Jason Baldes has been working for 20 years to repopulate Native American reservations with the animal central to the plains cultures. 

Still, he said in those earlier days, he couldn’t have imagined the program to reintroduce bison to the Wind River Reservation would have become as successful as it is. 

Not that the founder and executive director of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative is resting on his laurels.

“The hope would be that we can designate more habitat for buffalo. You know, we have an important role to play in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, because we have some of the most important wildlife habitat connectivity and migration corridor in the whole Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” he said. “I think it’s going to take policy, it’s going to take the leadership of the tribes to continue to support buffalo restoration, but I would hope that we have a bigger role to play in restoring the ecological function of buffalo on the landscape in a way that is somewhat unprecedented.

“There’s not very many places left in the United States where large scale buffalo restoration is possible. I believe that we have that opportunity to change the game for buffalo restoration, if our people are supportive, and our leadership is willing to step up and do that.” 

Baldes will be speaking about his work at a talk titled “Rebuilding a Reciprocal Relationship with Relatives: Buffalo Restoration on the Wind River Indian Reservation” at the Cody Library Grizzly Room on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 2-4 p.m. The talk is put on by the Christ Episcopal Church Spiritual Education program. 

Baldes is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and is also the Buffalo Program manager for the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Partnerships Program. He’s been involved in the restoration of bison on reservations for about 20 years, since he began college at Montana State University, where he got his undergraduate and graduate degrees. 

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” he said. “I didn’t envision that we would accomplish this much so quickly, I didn’t envision that the amount of support would be there. I also didn’t anticipate the opposition … it’s been quite a journey.”

He said most of all he’s grateful for the opportunity to be involved in such crucial work. 

“Buffalo restoration is not just a Native American story, it’s an American story,” he said. “What happened to the buffalo, that’s tragic, an atrocity, but most American people don’t know that story. When we talk about buffalo restoration today, it’s a lot about healing, about healing the land, healing the people, native as well as nonnative, about reconciliation of some of the past atrocities, especially to this animal. 

“This animal has a rightful place to belong. It belongs to the land. We need to help people understand that. So I think that’s why the amount of support exists, because people realize some semblance of that history.”