It is difficult to overstate the immense ecological and cultural value of the plains bison to the lifeways and lands of Native nations throughout the Northern Great Plains. In fact, for many plains people, including the Lakota, their creation stories and worldviews say that there’s no difference between people and bison.

At one point—prior to European colonization and the devastation it wrought—bison were the widest-ranging large mammal in North America, numbering between 30 million and 60 million. But by 1889, only 512 plains bison remained after the ravages of westward expansion, market demand, and a deliberate effort by the US Government to eliminate the species to subdue the Native people that relied so heavily upon them.

In response to their tragic decline, conservationists—including Indigenous people—successfully brought the plains bison back from the brink of extinction to a population of more than 20,500 that we see today.