When we talk about Bison, we often mention “cultural herds,” but what is a cultural herd? While much like conservation herds where herds are protected for their ecological benefits, cultural herds mean even more especially to our tribal partners. Learn more about Bison at https://defenders.org/wildlife/bison
Transcript:
So a cultural Bison herd is similar to a conservation herd. Bison evolved with the prairie, the prairie evolved with Bison. We had about 100 plus years where we didn’t have Bison performing their ecological functions
on the prairie. So Department of Interior sort of set this benchmark of a thousand animals or more for ecological benefits, that is how the Bison relate and interact with our grasslands, how they graze in a mosaic pattern, and forage, and how they clip the grasses just short enough where their succulent and nutritious for prairie dogs, for example. And how they wallow
and move seeds with their hooves. But for a cultural herd for the Tribes, it’s more than that, I have such an immense appreciation for our Tribal partners,
I hear so much from them and the elders about what it means to have wild cultural herds back on their lands, and that is that that connection to that animal for Indian communities to benefit, for their ceremony and song, for their children, for their elders to tell stories again. And that’s what a cultural herd is.
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