The Buffalo Boys of the Kalispel Tribe

Everything is expensive in Seattle, but when it comes to restaurants, I got a lot of tricks and tips up my sleeve to help diners eat well in the city. I'm Tom Vinh, host of Seattle Eats, a food podcast from the Seattle Times and KUOW, part of the NPR Network. I'll share about the latest buzz in the Seattle food scene, like the hottest openings and the best bites that are worth your money. Listen now to Seattle Eats on the KUOW app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi all, this episode is so special to me and I hope it will be for you too. It was so moving spending time with the Kalispell tribe and learning about them and their incredible work with Buffalo. But before we start, I wanted to quickly give a shout out to some members of our growing Patreon community. Wes S, Jess S, Meredith O, Nicole T, Teresa L, and Fabrice F. Thank you. Okay, let's get to the Buffalo. Imagine you're looking at the Pacific Northwest from above. Washington State is a big rectangle, with the lush forests and waters of Puget Sound bitten out of the top left corner. Head east, and you come to a steep mountain range, the Cascades, covered in jagged peaks, licked by glaciers. Keep going, and you cross the Columbia Basin, a giant rolling prairie carpeted in wheat fields and corn. You're now almost all the way to the right-hand edge of the rectangle, just short of Idaho. Stop when you reach a narrow eight-mile-by-half-mile strip of land. This is the Kalispell Indian Reservation, home of the Kalispell people. And right in the middle of it is a ranch. Not for horses or cattle, but for an animal that once roamed the Great Plains and Prairies of North America in their tens of millions. Buffalo. Hunted to near extinction by white settlers, they disappeared off the plains, their numbers plummeting to just a few hundred. Now, you might have heard about efforts to bring them back to the wild, but there's another buffalo story that you don't hear so often. and right here at the heart of it all are the buffalo boys a team of tribal members whose job it is to keep the buffalo well fed and healthy it's a way to honor tradition and a culture that's centuries old and the buffalo have become a nourishing source of food for the tribe they usually give birth in the spring but every once in a while we'll get a couple cows that give birth late really actually real late i think the latest one we've ever had was december oh well and i was Oh, yeah, that's when the best are born. Heck, yeah, that's my birthday. All the strongest ones that were born in December, that's right. This buffalo story starts thousands of years ago, but it is about today and the powerful pride of a lineage of tribal cousins, brothers, uncles, and sons who are out to make sure that this magnificent creature will forever be a part of a small tribe that lives in this quiet corner of today's Washington state. This is the third generation of the Buffalo Boys, as now they're called. The third generation from those men that are running this. And now having their grandsons be the ones to be known as the Buffalo Boys. It's amazing. From KUOW in Seattle and Chris Morgan Wildlife, welcome to the wild. Are you dreading increasingly shorter days and longer nights? Do cold, overcast, northwest winters bum you out? You may be suffering from the big dark. But there is a solution. I'm Dire Oxley, telling you to talk to your podcast app about Meet Me Here, KUOW's arts podcast. A weekly dose of events and culture to lighten up your life. Side effects of Meet Me Here include laughter, curiosity, and inspiration. Find Meet Me Here on your local KUOW app or wherever you get your podcast. All right, pulling up here. Lots of hay bales around for the winter. I've driven 400 miles eastwards from my home on the Washington State coast to learn what's happening here. I crossed the entire state, watching the mountains and plains unroll through my truck's windshield. In the little town of Usk, I cross the glistening Pandora River and pull onto Powwow Park Road. There are two big fields, surrounded by electric fences. The sun is shining, the morning fog has lifted, and a deep blue sky touches the forested foothills. Oh, it's going to be a gorgeous day. I see a few ranch hands nearby, hosing down the parking lot, prepping gear. Standing near a couple of trucks is Derek Bluff. He's got a hoodie pulled up over his head and he's wearing big sunglasses. It's cold. His hands are in his pockets while he waits for the day's work to begin. Derek? Hey, I'm Chris. