179). The theme of a struggle for social capital
was manifest in lack of shared knowledge about the buffalo herd and how it
was being managed; tension between people and their government
structures; issues of community pride; lack of youth direction/investment;
lack of social space where people can gather; changes in land ownership
policies; and issues of infrastructure management. This theme informed the
decision to mount the strength-based “Path Back” research that celebrates
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social capital and resiliency evidenced in the buffalo’s return; and the
Buffalo Values Survey aimed at improving buffalo herd management
practices and community knowledge about the herds.
Strand 2: Buffalo People Summit
The summer classes laying the foundation for the Summit were well attended.
About 20 people participated in the hunt and butchering. About 50 people showed
up for the Dry Meat class. And a solid half dozen Winter Count students succeeded
in painting the Lone Dog replica. All of these events, along with the community
meetings and publicity surrounding the Buffalo Values Survey, helped to build
momentum and public interest in the Summit.
During the Summit itself, the Opening Ceremony and adults workshop day
each brought about 100 participants. Over 1000 students and perhaps 60 teachers
participated in the three days of field trips (each day inviting different grade-groups)
to the Turtle Mound buffalo ranch in between those two plenary events. According
to an informal poll, on the last day participants were about half local tribal members,
one third non-Indian non-residents, and the remainder split between visitors enrolled
elsewhere, and non-Indian reservation residents.
The Summit was evaluated through a one-page program evaluation aimed at
the adult participants, a student worksheet for use by the teachers involved with the
school field trips, and a teacher evaluation of the field trips which elicited summaries
of student worksheet themes. The program evaluation sought data on how
participants heard about the events, how they wanted the buffalo management
program to communicate with them and ways in which the buffalo herds can benefit
the Fort Peck communities. It elicited narrative feedback on what they learned from
the Summit, what they would repeat or do differently. Thirty-four participants’
evaluations were returned. The teacher evaluation elicited narrative responses
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regarding what they learned, what they would repeat or do differently, what their
students highlighted as “interesting things” about the field day, and what they
observed at the buffalo ranch where the field days were held. Only four teacher
evaluations were returned but we collected about 200 student worksheets as well.
Participants emphasized they learned about the importance of the buffalo in
Fort Peck Tribes’ spirituality, gaining an understanding that buffalo are relatives,
understanding the significance of relationship with the buffalo, the buffalo’s value to
culture and how it can “affect the native community as a whole.” Ten respondents
mentioned a desire to see the buffalo, either with a tour to the ranch, or a local
viewing herd. This was a sentiment heard more widely through word-of-mouth and
from the students. Several suggested another summit include more cultural events,
such as a “sweat”, or a pow-wow or a “Wacipi - a dance/celebration.” Several made
“culinary” comments asking for “more buffalo tastings,” asking to “make sure all
the people get to eat buffalo all the time,” asking for a cooking class, and asking for a
recipe book.
During the field days, the students had circulated through about 20 different
“tipi [and outdoor] stations” with speakers on cultural, historical, and ecological
lessons of the buffalo, singing, tipi pole scraping, games, and displays of a taxidermied
buffalo and horses. The teachers appreciated the events very much, especially
highlighting their students’ response to active or hands-on lessons (“Learning Nakoda
Buffalo song,” “scraping the lodge pole #1 favorite”). One comment about what a teacher
would have the Pté Group repeat was, “All of it. Great Job!” Oral feedback gathered
informally at the end of each field day was overwhelmingly positive, despite
organizational hiccups.
A significant disappointment for the students and teachers is that they didn’t
have any (or sufficient) opportunity to actually see the buffalo herd despite efforts by
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Fish & Game personnel to herd some of the buffalo toward the field days site (the
ranch includes thousands of acres). Requests for additional activities included:
! More story-telling (history). More drumming with identification and
meaning of songs. More "hands-on" like the peeling of poles.
! Maybe how do you set-up the tipis.
! It would have been cool to have cooking over the fire - stew to enjoy and
test taste.
! Wish we would have had the tour guide or story teller on our bus - that was
a great idea!
! When have more buffalo could show kids how to scrape, tan, dry hides;
cook buffalo recipes; make buffalo bags and many other items from the
buffalo; etc. - More hands-on, most kids have trouble sitting & listening
these days.
