Sun Bear 6 - Return of the BUFFALO NATION

In the summer of 1994,on the Heider farm in Wisconsin,a white buffalo calf came into the world.Because Plains Indian people revere white buffalo,the Heider family named their heifer Miracle.Native people came to see Miracle and rejoiced.No pure white calf had been born since 1933.Some saw in her an omen that White Buffalo Woman herself would soon return.Others saw a portent that the prayer of the Lakota Ghost Dance of the 1880s was about to be answered--that the buffalo would return to the great plains.Later another white calf was born May 22,2004, 12 AM Saturday at Flagstaff AZ.The story of this will be sent with the newsletter.Now signs abound that the latter promise is being realized.Almost extinct a century ago,buffalo are making a remarkable comeback.Nearly a quarter million graze today on private ranches,most of them on the Great Plains,and 200,000 more in Canada.Public lands such as national parks are home to about another 25,000.Dave Carter,Executive Director of the National Bison Association,the advocacy for commercial growers,says,"The market for buffalo is strong.Meat sales are up.We need more people producing buffalo." Since about the time Miracle was born,American Indian tribes have also been exerting their own muscle to bring the buffalo back.Their motives run less to profit and more to the physical,emotional and spiritual health of their people.Buffalo have made this continent their home for several hundred thousand years,and two of the original six species are still with us.Once they ranged over all of North America,but they thrived particularly on the Great Plains.The Native people there held them sacred.Buffalo are part of the Lakota(Sioux)creation story,in which the people followed Buffalo out of Wind Cave into this world.Many tribes held ceremonies to honor the buffalo.At the forefront of this movement are members of the InterTribal Bison Collective,consisting of 57 tribes in 19 states.Due to the recent drought,which has made grass scarce,herd numbers are temporarily down,but ITBC Executive Director Jim Stone(Yankton Sioux)estimates that the tribes have 10,000 to 15,000 buffalo.The ITBC provides grants to tribes for all infrastructure required to maintain a herd---including fences,corrals and water---and the buffalo are provided for free by the National Park Service.The tribal herds are put to various uses.Most tribes gave away or sold meat to their members,nine tribes offer hunts,at least eight provide public tours to view the herds,four sell meat to the public,and one teaches hide tanning.Though there are plans to offer bison arts and crafts,none are available yet.Alvah Quinn,the manager of the buffalo herd of the Sisseton-Wahpeton tribe,runs what Stone calls a model program.The tribe started raising buffalo in 1992 and now has a carrying capacity of 350 head.DNA testing has demonstrated that the herd is one of eight in the U.S. that is 100 percent buffalo,with no cattle blood.When they get too many buffalo for the available grass,they sell them to tribal members for $350 per animal,far below market price.Quinn says the purpose of creating the herd is to give animals to tribal districts for powwows and other ceremonies,and to give meat to elderly members and those with diabetes.All killing is done in a ceremonial way."The guys won't do it otherwise," Quinn says.Spiritual leaders are on hand to sing the old songs that consecrate the death,and these leaders also encourage the participants in the ceremony to create new songs, "which will be the old songs of tomorrow." Buffalo meat has a small fraction of the fat of beef,is high in protein and is dense with nutrients like iron and essential fatty acids.Stone's experience working with the Yankton tribal herd indicates that a buffalo can be raised to three years old,and be made available to tribal members for about two dollars a pound."It's much better meat than they could get at a supermarket." Stone suggests "marketing buffalo meat not to expensive restaurants,but to the daily plates of tribal people.Our health problems can be solved by what we eat.Once we had a good diet based on natural foods,We need to get back to that." In 1987 professors Frank and Deborah Popper published a paper imagining that the Great Plains might return to a form resembling its past.Manos of GPRC embraces the Poppers' vision wholeheartediy.He seeks to put together enough land to create two separate 1-million acre buffalo ranges in the near future,one around the Pine Ridge(Lakota)Reservation and one in West Texas and New Mexico.Ultimately,over several decades,he hopes to create a 10 to 20 million acre corridor of Great Plains land for buffalo,prairie dogs,and their plant and animal neighbors.A vegan,his goals emphatically omit raising buffalo for consumption.He hopes "to see the buffalo die of old age,"but other Buffalo Commons supporters see the need for limited hunting to keep the herd numbers stable.Beau LeBeau, a Lakota man from Pine Ridge, has helped make a start around Pine Ridge.The tribe is in the process of reacquiring the South Unit of Badlands National Park,and the tribe and the GPRC are trying to buy 4,600 acres on the north side of the park.They also hope to convert some tribal lands now used for cattle ranching(by Anglo ranchers) and secure cooperation of other nearby public lands:the Buffalo Gap National Grassland,the Oglala National Grassland and Fort Robinson State Park.Manos thinks his million acre dream for that area is within reach.What is the future of buffalo on the Great Plains?Frank Popper believes a resurgence is underway."The 19th century was terrible for buffalo,as was most of the 20th.But early in the 21st,the buffalo are coming back and a Buffalo Commons is forming."That can only be good for native people.Two species still populate North America:the plains buffalo and the wood buffalo.Both male and female develop short,curved horns.At the hump the male may be up to two meters tall and weigh up to one ton.The female is about half that size.Life expectancy is 2 to 40 years.In the wild,buffalo cows generally gave birth every other spring,a single red or yellow calf.On modern ranches they bear offsping every year.Historically,buffalo thrived on buffalo grass,a thick-growing turf about eight inches high.Partly because it made excellent sod for pioneer houses,the buffalo grass has mostly disappeared,and the buffalo now feed on various grasses.