This piece is part of the weekly series “Growing Forward: Insights for Building Better Food and Agriculture Systems,” presented by the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and the nonprofit organization Food Tank. Each installment highlights forward-thinking strategies to address today’s food and agriculture related challenges with innovative solutions. To view more pieces in the series, click here.
In Lakota all our prayers end with a statement of a complete worldview. We end every prayer with Mitakuye Oyasin–which means everything (plants, animals, soil, rocks,grasslands, buffalo, and humans) is related. We need each other. Our fates are intertwined.
When I joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) last year, I requested that my work and title reflect this worldview–that food systems and conservation of animals and ecosystems are wholly integrated–we are good stewards of the land so that the land is good stewards of us. Our fates are intertwined.
One of the interesting places we are intertwining conservation and food systems at WWF is in grasslands conservation, restoring buffalo, and meat processing for Tribal food sovereignty. While at first glance they may seem separate, they are inextricably intertwined.
For more than 20 years, WWF has worked to conserve North American grasslands, particularly in the Northern Great Plains, which are some of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. They play a vital role in stabilizing our planet’s climate. They act as natural carbon reservoirs, absorbing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in deep root systems. And they provide a unique habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species that can survive nowhere else.
The Tribes in the Northern Great Plains are some of the best grasslands conservationists. More than 80 percent of Tribal lands in this region remain intact, resisting conversion to agriculture or development. Grasslands need Tribes, and Tribes need the grasslands.
Central to the grasslands ecosystem are the plains bison, or buffalo. Buffalo are keystone species. They shape the landscape in ways that benefit countless other plants and animals. A 30-year study by Kansas State University found that when buffalo were reintroduced into grasslands where they had been absent for many years, plant diversity increased by over 100 percent. When these large grazers roll on their backs they create depressions in the earth, or wallows, that collect water supporting unique prairie plants, amphibians, and bird species. Their grazing patterns promote diverse vegetation heights, accommodating various animal habitats. Even their fur is crucial for the nests of prairie birds like long-billed curlew. Grasslands need buffalo, and buffalo need the grasslands.
For many Tribes, especially those from the Great Plains, buffalo are not just wildlife—they are relatives. Historically, buffalo were the primary source of food, clothing, and shelter for many Indigenous communities. But during Westward expansion, the buffalo food systems that Native people depended upon were purposefully disrupted by the governmental support of the slaughter of millions of animals to force starvation and thus compliance by Native Americans. Since then, Tribes have been working for over a century to heal their nations and restore the buffalo after their near extinction. Tribes need buffalo food systems, buffalo need Tribes.
Developing a modern version of traditionally sustainable Tribal buffalo food systems requires an Indigenous perspective. Most Tribes are uninterested in participating in large commercial sales of buffalo meat or trucking animals considered a relative to slaughter facilities. Instead, they prefer to field-harvest buffalo, so that they are taken down quietly and respectfully on the prairie where they have lived their whole lives. This also ensures the buffalo are not stressed, which is considered disrespectful to the animals, and flushes their bodies with cortisol and other stress hormones impacting the health and quality of the meat. Buffalo need Indigenous food systems. Indigenous food systems need buffalo.
Successful field harvesting on the prairie requires investing in mobile harvest trailers that can navigate rugged prairie terrain while adhering to modern food safety standards. It also involves creating small, local food economies—such as school lunch programs and co-op grocery stores—that provide income opportunities to sustain Tribal and conservation buffalo herds without outstripping the balance of the herd.
Together with our conservation and food systems partners, WWF is working to conserve grasslands, restore buffalo, and strengthen local buffalo meat economies.
The Lakota worldview offers crucial lessons as we work together. Buffalo, Tribes, Indigenous food systems, and grasslands conservation—they are all intertwined. We are all related, Mitakuye Oyasin.
Photo courtesy of Tailyr Irvine / WWF-US
