Bison restoration efforts expand with new alliance

The Tribal Buffalo Lifeways Collaboration was announced today by the InterTribal Buffalo Council, Native Americans in Philanthropy, The Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund. This historic new alliance was created to stabilize, establish, and expand tribally-led bison restoration and foster cultural, spiritual, ecological, and economic revitalization within Native communities. Together, the groups are committed to working with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to build on the momentum created by Native leaders to drive lasting structural change and return bison to tribal lands on an unprecedented scale.

The collaboration aims to support tribal communities by providing them with the resources needed to ensure the success of bison repatriation. This includes improving infrastructure (e.g., fencing), training herd managers, and providing access to land through co-management, leasing, and acquisition.

“Bison are essential to the health, well-being, and prosperity of Native communities across Indian Country. We are pleased to support this collaboration between nonprofit and intertribal organizations to help tribal communities restore and create healthy, sustainable bison herds on tribal lands,” said Wizipan Garriott, principal deputy assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. “Strong public-private partnerships like this strengthen tribal ecosystem restoration projects and enhance bison cultural revitalization in tribal communities.”

Bison are ecologically and culturally keystone species, essential to thousands of natural relationships across North America. Restoring them to tribal lands is a critical step toward repairing those relationships that were intentionally broken by the United States government, enabling European colonization and resulting violence against Indigenous peoples and the mass conversion of natural areas. The InterTribal Buffalo Council is a national leader in bison restoration whose vision continues to heal these harms, supporting 83 tribes in managing more than 25,000 bison across 22 states. Collectively, the InterTribal Buffalo Council and its members manage more than 10 percent of the nation’s bison population—more than the herd managed by the U.S. National Park Service.

“Since 1992, ITBC has worked tirelessly to restore bison to tribes and provided critical technical assistance for healthy herd management with extremely limited funds,” said ITBC President Ervin Carlson. On behalf of the organization and its member tribes, ITBC is grateful for this collaboration that has included the tribal vision for bison restoration and has the opportunity to provide significant funding to enhance the tribes’ restoration efforts.

Despite representing nearly 3% of the U.S. population, Native American communities receive less than 0.4% of U.S. philanthropic funding. This innovative initiative brings together tribal values, ecological stewardship, and economic revitalization to increase funding and resources for cultural preservation and restoration of bison livelihoods for future generations. Through this initiative, partners will prioritize and center Indigenous peoples to ensure their voices are at the center of this work.

“This collaboration marks a historic milestone in our journey to restore bison to tribal lands and revitalize Native ways of life,” said Erik Stegman, CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy. “By joining forces, we are not only fostering ecological and cultural renewal, but also ensuring that the leadership and vision of Native communities are at the forefront of this critical work. Together, we can honor our traditions and pave the way for lasting economic and environmental benefits.”

Members of the InterTribal Buffalo Council have been instrumental in this collaboration, as the values, goals, and needs expressed by herd managers at a September 2023 meeting are reflected in this charter. These commitments build on an executive order issued by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to restore healthy wild bison populations and the prairie grassland ecosystem through the use of more than $25 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. This executive order empowers the department’s offices and partners to use the best available science and Indigenous knowledge to restore bison across the country.

For more information, visit TribalBuffaloLifeways.org.