Shoshone Man Brings Buffalo Back to Its Festive Spots in ‘Homecoming’ » Explorersweb

Jason Baldes, a member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe, grew up hunting with his father. But as the two explored the natural landscape of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, young Baldes was frustrated that he couldn’t hunt bison on those expeditions.

“Before colonization, the bison was the commissary of life for many of our tribes. It was our food, our clothing or shelter, but also at the heart of our cultural and spiritual belief systems,” Baldes explains in the PBS film. Back home.

Jason Baldes. Photo: Screenshot

“It was gone for a long time,” he continues. “Bringing this animal back into our communities means we can begin to heal from the atrocities of the past, from the loss of our land, our culture, our language. It’s a fundamental part of our identity.”

Baldes’ father was a biologist, and Baldes himself was interested in science from a young age. He already knew, thanks to those first family hunts, that his footsteps would follow the path of the bison.

Releasing bison on Shoshone territory. Photo: Screenshot

The return of the bison

This quiet, meditative film follows Baldes as he attempts to bring bison back to his tribe’s lands. Through organizations like the InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITCB), Baldes and others like him purchase and accept donations of animals from other herds and transport them across the country.

The council hopes the bison will begin to bring ecological healing to a long-abused landscape. To date, the ITBC has reintroduced more than 25,000 bison to 60 herds in 20 states.

Photo: Screenshot

Currently, many tribes have to help bison survive by providing them with food. But the long-term goal is to “relocate them to larger landscapes where they can live on their own, without human intervention, genetic manipulation or breeding,” Baldes says.

Baldes keeps an eye on the Shoshone bison herd. Photo: Screenshot

“In our DNA”

The desire to see the bison return is not just ecological. Baldes feels a strong cultural connection to the animal and hopes to one day go bison hunting with his children and grandchildren.

As he rightly points out, the 100 years of bison absence from Wyoming are a drop in the ocean compared to the millennia during which Native Americans have had an intimate and powerful relationship with them. Such a relationship, Baldes argues, is “written into our DNA.”

He’s not wrong. One of the goals of the Intertribal Bison Council is to reintroduce bison meat into the diet of Native people through lunch programs on reservations.

The council cites the modern Western diet as a leading cause of high rates of diabetes and other health problems affecting North America’s indigenous populations.

Cutting a buffalo roast. Photo: Screenshot

Baldes also sees the bison as a metaphor for the plight of his own people, who have also been reduced to pitiful remnants of their once-vast territory. By restoring the animals, Baldes hopes to reestablish the emotional and spiritual connections his people once felt with the bison. Every time he watches one of these majestic creatures gallop out of a pen and onto the plains, his spirits lift a little.

“When the hoof hits the ground and you see the first print, you finally realize they’re home,” he said, the emotion audible in his voice. “And they’re never going to leave again.”