Yellowstone Bison Revival Documentary

Recently CBS News did a documentary titled Yellowstone Bison Revival | CBS Reports. This is a great documentary that showcases the buffalo. In the documentary we get to visit Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Through the documentary we meet Robbie Magnan who is the director of Fort Peck Tribes Fish and Game Department and works hard to restore the buffalo population on the Fort Peck Reservation. As a viewer we also get to see the buffalo in Yellowstone National Park with the reporter interviewing Jason Baldes.

I went to Yellowstone National Park in August as one of the presenters for the National Endowment for the Humanities Buffalo Nations Landmarks Program. This program had educators from all over the USA and our group had the opportunity to see the buffalo at Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. It was a surreal experience for me. I had never in my life seen so many buffalo speckled amongst the landscape. The land held a type of knowing that this was the buffalo’s home, and they had the right to roam freely. Early on to starting my position I was told “Let time be. Buffalo will find you once they know you’re there”. During our time in Lamar Valley with Ecology Project International we were attentive to the buffalo in the area and while our group was on the land, we witnessed a male buffalo travel across the river to walk beside where our group was located. The advice I had been given about buffalo coming when they know you are there was fitting to the experience.

If given the opportunity I would suggest seeing the documentary. One important thing Robbie Magnan says to the CBS reporter is how Fort Peck’s Indian Reservation conservation efforts have allowed his children and grandchildren to witness buffalo being on their homelands. This has been an important part of restoring buffalo to Indigenous/Native American communities who are restory-ing the future.