Restoring Buffalo to the Dakota Plains::

Economic Development

As well as being a cultural and spiritual resource for the Lakota, buffalo are becoming an important economic resource and are seen by activists to be a significant tool for the return to economic self-sufficiency and political self-determination. The Cheyenne River herd, for example, is building up its herds so that more and more buffalo can be sold for profit. At the moment the tribe gives more of its buffalo away for free than for sale, and to its own people. Moreover, there is a need simply to let the buffalo roam free to build up the herds naturally and to be there for the people.

A processing plant has been built on the reservation so that those buffalo that are sold for meat and hides can be killed in ways that will cause them the least distress. This means a reduction in the need to transport live buffalo to off-reservation processing plants - an act which causes much distress to the animals - and to maintain some ethical control over the slaughter.

The need to make money is not seen to be incompatible with Lakota ecological ethics. As we have seen in an earlier chapter, ecological and spiritual balance does not preclude the concept of financial enterprise, so long as the profits made benefit the entire tribe. In fact, several activists were keen to emphasise to me the fact that, for the Lakota, the term 'profit' is not limited to the dollar. It encompasses cultural, spiritual and ecological dividends also.

Moreover, the Lakota environmental ethos does not preclude the concept of killing, so long as this is done for economic, physical and cultural survival. As ever, balance and respect are the keys: there is a place for everything, and all things have the right to survive, so long as balance and respect are maintained.

Lakota activists are highly critical of the trends in the private bison business. They say that it is moving towards an outright commercialisation and commodification of the animal. Buffalo are kept on smaller pastures and are fed with grains rather than grass. Often they are castrated and de-horned and being bred to be fatter than they naturally are. In short, they are being managed as cattle and this has no benefits for the buffalo themselves, the prairie, or humanity for whom the meat becomes excessively fatty.

Lakota and other Indian tribes are conscious of this phenomenon and are adamant that this trend not be repeated with tribal herds. Obviously, with so much land being in private hands today, the tribe itself cannot force ranchers to manage their herds in particular ways. At this moment, only a few families on the Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud reservations own small, private herds and most of these families are striving to manage their herds in culturally-appropriate ways. But the tribes feel it important to set and maintain an example in bison restoration and management. One man hopes that some of the profits made on buffalo meat and by-products can be used to buy back some of the reservation lands that have fallen out of communal, tribal ownership. This has been done to some extent, but more money is needed to achieve this goal.

Economic benefit is not just derived through the sale of buffalo meat to the non-Indian market. Hides and other by-products are also sought after in stores such as museum stores and furniture and home decoration stores. One non-Indian, Rapid City firm sells furniture made from bison leather and there are stores all over the States (and most probably abroad too) which sell decorated buffalo skulls and beaded buffalo tails, as well as hides and furs for throws and rugs. If tribes can maintain a degree of influence in these areas, in terms of supplying the raw materials, so to speak, and in administering the artwork on these, then the buffalo can also be used as an important tool for maintaining and promoting Lakota art and culture.

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