Bison Restoration
TA’TANKA OYATE FARMS
Ta’tanka Oyate – the Buffalo Nation – are the ancestral relations of the Lakota people. In the origin story it is told that the people followed the Ta’tanka out of the Wind Caves as these majestic creatures paved the path for the people to have a secure source of food, clothing, and tools for their sustenance.
With the arrival of the colonial presence upon Turtle Island – known as North America – and with the horrendous acts of genocide perpetrated upon the native population of both humans and bison, the sacred ancestral connection between the Ta’tanka and the Lakota people was severely damaged. European settlers in the Great Plains are estimated to have decimated the American bison population from 30 million to just 325 by the 1880s.
And so it is in the spirit of healing the Ta’tanka, the land, and the people, that Lakota Small Farms intends to re-matriate and restore this ancestral relationship through the establishment of Ta’tanka Oyate Farms – a small scale bison farm on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
With the arrival of the colonial presence upon Turtle Island – known as North America – and with the horrendous acts of genocide perpetrated upon the native population of both humans and bison, the sacred ancestral connection between the Ta’tanka and the Lakota people was severely damaged. European settlers in the Great Plains are estimated to have decimated the American bison population from 30 million to just 325 by the 1880s.
And so it is in the spirit of healing the Ta’tanka, the land, and the people, that Lakota Small Farms intends to re-matriate and restore this ancestral relationship through the establishment of Ta’tanka Oyate Farms – a small scale bison farm on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
At Ta’tanka Oyate Farms, we will steward and raise a herd of pasture grazing bison in order to reintroduce the original relations back to the grasslands, to restore ancestral values, and to regenerate the ecological balance.
This initiative will provide a meaningful opportunity for the local Lakota reservation community to engage in bison farming practices, to proactively establish food sovereignty, and to heal the generational trauma.
At Ta’tanka Oyate Farms, we will steward and raise a herd of pasture grazing bison in order to reintroduce the original relations back to the grasslands, to restore ancestral values, and to regenerate the ecological balance.
This initiative will provide a meaningful opportunity for the local Lakota reservation community to engage in bison farming practices, to proactively establish food sovereignty, and to heal the generational trauma.
