Buffalo Treaty

First Yellowstone bison to be released from the transportation trailer during a reintroduction at Ft. Peck Indian Reservation.

The Buffalo Treaty is a living treaty among Indian tribes and First Nations to return and expand Buffalo populations to their historic range and regenerate cultural, social, political and spiritual relations with the buffalo. It has been signed by over 40 native tribes. It is the first cross-border treaty among tribes in over a century.

Background

Drawing of a Native American hunting buffalo.

Buffalo are a keystone species that provide many ecological services that the treaty seeks to restore. Buffalo wallow in the soil, making holes that turn into small ponds. These holes and ponds are used by pronghorn, rattlesnakes, flies, ants, birds (such as magpies), amphibians (such as boreal toads) and native grass species. Their dense fur and their large size allow seeds to get trapped in their coat. They move to other locations and rub themselves against plants or the ground, dispersing the seeds and helping plants spread. Grazing buffalo eat young trees and shrubs (stopping them from growing to adulthood and crowding out grasses) while stimulating the growth of local prairie grasses. This allows the unique prairie ecosystem to continue and prevents soil compaction. Their excrement fertilizes the soil, introducing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These prairie soils are carbon-dense, making them an important carbon sink.

Buffalo adults and their calves on the prairie alongside with scattered small trees.

Buffalo lived continuously across the interior Great Plains of North America, and they became highly important to the Native peoples they live alongside, who consider them people and relatives. Native Americans use buffalo for food, tools, and clothing. Over time, buffalo migration paths became trails for Native peoples as they followed buffalo across their migration routes. Many Indigenous songs, stories and ceremonies relate to Buffalo. Buffalo hold a central role in Indigenous gift economies. Maintaining access to buffalo led to conflicts betweens tribes on the plains such as those between the Iron and Blackfoot Confederacies. Peace treaties between tribes often created shared hunting grounds.

During the colonization of the Great Plains, the United States encouraged buffalo hunting to starve and genocide native tribes in the region who depend on buffalo for their livelihoods. Settlers were also seeking to clear lands to be safe for agricultural and economic development alongside both commercial fur hunting and recreational hunting. By 1900, there were only 500 buffalo alive. Although populations of buffalo are now in the hundreds of thousands, the vast majority of them are farm animals on private lands. Only 10,000 wood buffalo and 2,200 plains buffalo live in the wild. Meanwhile, 150,000 live on Canadian farms alone. In modern times, tribes have been working to establish herds in their homelands, efforts which culminated in the Buffalo Treaty.

Overview

A picture of Pueblo buffalo dancers.

The treaty serves as a way for tribes to collaborate to restore wild buffalo and wild grass populations while rematriating their Indigenous cultures, relationships, religion and food sovereignty. to maintain the narrow range of conditions humans need for survival. An important aspect of cultural revitalization is reestablishing relationship with buffalo, including through buffalo hunting. Nongovernmental organizations are allowed to sign to be supporters when their goals generally align with the buffalo and the treaty, even if specific ideas for implementation differ. Likewise, individual tribes are empowered to pursue their own projects in connection with their unique local context and culture. The treaty serves as a way for NGOs to share expertise with each other and with tribes.

A Native American buffalo hide painting likely made in the Northern Missouri River area in the early 19th century.

The Buffalo Treaty raises what Blackfoot professor Leroy Little Bear considers buffalo consciousness. An appreciation of the role of buffalo in relation to other creatures and the cultural and ecological services they provide. It arises from exposure to buffalo in daily life, which activates Indigenous songs, stories, ceremonies and governance surrounding buffalo through regular exposure. It also brings the tribes together in relationship because of a common concern for buffalo while including each tribes unique culture and connection to buffalo.

One project under the treaty is the effort to build continuous open corridors between buffalo herds, such as one from Wind Cave National Park to the Missouri River for buffalo to roam freely and graze. It is also argued that the tribes having a unified political front will make pushing larger changes easier. Indigenous tribes have also been pursuing ranching of buffalo to feed tribal citizens and build community. Blood Tribe elders reported seeing locally extirpated birds for the first time after the reestablishment of a buffalo population.

The importance of relationships between plains tribes and buffalo led to both conflict and kinship alliances between various tribes. The Buffalo treaty uses regular interaction and relationships to strengthen preexisting buffalo-related kinship while healing old conflicts. It also builds new relationships and kinship bonds between tribes that didn't previously have relationships with each other.

History

Starting in 2009, intertribal discussions called buffalo dialogues were held to explore possible ways to return buffalo to tribal lands, initiated by member tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The first discussion in 2009 was held by Blood Tribe elders to teach their youth about buffalo. Blackfoot knowledge holders felt that their reciprocal relationship with the buffalo had been abandoned due to entrenched settler colonialism and materialism. This led to buffalo knowledge being passed down less often to youth. Eventually, Blackfoot elders decided non-Blackfoot allies would be needed and they reached out initially to other tribes who already had buffalo herds, such as the Confederated Salish Kootenai tribe, alongside the tribes on Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations. The treaty was originally signed on September 23, 2014, on Blackfoot Nation land by 8 tribes governing more than six million acres and it has expanded through annual signing ceremonies since. Leroy Little Bear, named treaty emissary, has played a key role in the treaty process and in buffalo dialogues. Amethyst First Rider and Paulette Fox have also been prominent figures in the treaty process.

During the bison conservation transfer facility expansion President Ervin Carlson of the InterTribal Buffalo Council recognizes the organization's team.

