Talk: Land Rematriation with Buffalo Restoration is Reconciliation

By Jason Baldes

August 4, 2022 Free

Join us for our August Lunchtime Expedition, Land Rematriation with Buffalo Restoration is Reconciliation, presented by Jason Baldes. The in-person talk takes place in the Center’s Coe Auditorium, with a virtual option available.

If you prefer to join us online, you may register in advance via Zoom webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_chERPCVOTJqbS6blC5aKZw

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About the presentation

The near extermination of the bison (more often referred to ‘buffalo’ in Tribal communities), severed the commissarial relationship Tribes had with the animal. Imposed land use systems discouraged holistic land and natural resource management, and millions of acres were lost in broken promises made with the federal government. Sovereignty and the self-determination of Tribes has been undermined by State and local municipalities and threats to remaining lands, waters, and wildlife continue. Ecological restoration and cultural revitalization are not mutually exclusive—for Native American people and Sovereign Tribes, they are intricately intertwined. Tribal Buffalo restoration has a wide spectrum, but the implications are extremely important for our communities.

About the speaker

Jason Baldes received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Land Resources & Environmental Sciences from Montana State University, where he focused on Tribal Bison Restoration. Currently, in his capacity as Tribal Buffalo Program Manager for the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Partnerships Program, he established resolution-based agreements and has helped restore more than 100 conservation buffalo to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation since 2016.

Jason sits on the board of directors for the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council, board of trustees for the Conservation Lands Foundation, and the environmental commission of the Congress of Nations & States. He is the executive director of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, and adjunct professor at Central Wyoming College and Wind River Tribal College. Jason is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and manages the Tribes’ growing herd of more than 70 buffalo.

Upcoming Lunchtime Expeditions

• September 1: Bats & Bones: What’s New at the Draper Natural History Museum?
• October 6: The Costs of Thermoregulatory Behavior: How Are Moose in the Cody Region Coping as Summers Intensify? 
• November 3: Evidence for Glaciation in the Northwestern Big Horn Basin and the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains
• December 1: Camps, Kills, and Mountain Landscapes: Records of Bison

Support for the Draper’s Lunchtime Expedition series has been made possible by Sage Creek Ranch and the Nancy-Carroll Draper Charitable Foundation.