Skip to content
buffalo herd standing in a grassland.
Buffalo Homecoming A buffalo herd grazes in grasslands at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains adjacent to The Great Sand Dunes National Park at Medano-Zapata ranch in southern Colorado. © Dave Showalter

Great Plains

American Buffalo

Restoration is about more than land.

August 24, 2023

American Buffalo on PBS

Tune in to your local PBS station October 16-17 in most areas to see Ken Burns’s newest documentary and learn more about the story—past, present and future of the American Buffalo. See if you can spot any TNC preserves!

In 2020, The Nature Conservancy began work with the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Tanka Fund and other Indigenous partners to transfer bison (also known as American buffalo) from TNC herds to Native Nations and communities. Since then, more than 1,000 bison, born and raised on TNC preserves, like Medano-Zapata Ranch in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, have made the long journey—over time and distance—back to their ancestral grazing lands.

Bison Homecoming

Bison at TNC’s Ordway Prairie After Ted Turner, TNC is the largest owner of bison in the U.S. with herds on 12 preserves from Colorado to Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and Iowa. © Amy Carlson/TNC
Rolling in the Dust Since 2020, TNC has worked with the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Tanka Fund and other communities to support their work returning buffalo to Native Nations. © Harvey Payne
Bison calf with mother Bison calves are usually born in the spring and—to help them survive on the prairie—can usually stand and walk within minutes of birth. © Chris Helzer/TNC
Bison in winter Tribes build infrastructure to restore buffalo on their lands, preserving genetics and thousands of years of knowledge about the bond between buffalo and Native Nations. © Chris Helzer/TNC
Bison roundup from the air Every year, bison are rounded up on TNC preserves for health checks and population counts. This is when animals can also be selected for transfer to our Indigenous partners. © Chris Helzer
Bison are smart and curious Their restoration on Tribal lands helps repair relationships once severed by European settlement, the ensuing violence against Native people and conversion of natural areas. © Chris Helzer/TNC
Bison beneath a full moon Buffalo are important to Native Nations for spiritual and cultural revitalization, ecological restoration, conservation, food sovereignty, economic development and more. © Morgan Heim
× Bison at TNC’s Ordway Prairie After Ted Turner, TNC is the largest owner of bison in the U.S. with herds on 12 preserves from Colorado to Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and Iowa. © Amy Carlson/TNC
× Rolling in the Dust Since 2020, TNC has worked with the InterTribal Buffalo Council, the Tanka Fund and other communities to support their work returning buffalo to Native Nations. © Harvey Payne
× Bison calf with mother Bison calves are usually born in the spring and—to help them survive on the prairie—can usually stand and walk within minutes of birth. © Chris Helzer/TNC
× Bison in winter Tribes build infrastructure to restore buffalo on their lands, preserving genetics and thousands of years of knowledge about the bond between buffalo and Native Nations. © Chris Helzer/TNC
× Bison roundup from the air Every year, bison are rounded up on TNC preserves for health checks and population counts. This is when animals can also be selected for transfer to our Indigenous partners. © Chris Helzer
× Bison are smart and curious Their restoration on Tribal lands helps repair relationships once severed by European settlement, the ensuing violence against Native people and conversion of natural areas. © Chris Helzer/TNC
× Bison beneath a full moon Buffalo are important to Native Nations for spiritual and cultural revitalization, ecological restoration, conservation, food sovereignty, economic development and more. © Morgan Heim
Bison Roundup (50:12) Live from the corrals at the Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Pawhuska, OK, take a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to roundup over 2,500 bison.

More Bison Stories

woman stands in yellow shirt, long hair, looking into the distance, brown and green grass and small trees behind her

Coming Home

Lucille Contreras set out to reconnect her Lipan Apache community with its heritage. In the process, she brought buffalo back to Texas Native American land for the first time in a century.

By Dylan Baddour

Herd of bison in working corrals at Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Bison Round Up At Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Tallgrass Prairie bison are rounded up each fall for their annual checkup.

A brown buffalo stands on a prairie with snowcapped mountains in the background.

InterTribal Buffalo Council Partnership Adds Buffalo to Native American Tribes

The InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC) has partnered with Native American Tribes and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to restore buffalo, helping expand the population size and herd genetic diversity.

Closeup of the face and side of an American bison.

American Bison

Learn how The Nature Conservancy is protecting the once nearly extinct American bison across 12 preserves in the central United States.