Buffalo Continuum
Angela De Sapio
Environmental Scientist, M.S., B.S.
The continued existence of Buffalo as a species is dependent on one guideline - their connection to the ecosystem.
Those are the steps we fight for as we facilitate access to their migration corridor allowing the Buffalo herd, themselves, to take each step towards winter grazing and calving grounds, with a combination of an intricate grazing pattern, the unison tilling of hooves, and a memorable amount of dung, allowing health in birthing of the next generation, and a return journey already prepared for their viability.
These steps not only connect Buffalo to the land, rather, begin a network, with the herd’s movement providing a biodiverse feedback for the sustainable population growth and abundance of multiple native wildlife species dependent on Buffalo as a keystone species. A few wallows begin to connect Buffalo to water and the networked connection of land to water buffers surface health allowing carbon sequestration in the soil and the health of the air.
So, in 2022, when a Judge remanded the USFWS to use science in decision-making for the conservation of Buffalo and determine if they need protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to prevent extinction, the Judge used the standard of the U.S. Government in decision-making, cited flaws, and enacted a remedy that would act before Buffalo cease to be here - connected to public lands and to tribes.
Without scientific or logical knowledge of what their actions may do (after 8 years of litigation), the Biden Administration did not come up for a framework that would abide with the lawsuit and come up with a conservation management decision but decided to approach from an angle that looked like protecting Buffalo was their idea: 1) set up a public comment period asking for ESA input for 12 months 1a) did not set a decision date with scientific analysis and analysis of public comment 1b) did not put into place any protective or preventative measures to conserve Buffalo during the decision-making process 1c) did not reach out to stakeholders including BFC and as seen, tribes.
After one year, the Biden Administration did not make a decision and decided to move the onus of science to a social science research study analyzing tribal lifeways stories from tribes and moving the decision announcement to 2026. Instead of using what should have been in place: 1) the Administration’s timeline in a Democracy (through 2024) 2) the expertise and connected network of the Head of the Dept. of the Interior, Sec. Haaland, Native American, and Supervisor to the USFWS 3) data on Buffalo, the first national park, Yellowstone National Park, and public lands, the Biden Administration placed another barrier on Buffalo tribes before being able to sacredly connect to Buffalo through formalizing the desecration of tribes and slaughter of Buffalo as “exclusionary” in a study that will run statistics to determine the significance of tribal lifeways stories.
Many tribes and tribal members are not connected to Buffalo in everyday tribal lifeways and have not even been able to speak and listen to Buffalo stories. They are all not on the same land where many stories came from - Significance is not, at this moment, in how many people can repeat the story. Significance is that the story exists.
Wakan Gli, sacred white Buffalo calf, born to wild Buffalo, June 4, 2024, in Yellowstone National Park stands to tell the story. The importance of Wakan Gli was told through an important chief, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader and 19th generation carrier of the sacred white buffalo pipe and bundle. During active implementation of the social science research study and in defiance of the lawsuit, Wakan Gli, who appeared as a blessing and a warning, disappeared from one of the most visited National Parks in 24 hrs. with a press release report that, that, was Nature.
I recently went to the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) Conference at the Wind River Hotel & Casino. The conversation for tribal sovereignty and lifeways may better be told by the tribes, although, as we look at the 2025 definition of harm being modified in the ESA that has connected ecosystems, we must all look at the accuracy of the methods the U.S. Government is using for decision-making.