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Thanks for having us. No problem. Derek is the manager of the buffalo herd here. He's been the director of agriculture for the Kalispell tribe for a couple of years now, and he has big dreams for this herd. We figured today, if you've got some time, can we hang out with you for this? Yeah, we're just about to kill chickens, if that's all right with you. Oh, yeah. Straight into the action. And are the buffalo here? Are they close by? They're in the tree line. Okay. Oh, I see one. Oh, I see that. I can see small specks of dark brown off in the distance. It's buffalo, grazing on the other side of a huge meadow near some tall fir trees. There are about 140 of them in this herd, ranging from a tiny calf born just this week to a giant bull who's towering above all the others in the distance. His name is Oklahoma. So what should we, should we come and just join in doing what you're doing? I mean, I can take you out to the field if you want. Should we kill some chickens first? We're waiting for the water to boil, but maybe you guys don't care. We hop into Derek's truck. He opens the gate to the corral. And we start driving over the bumpy meadow towards the buffalo. Is it still exciting for you, or are you just like, just another buffalo? Yeah, not really exciting no more. That was not the answer I was looking for. for Derek taking care of buffalo is just everyday life he grew up right here on the Kalispell reservation and he's helped out on the ranch since he was about 10 years old yeah I mean it's always been within the family you know I mean we always had to help you know especially round up you know we always got checked out of school and you know even bucking bales you know I mean it's always been we've always been doing it you know what I mean it's just what you do kind of thing like born into it right Derek and his team are all related three sets of brothers and some cousins part of a family that has always taken care of the buffalo their grandfathers fathers and uncles took care of the buffalo too the buffalo boys we all grew up as brothers I mean I consider them all my brothers you know we always done I mean everything you know even ever since we're little we did funerals you know we dug the graves for everybody so no we still do that you We grew up literally doing the same things with each other, you know what I mean? Hunting and all that stuff. So I got a good crew. We get to a spot in the center of the field, kill the engine, and amazingly, the buffalo slowly make their way towards us, all of them facing the same direction. The herd of buffalo calmly on the move. For a moment, I feel like I'm in Yellowstone National Park. They are massive, often 2,000 pounds plus, as much as a small car. A couple of the bulls coming over look quite confident. One of them walks right past my window and starts rubbing his head against Derek's truck. Others come over to investigate. This one's stomping over towards us here. They probably think I got oats. Is that right? It's breakfast time. Is that another male? Yeah, that's another boar. Wow, what a magnificent animal. Unbelievable. Oh, they're all coming over. This is an absolute treat, because as an ecologist, buffalo have always fascinated me. Their scientific name is bison bison, but buffalo seems to be the favourite, a name that's been used for centuries. They are the national mammal of the US, and they're one of America's great ecosystem engineers. That's a term you hear a lot these days about different species, but buffalo really are. They play a major role shaping the plant and animal communities around them. They're massive, and there were a lot of them. A century ago, the thunder of their hooves aerated the soil. Their huge appetites pruned the vegetation, helping it to regenerate. When they rolled on their backs, they created wallows that filled with water after the rain, providing habitat for insects and birds. Their fur made good nest-building material, and even their dung added nutrients to the soil. Many Native American tribes, including the Kalispell, depended on them, and they revered them. Buffalo managed all of this because they had the freedom of the open plains. migrating dozens of miles across the landscape to find the best food as the seasons changed. Hiding from the weather in sheltered valleys, coming back to the best pastures in early spring to give birth. But here in the hills of eastern Washington State, this modern herd is on a ranch. And when they're behind a fence, it's a little different from managing a herd in the wild. What's the playbook? What's the guidebook on how to manage 135 buffalo? What are some of the basics? As long as they have feet in water, they're happy. You know what I mean? If we don't have feet in water, they're going to leave. There are high-voltage electric fences all around the fields. But he says that doesn't always stop them from leaving, if they want to. You know, we've seen bulls jump up, you know, eight feet over gates. You know what I mean? Nothing stops them, you know what I mean? These fences