Natives Network

Our relative, the Buffalo (American Bison), were out in force this past weekend in Oglala Lakota territory. It is a spiritual feeling as Lakota people when we see them. Once down to less than 500, they are making their triumphant return.

When the United States (and Canada) could not defeat our ancestors in combat, they began to attack our relative, the Buffalo. Colonel Richard Dodge wrote in 1867, while stationed in the Black Hills, “Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.”

The Buffalo provided our food, clothing, tools, shelter, weapons, and more. After the United States was defeated by the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho in the Red Cloud’s War (1866-1868), America decided to kill the Buffalo was the only way to stop the Natives who refused to live on reservations.

It is estimated that there were once up to 60 million Buffalo in the U.S. However, from 1870 to 1874, seven and a half million Buffalo were killed, and by 1884 only 325 wild bison were left.

Once the Buffalo were gone from the plains, we were forced to live on reservations and became dependent on the U.S. Government. They then tried to extinguish our culture by taking our children from their parents and putting them in boarding schools to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”

Both our way of life and our relatives, the Buffalo, were near extinction. There are now over 500,000 Buffalo in the United States — far from where they once were, but on the path to recovery. In the same way, as Lakota people, we’re returning to our language, lifeways, and spirituality.

We might be far from where we once were, but we are seeing a revitalization of the Lakota way in our communities. We will rise from the ashes of colonization and assimilation stronger than ever!