Overview:
NDN Collective is joining the Buffalo Treaty as part of its Bison Homelands Initiative.
Foster Cournoyer Hogan’s family frequently teases him about his appetite as a child.
“My family told me I wouldn’t eat ground beef until I was in kindergarten,” he told Native News Online. “I would only eat buffalo. That’s something I carry with me because it unknowingly shaped who I was.”
For Hogan (Lakota), the bison coordinator for Rapid City-based nonprofit NDN Collective, that childhood experience has led him to the 12th anniversary celebration of the Buffalo Treaty, held Oct. 20-22 in the Black Hills.
The treaty is an agreement among tribal nations to unite in an effort to see their bison relatives roam freely across Turtle Island. NDN Collective is scheduled to sign the treaty, a first for the Rapid City-based nonprofit that supports land back and sovereignty. The move is the latest development in the organization’s Bison Homelands Initiative.
“We at Indian Collective, we’re always saying land back because we know how important that is,” Hogan said. “With the launch of our Bison Homelands initiative, now we’re saying land back equals bison back. When we get land back, it’s land for our relatives as well. It’s not just for us humans.”
NDN Collective launched the initiative last fall in response to a government shutdown that threatened Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for millions of Americans. With nearly a quarter of Native families relying on SNAP benefits, the disruption hit Indian Country especially hard.
The organization raised $90,000 to purchase buffalo meat and distribute it, along with recipes, to 500 Native families.
That response to a time of need evolved into a vision for a buffalo corridor stretching from Wind Cave National Park to the Missouri River through land back deals, advocacy and partnerships with tribal governments.
Joining the Buffalo Treaty, which has been signed by more than 40 Native nations and organizations across the U.S. and Canada, means becoming part of an active network working toward similar goals.
“If we really want to establish corridors for them, the corridor being massive land for them to run and be bison, so they can be healthy and happy and sustainable herds. It’s going to take everyone who is doing bison work,” Hogan said. “It really strengthens that commitment and those relationships.”
Many Plains tribes refer to buffalo as relatives. The animals once roamed the region in the tens of millions before federal policies encouraged buffalo hunting as a means of genocide against Native people, driving the species to near extinction and severing a relationship many Native communities considered foundational.
By 1900, the buffalo population had been reduced to fewer than 500. A famous photograph from the slaughter shows two men dwarfed by a massive mound of thousands of buffalo skulls.
Today, tribes, community members and Native-led organizations are rebuilding herds while working to restore traditional harvesting practices.
“When they come back, our bison economy is gonna thrive,” Hogan said. “We’re gonna have healthier food options, traditional food options. So our food sovereignty is gonna boost. Our reservations are no longer gonna be food apartheid’s anymore, and that strengthens a nation.”