In February 2017, elders from various Treaty 7 tribes conducted a ceremony in Elk Island National Park for the transport of 33 buffalo to Panther Valley of Banff National Park, where another ceremony was held on their arrival. Later in July 2018, the buffalo were released from a small 16-hectare temporary pasture into a 12,000-acre pasture and another ceremony was held. The other Buffalo Treaty tribes helped pressure Parks Canada to follow through with the reintroduction.

In October 2026, a signing ceremony for the anniversary of the treaty was held in the Black Hills and hosted by the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Signatories

This list only reliably includes signatories up to September 25, 2024. Non-governmental organizations can also be signatories under Article VIII of the treaty but are not listed exhaustively.

Original signatories

Later signatories

Shaggy buffalo grazing in the Lakota Tribal Park, an large section of grasslands on the eastern side of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

Organization signatories

See also

Notelist

  1. ↑ In 'Awakening Buffalo Consciousness: Lessons, Theory, and Practice from the Buffalo Treaty,' the hunting is described as a genocide.

References

  1. ↑ Taschereau Mamers 2020, p. 140.
  2. ↑ Taschereau Mamers 2019, p. 26-33.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wild, Elyse (2026-10-22). "'Land Back Equals Bison Back': NDN Collective to Sign Buffalo Treaty". Native News Online. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Langer, Reed (2026-10-22). "12th annual Buffalo Treaty gathering convenes in the Black Hills to advance herd restoration and food sovereignty". kotatv. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Indigenous nations are bringing buffalo back". 2024-10-25. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  6. 1 2 Duceman, Regan (2026-10-23). "Buffalo Treaty anniversary gathering held in Black Hills". kotatv. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  7. 1 2 "Bison Bellows: The "Buffalo" Treaty (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  8. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 11-14"[Leroy] Little Bear talks about buffalo as a keystone species to capture how they serve to hold an environment in balance. Other animals, including humans, and plants are held in balance by the support provided by our buffalo relations in the same way a keystone joins the two sides of an archway or portal. Without the keystone, the halves of the arch become unstable and disconnected from one another. This is also true of the role played by buffalo in Indigenous cultures and everyday life. From cultural revitalization to governance formations like the Blackfoot societies, to songs, stories, and ceremonies—all of these are held together by the buffalo keystone, and without that keystone people become disconnected from other forms and modes of relating."
  9. 1 2 Glenn, Peter (September 26, 2024). "Mount Royal University signs on to Buffalo Treaty". www.mtroyal.ca. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  10. ↑ Mushumanski, Laura (2025-10-05). "Kyra Northwest discusses the importance of knowing our relations with the earth". Ponoka News. Retrieved 2026-10-31.
  11. ↑ Taschereau Mamers 2019, p. 27, 29-30.
  12. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 16, 18-20"As a relation to many different Indigenous nations, the buffalo were the catalyst that brought peoples together, and when different peoples couldn’t agree on how to interact with the buffalo, it pushed peoples away from each other."
  13. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 18.
  14. 1 2 Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 10-12.
  15. 1 2 "Stoney Nakoda Nation and the Samson Cree Nation Sign Buffalo Treaty". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  16. 1 2 Glen, Barb (October 30, 2014). "Groups want return of wild buffalo". The Western Producer. Retrieved October 30, 2026.
  17. ↑ Taschereau Mamers 2020, p. 140-143.
  18. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 13-14.
  19. ↑ Stevens et al. 2024, p. 2474-2475.
  20. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 12-13"[Leroy] Little Bear emphasizes the importance of this future-oriented, purpose-driven mind-set: “Any which way we can get them to come back, as long as we start to see it."
  21. ↑ Schneider 2023, p. 805.
  22. ↑ Lightfoot & MacDonald 2017, p. 30.
  23. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 16, 19"In Article II—Culture, the treaty states: “Realizing BUFFALO Ways as a foundation of our ways of life, We, collectively, agree to perpetuate all aspects of our respective [emphasis added] cultures related to BUFFALO including customs, practices, harvesting, beliefs, songs, and ceremonies."
  24. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 15.
  25. 1 2 Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 14-15.
  26. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 20.
  27. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 15-16.
  28. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 11-12.
  29. 1 2 3 Taschereau Mamers 2020, p. 141.
  30. 1 2 Lightfoot & MacDonald 2017, p. 29.
  31. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 16-17"Our youth do not see the buffalo on a daily basis and consequently make no connections, so those parts of the culture based on the buffalo are not reinforced."
  32. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 12.
  33. ↑ Schneider 2023, p. 804-805.
  34. ↑ Crosschild et al. 2021, p. 6, 12.
  35. ↑ Taschereau Mamers 2020, p. 141-142.
  36. ↑ "Relationships". Buffalo Treaty. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  37. ↑ "Buffalo Treaty - International Buffalo Relations Institute". Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  38. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NDN Collective 2026.
  39. ↑ Opinko, David. "City and University of Lethbridge sign Buffalo Treaty". Lethbridge News Now. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  40. ↑ Joseph, Gillian (2026-10-23). "NDN Collective Signs the Buffalo Treaty and Co-Hosts the 12th Anniversary Gathering in the He Sapa – LANDBACK". Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  41. ↑ timmigrablander (2026-10-26). "Historic Buffalo Treaty Signed at Crazy Horse Memorial". SinteGleska. Retrieved 2026-10-28.
  42. ↑ "University of Lethbridge becomes first post-secondary school to sign on as supporter of Buffalo Treaty | University of Lethbridge". www.ulethbridge.ca. 2023-03-09. Retrieved 2026-10-28.

Sources