! Add more historical spiritualism.
! [The students] really enjoyed the horse and would like more opportunities
to ride and be around horses. Horse (equine) therapy.
The students’ worksheets highlighted the value of diverse tipi stations, some
more than others, but most received some particular mention. The largest portion
mentioned what they’d learned about the different uses their ancestors had made of
all parts of the buffalo. A significant number mentioned learning a buffalo song and
engaging with stories. Some students drew pictures of what they had observed out at
the buffalo ranch. Many notable comments from students about what they learned
suggest they paid close attention and were quite enthralled with their field day. Three
of these students offered up memorable items of learning:
! That a tipi is a language.
! I learned about trust.
! That the land is perfect for the Indian tipis and that the buffalos are in a
good place. The land is sacred and has sacred Rocks.
Strand 3: The Path Back: A History of Buffalo Advocacy by the Fort Peck Tribe
Presentations during the Buffalo People Summit described the history of the
buffalo’s 19th century devastation and the path of native (Yellowstone) buffalo back to
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the Fort Peck reservation. An early Fort Peck buffalo advocate talked at the final day
of the Summit, demonstrating with his story the long and complex history of the
buffalo’s return.
Preliminary analysis of The Path Back oral histories has examined how ecological
restoration can have therapeutic and protective mental health benefits. These are
achieved through reconnections and affective experiences of and with buffalo. The
interviews highlight the importance of access to spaces of “affective ecologies” as well
as personal investment in spiritual traditions among other avenues of reconnection
with the buffalo people (Haggerty, Rink, McAnally, & Bird, 2017). Further analysis
and findings from the interviews remain in progress.
Strand 4: Buffalo Values Survey
The survey asked what the people want for the future of our Buffalo Ranch.
There were 369 participants who completed the questionnaire (161 paper; 208
internet), including 285 enrolled members. About half of these were from the west
side of the reservation (largely Assiniboine) and half from the east side (largely Sioux).
Respondents were 62% female; 37% male.
We had a variety of responses to conducting the survey. Analysis of responses
has revealed some key findings about the Fort Peck people’s perceptions of the
buffalo on their lands. Among tribal member respondents, 88% valued buffalo as
wildlife, 68% valued them as relatives, and 54% valued them as livestock.
Ninety-one percent of tribal members agreed that “we should encourage our
youth to learn about buffalo and other wildlife for future jobs,” 87% agreed “we
should use buffalo for healthful food,” 86% agreed “we should encourage our people
to reconnect with buffalo through tribal traditions,” 83% agreed that “we should help
to restore buffalo to the grasslands of North America,” and 78% agreed that “the
return of buffalo will be a source of healing for our people.”
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Critique of the current buffalo herds management came through in the
difference among the percent of tribal members who feel that “Tribal members
should be consulted about goals for tribal buffalo management” (74%), those who
feel that I understand how the Fort Peck Buffalo herds are currently being managed”
(44%), and those who feel that “Goals for tribal buffalo management are
communicated clearly to all members” (32%). Similarly, 64% of Tribal members
agreed they should be consulted about the process of selecting tribal recipients of
buffalo meat and products, while only 30% said they understand how the Tribes select
tribal recipients of buffalo meat and products, and only 25% agreed, “The process for
selecting tribal recipients of buffalo has been communicated clearly to all members.”
Narrative responses to the open-ended question, “Please tell us about any concerns
you might have about how the buffalo herds are currently being managed,” largely
confirmed the implicit criticism of the Tribes’ buffalo program management. While
23 comments expressed appreciation for current management of the herds, 85
expressed criticisms and an additional 16 respondents said they didn’t know enough
to comment. Criticisms referenced the need for better communication about the
management practices (17 comments), the need for greater management transparency
(3 comments), concerns about meat distribution (14 comments), concerns about
hunting opportunities and sale of such opportunities to non-tribal members (6
comments), other concerns about management (35 comments), and a handful of
concerns about public education, economic development, and the herds’ location and
how this affects the Fort Peck people’s ability to enjoy the buffalo’s presence. Tribal
members believe the “cultural herd” should be managed to:
! Provide for the ceremonial needs of tribal members (71%)
! Provide food for tribal members (69%)
! Earn money from tourism (58%)
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It is clear that tribal members would like to eat buffalo more than they do now.
