Bison come home: The reintroduction of a keystone species could unite people and landscapes

By Anna Webb

Photos by Madison Stevens and Jessica Gergely

A group of bison on a grassy range surrounded by mountains

A remarkable thing happened in the summer of 2023 on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. The tribe released a herd of 49 bison. The animals, iinnii in the Blackfoot language, leapt from trailers, free to roam parts of their historic homelands for the first time since the late 1800s when overhunting nearly drove them to extinction.

Cristina Mormorunni, co-founder and director of INDIGENOUS LED, a group working to restore bison and beaver to their original ranges, saw the release.

A young bison nuzzles and older animal — Photo taken at Wolfcrow Bison Ranch

“How fitting is it that the first animal that jumped off the trailer was a calf? Just a hopeful future in a shaggy red coat,” Mormorunni said. “I will never forget watching that little calf. She looked around, then just took off.”

Bison are a bio-cultural keystone species. As ecological engineers, they can restore grasslands. This means healthier soil and the return of birds and other animals. “The same thing happens culturally,” Mormorunni said. “Their return means the return of song, ceremony, of ways of knowing and being” for Native people.

A note on terminology

Bison vs. buffalo

English speakers commonly use the terms “bison” and “buffalo” interchangeably when referring to both subspecies of American bison: the plains bison (Bison bison bison), historically inhabiting Blackfoot territory, and the wood bison (Bison bison athabascae). Although “bison” is the preferred scientific term, Native American tribes and Canadian First Nations often use “buffalo” in everyday conversation.

Blackfoot vs. Blackfeet

The Blackfoot Confederacy is a collective term for the four Blackfoot nations, three in Canada and one, the Blackfeet, in the U.S.

Research at Boise State

Libby Lunstrum, a professor of environmental and global studies in the School of Public Service, received a National Science Foundation grant to support the Blackfoot-led bison restoration project. With Matt Williamson, an assistant professor of human environment systems, she leads the university’s Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team. The team examines how Indigenous groups confront institutional and environmental legacies of colonialism as they work to restore significant species like bison.

“I think it is beautiful, bringing back this majestic creature that was forcibly removed and to have it return in such a meaningful way. Boise State is humbled and honored to support this Blackfoot-led, collaborative project,” Lunstrum said.

A mountain and pockets of snow on a meadow

Under the guidance of tribal advisors, team members interview tribal elders, Blackfeet officials, conservation organizations, cattle ranchers, ranching organizations, legislators and veterinarians about the loss of bison and the promise and challenges of restoring the animals to the landscape. Through geospatial mapping, they explore how the bison release might succeed despite fragmentation of land into national parks, forests and private lands.

The project provides hands-on research opportunities for undergraduate students at Boise State and at Blackfeet Community College. Five Boise State students have assisted with web-based and multimedia design to help the Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team share its findings with a broad audience that includes tribal members. Students at Blackfeet Community College have also benefited. With guidance from the team, they have interviewed tribal elders – honing their research skills and learning more about the significance of bison in Blackfoot culture.

Fiver persons pose in front of a mountain backdrop — Justine Momberg and Helen Augar Carlson (Blackfeet Community College), Libby Lunstrum, Maddi Stevens and Sarah Pearce (Boise State). Pearce is a sophomore computer science major from Emmett, Idaho, and a research assistant on the Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team.

A herd with history and hope

This herd, descended from a Blackfeet herd bought by the Canadian government in the 1900s and kept at Elk Island National Park in Canada, is unique. It is one of the few free roaming herds on Indigenous ground. The Blackfeet Reservation also abuts Glacier National Park. The park, in turn, sits adjacent to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, all traditional Blackfoot territory. The potential expansion and movement of the herd – bison don’t care about borders – could symbolize the reunification of tribal lands and the parks.

The parks welcome bison back.

“All the people who wear green and gray would love there to be bison in the park,” said Dave Roemer, superintendent of Glacier National Park.

Supporting the iinnii release is part of the National Park Service and U.S. Department of the Interior’s responsibility to tribes, he added, and aligns with goals to restore bison to their rightful place. “Like Boise State, we respect that this is a tribal land initiative, one tied to the tribe’s sovereignty.”

Should bison enter Glacier, staff will manage, protect them and mitigate conflict as they would with any wild animal, Roemer said. Thus far, he’s seen only positive reactions to the possibility of bison in Glacier. In 2024, the park secured more than $1.9 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to, among other environmental projects, advance bison reintroduction.

Now the work and watching begin

A free roaming bison herd raises lots of questions. No one knows how the herd will ultimately fare. The bison are living in a mixed landscape of grasslands, mountains, rivers and aspen groves. They face predators like grizzly bears, wolf packs and big cats. None of this lessens excitement surrounding the release. “When I first talked to people about this [over a decade ago], they told me we wouldn’t see this kind of release in our lifetime,” Lunstrum said.

Helen Augare Carlson, a member of Boise State’s Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team advisory board and head of the Native Science Field Center at Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Montana, has raised bison of her own.

“The buffalo have always brought us together. We are communicating across boundaries – tribal boundaries, agencies, the province of Alberta and the state of Montana, creating a network where there haven’t been relationships before,” Augare Carlson said.

She believes the bison will create new ties to the land. “This project is so much bigger than managing the herd. We will learn so much from their interactions with other animals, plants and birds. We’ve plugged one more hole. What happens from here becomes a new ecosystem.”

“Those who have worked in Indigenous realities for a long time will say that the spirits of once-living things wait for their forms to come home. The buffalo spirits were still there.”
Cristina Mormorunni, co-founder and director of INDIGENOUS LED and a member of Boise State’s Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team advisory board.

Boise State’s support of this Indigenous effort is key, Mormorunni said. Like Augare Carlson, she is a member of Boise State’s Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team advisory board.

“Restoring buffalo is a multi-faceted challenge. In the West we have adopted a ‘siloed’ approach to things. But we are about partnerships. We can’t do it any other way. An important body of work is elevating Indigenous science while recognizing western science, asking how they can come together. Having a partner like Boise State means having the conversations that really move the needle.”

Conversations at the center

Madison Stevens, a post-doctoral research scholar from Montana and member of Boise State’s Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration team, has interviewed people involved in the bison release and produced some 3,000 pages of transcripts. Interviews have centered on the many issues that surround bison reintroduction.

Through the decades, humans, even those who welcome bison back, have lost the practical knowledge of living alongside these massive animals that go where they want, sometimes damaging property.

The team has interviewed Blackfeet cattle ranchers who feel their cows, similar to bison in some ways, have preserved their connection to the land. “We’ve heard this a lot, an appreciation for that practice and livelihood and a hope that there’s space for buffalo and cattle to coexist,” Stevens said.

Blackfeet Community College student interviews with tribal elders have revealed an interesting generational difference. Because of ongoing reintroduction efforts, younger tribal members often have more direct experience with bison than their elders. But it is the members of older generations who understand the cultural significance of bison. The 2023 release has offered a chance for Blackfeet students to connect with their history.

Connect with the team

Visit the Boise State’s Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration website.
The team recently published its first article, “Chasing colonization back: rethinking parks, returning place-names, and restoring buffalo medicine – an interview with Ninna Piiksii, Dr. Mike Bruised Head,” with Frontiers in Human Dynamics.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Boise State hosted Libby Lunstrum and other researchers for the program “National Parks After Dispossession: The Return of Buffalo” in March. A recording of the program is available to Osher members at boisestate.edu/osher.