Buffalo nearly erased to split tribes now have little room to roam: New PBS doc
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A buffalo is shown in Montana from the film, "Bring Them Home." Photo: Courtesy of Thunderheart Films.
A new documentary narrated and executive-produced by Lily Gladstone, Oscar-nominated star of "Killers of the Flower Moon," tackles the Blackfeet Nation's fight to restore buffalo to their land.
The big picture: "Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya," set to air on most PBS stations on Monday, comes amid similar battles between ranchers, conservationists and tribal elders over land use on Indigenous reservations.
- Gladstone made Golden Globes history last year by becoming the first person who identifies as Indigenous to win best performance by an actress in a dramatic film.
In an interview with Axios, she said she joined the project after ensuring it would center Indigenous voices.
- "Anything I can do to help support Native artists who are leading and doing the work...it's a no-brainer," said Gladstone, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage.
Zoom in: The film follows the Blackfeet Nation's decades-long effort to restore wild buffalo (iinnii) to ancestral lands in a story about reclaiming identity, spirituality and sovereignty through conservation.
- Directed by Blackfeet siblings Ivan and Ivy MacDonald with filmmaker Daniel Glick, it explores the conflicts on tribal land in the U.S. and Canada over when and where the buffalo should roam.
- Once exterminated by white settlers as a method to remove Indigenous people, the buffalo returned to Blackfeet land, now divided by ranches and few options to run wild as generations before.
Gladstone described the project as deeply personal. "I don't really remember a time when I didn't have a deep awareness that buffalo are at the heart of who we are as Blackfeet."
In the film, two reserves in Canada and the Blackfeet Nation are shown throughout the years struggling with ways to bring back wild buffalo to the lands.
- Tribal officials have to battle internal politics, resistance from cattle ranchers and efforts to get youth involved in "buffalo awareness."
- Tribes often have to sell herds, only to purchase other herds later when sentiments change.
Zoom out: The film links conservation to cultural survival.
- "At a time when everything feels like a commodity," Gladstone said, "this story reminds us that connection to land and animals isn't something you can buy — it's something you live."
The intrigue: Gladstone traced her bond with buffalo to her family lineage, which includes Red Crow, a Kainai chief who witnessed the shift from buffalo to cattle economies in the 19th century.
- "He said we were buffalo people becoming cattle people, and that's still true in many ways."
- She provides narration through the film but also played a role in its direction.
Go deeper: Lily Gladstone dedicates Golden Globe to "rez kids"