Only 5% currently eat buffalo daily, weekly, or monthly, though an additional 59%
responded that they do eat buffalo when offered. In contrast, 45% would prefer to
eat buffalo daily, weekly, or monthly; 34% said they would prefer to eat buffalo when
offered. Only 7% said they would never eat buffalo (a mark of acculturation of
tastes).
Finally, 76% of tribal members agreed that “the buffalo herds and the land they
graze on the reservation should be expanded,” and 70% wanted the Fort Peck Tribes
to “establish a herd for viewing that is more accessible,” i.e., more easily seen and
watched.
Discussion
The findings show that buffalo culture remains strong among a portion of the
Fort Peck populace, particularly concentrated among the older generations. At the
same time results show that many more of the Fort Peck peoples would like to engage
with buffalo culture, including knowing the stories, songs and ceremonies, watching
the herd, hunting buffalo, eating the meat, and contributing to decision-making about
the herds’ management and the distribution of buffalo products.
Not evident from the data are the processes and relationships that have made
each of these four strands of The Buffalo Project possible and successful. The
collaborations between FPCC and other tribal members, including the Fish & Game
Director, with non-tribal institutions MSU and WWF were key; collaborations and
partnerships are integral elements of successful community-based participatory
research. The Ceremony of Research project, funded through MSU, facilitated
articulation of the motivating questions and funded the 2013 qualitative research.
MSU personnel visits to Fort Peck to discuss strategies for further research generated
the admonition from author Red Elk, "Let's not just talk about this. Let's do it! ---
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i.e., generate the connections with the buffalo that the Fort Peck partners were
concerned were missing in their communities. The partnership between WWF and the
Fort Peck Fish & Game Department gave rise to Summit organizing funds as well as
the survey, which was integrated with the Summit organizing. MSU personnel raised
most of the other funds that supported the Summit and helped the Pté Group to
leverage significant contributions from FPCC and the Tribal Executive Board.
Author Smith commented on the roles of other partners: “[Author]Jorgensen has been an
incredible resource for us.” The organizing skills of author Bird offered a role model and
momentum for completing the Summit organizing: We wouldn't have done this without
her being the [taskmaster], caring yet driven, such a blessing to us.” The MSU and WWF
partners will always be considered koda/kona (friend) to the Assinibone and Sioux.
The elders and cultural experts on the team were critical as motivators and
resources, reflected in comments about the process:
[Author] Red Elk, I have never worked with someone like her before. She
is knowledgeable educated and wise.
[Author] McAnally’s pessimism made us think hard about what we were
doing... His fear was that the Council would not be on board. We found
out that communication was essential and that we could do a better job with
that next time.
Ramey Growing Thunder (Director of the Fort Peck Language & Culture
Department) and her crew took a political risk but the project gave her
program a boost as well.
John Morsette [an original PAB member who motivated The Buffalo
Project] - his wisdom and prayers have always been with us [despite recent
illness].
College administrative personnel were also critical to our success, as were the
many elders and knowledgeable community members who contributed presentations
during the school field days and the adults workshop. Our hearts are proud at what
we accomplished.
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Much inspiration for the way the Buffalo Project evolved came from the 2013
focus groups and interviews. The beauty of some of the responses was described by
one author as out of this world,” as they were responses that we wouldn’t have
expected within a research project. We think of people who have passed away since
we started this project: how much they contributed to this inquiry, and how they
would be proud of what we pulled off. The process of asking our questions and
listening carefully to the answers touched our hearts. We are deeply grateful these
individuals opened their hearts and minds to us; a successful community-based
participatory research project depends on this kind of openness.
This kind of research project often leads to the development of contacts,
relationships, and interactions that go beyond standard researcher/participant
relationships. In addition to the people we talked to through the initial work in 2013,
we met so many incredible people along the way who have made significant efforts
and sacrifices to be of assistance to the Buffalo Project. The gatherings prior, during,
and after have melded friendships with a variety of people. We were honored to have
been able to work with wise elders and very knowledgeable, energetic, and caring
people --- people like Chief Robert Fourstar, who gave us his blessing for the buffalo
summit, was on board from the beginning, and continued to support the work
through the ups and downs of planning and listening to the critics. His blessing was
heartfelt and gave us a much-needed boost. He passed away recently, but not until
after playing a critical role in the school field days and Northern Buffalo Treaty
reunion.
