Buffalo Nation: American Indian Efforts to Restore the Bison

7. Conclusion [Includes Image Plates]

7. Conclusion Contemporary Indian people have debated the issue of how bison can be sacred on one hand, yet still be used in a way that can boost their economy. It could be argued that both points of view can be achieved if done with the proper amount of moderation, respect for, and ethical treatment of, the buffalo. Jim Garrett (2001) Perhaps the most striking example of the indigenous effort to restore the bison landscape comes from the range of the northern bison. When the various layers of government and local constituents join with Native people as advocates for the buffalo nation, then free-ranging wild bison can exist. Already, this occurs in northern Canada. Many Native Americans hope that it can occur to the south as well, all the way to the southern plains. They long for the opportunity to bring back the bison. Optimism exists in Indian country for bison restoration, and the accelerated acquisition of bison and bison range in the 1990s offers positive proof. Indeed, much of this book hinges on dates in the 1870s or 1880s when the bison was saved from extinction and dates in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s when bison herds were restored on reservations. However, for many Indian people, these dates possess little meaning in bison history. Rather, for them the relatively recent births of white buffalo are far more significant to the cosmology of North American Native people. “Miracle” became the name of the first of these calves born, which occurred in 1994. The first Native American pilgrim arrived less than twenty-four hours later and seventy-five thousand other visitors appeared in the first two years of the calf’s existence . Native people everywhere interpreted the event differently, with one Conclusion 144 Lakota medicine man likening the birth to the “second coming of Christ.” Two years later, two more white bison calves entered the world in the town of Michigan, North Dakota, and a fourth white youngster, born on the Pine Ridge Reservation, joined them in 1996. Regardless of interpretations, for Native Americans the prevailing theme suggested by these births was the dawning of a new age, one often symbolized by the return of the buffalo nation.1 Twofeaturesofthewhitebuffalo’sbirthrequireexplanation.First,whether or not the buffalo is a true albino and changes colors as it matures does not diminish the spirituality of the birth for Native American spiritual leaders. In fact, for the Lakota, the color phase change is paramount, symbolizing the color changes of the White Buffalo Calf Woman who originally made the covenant between the buffalo and Lakota nations. Second, statistical significance is important. White buffalo births occur very infrequently; therefore, the increase in such births most likely reflects growth in the bison population, a key step in bison restoration.2 Many Native American spiritual leaders feel the time is right for the return of their bison brethren. As demonstrated by Canada’s return of the northern bison, other entities must join with the indigenous people to effectuate the return of the buffalo. This requires inculcating the idea that a buffalo landscape is a good thing, and it probably also requires acceptance on three planes—aesthetic, ecological, and economic—across a wide spectrum of government agencies and elements of the population. The first point, aesthetics, finds easy acceptance within society. Bison are an icon of American and Canadian society. They appear as government symbols such as the Department of Interior’s seal in the United States and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s seal in Canada or as cultural phenomena such as team mascots, for example, the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. National parks feature bison. The public outcry over the Yellowstone slaughter occurred because of the displeasure felt by many people at the sight of agents gunning down an American icon. The Academy Award–winning film Dances With Wolves (1990) featured bison, and the buffalo landscape helped the film win the award for best cinematography. Few people of any ethnic background appear to oppose the notion that bison should run on the North American landscape at least in some capacity.3 Conclusion 145 Moreover, some key factors indicate that some influential non-Native citizenry seek a return of the buffalo. Most notably, Ted Turner, the cable news mogul, accumulated a virtual bison empire over the course of the 1990s, vowing that aesthetics and ecology reigned as his primary...