Lessons from the Buffalo

Two dusty pick-up trucks bounce along a dirt road through a mixed-grass prairie in the Nebraska Sandhills. An upland sandpiper perches on a fencepost, trilling a warning as the people sitting on benches in the trucks’ beds snap photos of badger holes and buffalo wallows. The sweet smell of fringed sage perfumes the hot, dry air.

The group of Tribal buffalo caretakers and Nature Conservancy staff is in the east pasture of TNC’s Niobrara Valley Preserve, looking for one of the preserve’s two buffalo herds. As the trucks turn a corner, the group sees about 50 buffalo milling around a water tank, which is powered by solar panels that harness the prairie’s abundant sun.

It’s late spring, and the month-old buffalo calves (sometimes called red dogs or cinnamons because of their orange color) stick close to their mothers, who eye the trucks warily. Several yearlings, curious about the visitors, come running over to investigate.

The group watches the buffalo in respectful silence. And then the learning from that morning’s educational session kicks in.

“Three,” someone says.

“Maybe four. No, you’re right—three,” says someone else.

Real-Life Learning

The numbers correspond to a standardized scoring system developed by South Dakota State University to visually assess a buffalo’s health from a distance by looking at body features like the rump, ribs and spine. Three is the ideal score—not too skinny and not too big.

Being able to quickly assess buffalo health is an important skill for Tribal buffalo stewards like the ones who gathered at Niobrara in May 2026 to learn, collaborate and celebrate the completion of a yearlong apprenticeship program led by the InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), a federally charted organization that restores buffalo to Tribal lands for cultural and spiritual enhancement and preservation.

Funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the program provides in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience for a variety of Tribal buffalo caretakers—from current herd managers and assistant managers to youth and food sovereignty leaders to future herd stewards.

At Niobrara Valley Preserve, participants gained hands-on experience with multiple aspects of buffalo stewardship. In addition to practicing body condition scoring, they discussed low-stress buffalo handling, explored infrastructure like fencing and corrals, identified prairie plant species, and talked about using prescribed fire to keep grasslands healthy.

The learning didn’t end when the day’s activities were over. At the preserve, apprentices stayed in housing designed to bring groups together, creating opportunities to build personal and professional relationships. Whether tubing on the Niobrara River or gathering around a campfire, participants had time to continue conversations, share experiences and strengthen connections.

Healing and Hope

Tens of millions of buffalo (also known as American bison and by countless other Indigenous names) once roamed the grasslands of North America, supporting thousands of species of plants, mammals, insects and amphibians through their grazing, wallowing, migration and fertilization.

For thousands of years, many Indigenous Peoples’ lifeways, culture and survival depended on the buffalo. However, buffalo were nearly driven to extinction through uncontrolled hunting and a U.S. policy of eradication tied to intentional harm against and control of Native Peoples, leaving only a few hundred wild buffalo by 1889. This loss created devastating impacts on Indigenous communities and grassland ecosystems, still seen and felt today.

In generations that followed, communities, families and organizations worked to protect and restore the buffalo. In 1978, TNC first reintroduced buffalo to its preserves. Since then, TNC herds have collectively grown into one of the largest in the country.

For TNC, hosting the apprentice program at Niobrara is part of a larger partnership with ITBC that goes back to 2018, when ITBC approached TNC about working together to support buffalo and the lands they roam. The same year, TNC's Buffalo Restoration Program began. The team is dedicated to restoring buffalo to Tribal partners and lands, connecting TNC preserves and expertise, supporting learning exchanges and more.

Two years later, TNC began rematriating surplus animals at no cost to Tribal Nations and communities. To date, nearly 3,000 buffalo from herds at 11 TNC preserves have made the long journey—over time and distance—back to their ancestral grazing lands and original stewards.

Corissa Busse, director of the Buffalo Restoration Program, says that as buffalo have come home to Tribal lands and caretakers over the past six years, it’s become clear that transfers are only the beginning.

“Truly restoring buffalo requires us to be in relationship beyond that transfer window,” she says. “We’ve continued to evolve into an understanding of how our relationship with each other, our relationship with the buffalo, and our relationship with communities can bring us together in so many more ways.”

Central to those relationships is learning how to better support partners’ needs, says Dani Triebwasser (Sicangu Lakota), Buffalo Restoration Program specialist. “That includes offering spaces to gather, like Niobrara Valley Preserve and our other preserves, and facilitating opportunities for knowledge sharing between TNC and Tribal herd managers and buffalo programs,” she says.

‘Put Our Minds Together’

For the apprentices, the learning continues. Each Tribal Nation that nominated an apprentice also agreed to hire them to work with buffalo for at least a year. Some will work with an established Tribal herd, while others are starting new herds in communities that have been disconnected from buffalo for generations.

What they all have in common is a belief that buffalo will bring hope and healing, says Big Crow of ITBC—and that they can lean on each other across state and Tribal boundaries to create that future together. “There’s a Sitting Bull quote that says, ‘Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children,’” she says. “I think that’s what the apprenticeship was able to accomplish.”