Anecdotal evidence of the impact of the Buffalo Project, as well as data from
Summit evaluations, suggest that the school students were excited about being at the
Turtle Mound Buffalo Ranch and learning about buffalo culture and that they want to
come back, that many more individuals would have participated with the Treaty
gathering and the adults workshop but hadn’t been aware of or registered on all the
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publicity and invitations (we heard expressions of consternation such as, “why wasn’t
I invited to speak?”), and that those who did participate expressed strong support and
appreciation for the events. There were some naysayers who felt the events did not
reflect all reservation clans and communities but the Buffalo Project has demonstrated
that there is a strong core group of buffalo supporters, and many more people who
want to learn and be involved.
Conclusion
We are impressed and grateful that, finally, for the first time in this century,
there was a coming together for an important common cause, of FPCC faculty and
staff, grassroots Indian people, tribal politicians, tribal agency personnel, as well as
Montana State University and WWF. We were united and determined to work for the
benefit of all reservation people and our relatives, the Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate. We
believe that real change and real progress will come to Fort Peck, and indeed to all of
Indian Country, only when the people themselves, not just the governments, band
together for the common good. The Fort Peck Pté Group did become the catalyst
for such common good and change because when united together, the group
members and associates put aside their personal and historical issues (Assiniboine v.
Sioux, East end v. West end, etc.) to work toward their goal of community education
with regard to the meaning and importance of the return of our relations, the
Tatanga/Tatanka Oyate. We believe that the Pté Group, with dedicated and educated
leadership, could grow into giving the Ikce Wicasa (common man) a vehicle to directly
address the serious social and cultural issues on Fort Peck Reservation. It is evident
that, through this community-based, participatory research project --- its goals,
questions, methods, and data gathered --- focused on the return of the buffalo to Fort
Peck, important relationships have been forged that will continue to sustain the
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Buffalo Project and its broader goal of connecting and re-connecting the people with
their relations.
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Citation: Smith, R., McAnally, R., Red Elk, L., Bird, E., Rink, E., Jorgensen, D., & Haggerty, J.
(2017). Fort Peck Buffalo Project: A case study. Tribal College and University Research
Journal, 1(2), 1-29.
... While community surveys indicate that all communities desire greater access to herds and acquisition of bison meat (Haggerty et al., 2017;McElrone, 2017;Human Ecology Learning and Problem Solving [HELPS] Lab, 2018); there is an institutional need to increase staffing to expand community engagement programming. Currently, the primary limitation reported for establishing regular programing, both for generating revenue and cultural enrichment, is the lack of staff who can assist with coordination with outside partners and make a significant longterm investment. ...
... Engaging communities in co-designing and planning associated with buffalo programs can build social trust and help mitigate the risk of negative public perception (Watkins et al., 2021). To that end, as demonstrated in the case studies, each Tribe has initiated community engagement activities to gain public support and rebuild a constituency for bison, based upon the perception that reconnecting the community with bison herds will provide multiple benefits (Haggerty et al., 2017;Wilkins et al., 2019). ...
... A key benefit to restoring herds is to enable community consumption and traditional relationship with bison (Haggerty et al., 2017;McElrone, 2017;Human Ecology Learning and Problem Solving [HELPS] Lab, 2018). Restoration of bison on tribal lands can, under appropriate vision and planning, support reclamation of traditional food systems by providing a sustainable protein source to communities with some of the greatest food insecurity in the United States (Bowers et al., 2019;Feeding America, 2019). ...
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... The Fort Peck nations and their buffalo relatives are thus working together to heal and grow from a traumatic past. Since the return of the Yellowstone buffalo, community interest in the buffalo ranch has surged, manifest in part by the formation in 2014 of a citizen-led group focused on cultural aspects of buffalo, the Pté Group (pté is both the Nakoda [Assiniboine] and Dakota [Sioux] word for female buffalo) (Smith et al. 2017). ...
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