don't really mean anything. It's kind of like a suggestion, like, hey, we're going to feed you in here. Stay here. But if they wanted to, they could just plow right through it easily. And they do every year. I mean, it happens every year. Is that right? Yeah. Even though this meadow is pretty big, a couple of hundred acres, for an animal that evolved on the plains, a confined life can create complications. So the Buffalo Boys are ever watchful of the herd Like with any captive animal they have to monitor for diseases Once a year they do a round corralling the herd to vaccinate them against parasites and do a thorough health check, and to look for any signs of weakness. These are precious animals. But of course, this place wasn't always a buffalo ranch. In 1914, with an executive order and the stroke of a pen. President Woodrow Wilson made this land into a reservation. And in that moment, it became the new government-defined home of the Kalispell tribe. Their community lived here, as they do today. It was a much different life than the one they were used to. Over half a century went by until something like destiny brought Buffalo back into the lives of the Kalispell. It was the 1970s and the tribal elders remember it fondly. JR? JR, hi, I'm Chris. Hey, Chris. Nice to meet you. Thanks. I sit down with Derek's uncle, JR Bluff. He's the tribe's director of language and culture. What's interesting to me is that I'd read that buffalo aren't historically from eastern Washington. So how did this herd come to be? you know it'd be really good if my dad was here he left us a few few months ago i'm sorry and uh he'd be the better one to do this story but from what i can recollect i can remember my dad was on council uh and there's something come across his desk and i think it was actually from the national park service they had extra buffalo this was in 1974 and there was a buffalo herd at Theodore Roosevelt National Park that was getting too big for the available space. So the park was looking to rehouse some of its animals. That's when JR's dad, Stan Bluff, got the letter. Another tribal elder, Shirley Black Bear, picks up the story. The way she tells it, it was all quite unexpected. Her uncle Sonny was at the heart of it all. The story that I remember is that it was our tribal council that had gotten notice that they were giving Buffalo away. And somebody said at the council table, hey, let's see if we can get some. And my dad kind of, I remember him saying he went to his friend, her name's Sue Finley, and he said, hey, look at this. Maybe we get 10 buffalo and we should try. And by golly, they did. They quickly submitted an application to the park service. They thought, what's the harm in applying? And to their surprise, they got a letter back saying they could have 12 buffalo. And so when they knew that they were going to get the buffalo, they're saying, well, what the heck are we going to do with them? Where are we going to put them? And my dad would say, well, geez, now what? So basically, just like anything you do, you just figure it out. My dad said, yeah, we called some of our rancher friends. They had some horse haulers or something, so we borrowed their rigs. They got a couple people. They went and got them. They brought them back, and they just delivered them. Wow. It looks like we're in the Buffalo game. Just like that, they were in the Buffalo game. They already had a couple of parcels of reservation land for cows, so at least they had some fencing in place. Was it buffalo-proof? Not exactly. Those first buffalo brought with them a little chaos, and by the sound of things, some entertainment too. I really think it was just on the job. How do you deal with a 2,000-pound bull? Really, that wire's not going to stop them. And I remember early, buffalo were out all the time. Dad would get phone calls, and they'd come in the house, and they'd say, hey, you got a buffalo out? And he's like, well, what am I going to do? How do you get a buffalo to come back? Shirley remembers the excitement of the first roundups back then. They were a joyful community gathering. Some of the women would cook stew and Indian fry bread, and they'd all gather around a bonfire. The ranch hands would run the buffalo in, herding them on horseback. You could see buffalo coming in so fast and hard that they'd hit the fence, and sometimes, you know, the fence would, yeah, vibrate, because there was so much strength. And if you could imagine seeing them running in slow motion, it's like their hump is rolling, their fur is kind of going, and their feet are kicking up a little bit of dust. It's beautiful. Part of what made it so beautiful was that the buffalo provided the Kalispell people with a cultural lifeline. Shirley grew up in the 60s, and she tells me that the tribe didn't have much. They were