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Bison spread as Native American tribes reclaim stewardship

A lone buffalo races across the prairie at the Wolakota Buffalo Range near Spring Creek, S.D., on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. The Wolakota Range is home to over 1,000 buffalo. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) In this 1892 photo made available by the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, a man stands atop a pile of buffalo skulls as another rests his foot on one at a glue factory in Rougeville, Mich. (Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library via AP) Cliff Moran uses a flag to coax bison out of a trailer as the Rosebud Indian Reservation’s buffalo coordinator, Wes Plank, looks on, after the animals were delivered from Badlands National Park, on Oct. 13, 2022, near Soldier Creek, S.D. The Rosebud reservation is home to three herds of the animals that are used for food and in ceremonies, part of an effort to revive traditions nearly stamped out during decades of forced assimilation. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) A buffalo hide is spread on a railing as it is scraped and cleaned by, from left, Natalie Bordeaux, Foster Cournoyer-Hogan, Hollie Mackey and Madonna Sitting Bear at the Wolakota Buffalo Range on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, near Spring Creek, S.D. The four were helping process the half-ton bison that had been shot earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) Children on the Rosebud Indian Reservation help process meat from a bison that was shot and butchered at the Wolakota Buffalo Range, Oct. 14, 2022, near Spring Creek, S.D. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) Meat from a buffalo that’s been butchered and packaged is shown at the Wolakota Buffalo Range, on Oct. 14, 2022, near Spring Creek, S.D. More than a dozen people took part in butchering the bison after it was harvested earlier that day. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) Margaret O’Connor describes how to trim fat from a piece of bison that was shot and butchered at the Wolakota Buffalo Range on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, Oct. 14, 2022, near Spring Creek, S.D. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) Knives and a sharpener sit on the bed of a truck at the Wolakota Buffalo Range near Spring Creek, S.D., on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. The knives were used to butcher a buffalo harvested. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) Margaret O'Connor of the Inupiaq Tribe in Alaska holds holds back the buffalo’s hide as others begin the butchering process during a harvest at the Wolakota Buffalo Range near Spring Creek, S.D., on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) Daniel Eagle Road of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, left, and T.J. Heinert, assistant range manager of Wolakota Buffalo Range, prepare a bull bison for butchering as Rosebud community members and visitors from other tribes gather to assist on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau A herd of bison roam the prairie landscape at the Wolakota Buffalo Range near Spring Creek, S.D. on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. The range stretches over 28,000 acres and is home to over 1,000 buffalo. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) T.J. Heinert, assistant range manager of Wolakota Buffalo Range near Spring Creek, S.D., inspects the bull bison he harvested on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) T.J. Heinert, assistant range manager of Wolakota Buffalo Range near Spring Creek, S.D., picks out a bull buffalo to harvest for a community gathering on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) T.J. Heinert, assistant range manager of Wolakota Buffalo Range, takes aim to shoot a buffalo at the range near Spring Creek, S.D. on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Toby Brusseau) Troy Heinert, executive director of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, stands outside of the bison corrals at Badlands National Park, S.D., on Oct. 13, 2022, near Wall S.D. Heinert’s organization has helped bring back bison to dozens of Native American tribes. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) Troy Heinert spreads wood shavings on the floor of his trailer before loading 100 bison for transfer to the Rosebud Indian Reservation, on Oct. 13, 2022, at Badlands National Park near Wall, S.D. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) Bison, also known as buffalo, walk in a herd inside a corral at Badlands National Park, on Oct. 13, 2022, near Wall, S.D. The wild animals were corralled for transfer to Native American tribes, part of an effort by Indigenous groups working with federal officials to expand the number of bison on reservations. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)