very poor. No indoor plumbing. Some homes didn't have electricity. No sink with hot water. We had a shack that my grandpa had built for my grandma, and it had a cellar. We had a ringer washer and a tub where we rinsed, and that was also where our bathhouse was. It had a little potbelly stove in there, but that was life. They were hard times, but Shirley doesn't remember it that way. She smiles as she describes the scene. We didn't miss the things that we didn't have. We had firewood, we had a warm meal all the time, and that was one of the things that my grandma used to do when we'd get visitors. She always had biscuits and dry meat on the table, and she'd have it covered with a dish towel. Anytime anybody came in, she would tell my mom and my aunt, you guys make them something to eat. And if it got late at night, my grandmother would give them some blankets, they'd make a bed on the floor, and they'd spend the night. So those first buffalo meant more than just the making of fond memories. The buffalo gave the Kalispell the very real potential for a homegrown food source. A healthy one, too. It was powerful, something that gave the tribe some new pride. It was just a way to say, you know, we can sustain ourselves. We can be freestanding. We don't need to rely on others. You know, we can take care of this ourselves. So I think a lot of it is just being in charge, being our self-sufficient. Shortly after the buffalo arrived, the tribe started a tradition to celebrate what the animals brought back to them and their culture, an annual powwow. The Buffalo Boys would cook buffalo meat and feed everyone, tribal members and anyone else who showed up, to dance and tell stories together, with drums beating and the buffalo stew bubbling. I think it was a pride for the Kalispell people that we can feed all of our visitors, we can spread meat throughout the reservation now and provide, you know, for families that don't have hunters or the elderly. And to this day, they still do it. You know, they deliver buffalo meat to our elder households once a month. And it's a staple that, you know, it's not only good for you, but it's something that I think the Buffalo Boys take pride in. Back at the herd, I'm watching a member of the Buffalo Boys hard at work in the meadow. It's feeding time. Oh, that's cool. They've got a big forklift truck that's taken in two giant round bales of hay to feed the buffalo. And boy, do they know it. They're suddenly kicking up all the dust coming across the field to meet the hay. During the growing season, the buffalo graze on the ranch's lush grass. The buffalo boys rotate them from field to field so they don't eat it down to the dirt. But when the weather cools in the fall, there's not as much fresh growth, so they bring in hay for extra nourishment. The forklift driver takes a break and wanders over to chat with me at the fence line. What's going on? What are you doing? Nothing much, just feeding. How's your guys' day going? He has a big smile on his face. this is nolan finley he's 30 years old and a relative of derek and shirley they still feel like wild animals a bit don't they do you know what i mean it's like they've got that spirit about them oh yeah yeah they definitely uh like our big guys like uh we got a guy from oklahoma he's like one of our i think he's our biggest guy right now but you kind of see the top of his hump right there oh yeah right in the middle yep uh he definitely knows how big he is and yeah it's pretty hard to persuade him to do what you want. It's pretty fun. I sure enjoy working with these animals. What is it? What is it you like about them? Just having fun with them. I love it. Nolan's been working here his whole life. He says he can't picture himself doing anything else. His older brother and his twin brother Miles work here as buffalo boys too. I can already sense there's probably a lot of brotherly teasing that goes on. We don't look like twins. Really? Yeah he looks like a cowboy. I look like an Indian. Me and him have been rivals ever since. That's what everybody calls us around here. Cowboy and Indian. Really? Yeah, all of our friends over across the river. Yeah. Because he's pretty pale compared to me. He's a lot bigger guy too. Yeah, I'm more of a sneaky little Indian. I'm the one sneaking through teepees and stuff. But yeah, I can't imagine doing this job without him either. Love that guy. There's teasing, but there's serious work to focus on too, especially when it comes to the new life in the herd. We've got a fresh calf right there too. It's an orange one. Oh, wow. Tiny, tiny little thing. Yeah, I don't know if you could see them too good from there. Just like I could, yeah, just right there. Light brown colour. Yeah. Wow, how fresh? Oh, I'd say this week. No way. Yeah, which is pretty crazy. They usually give birth in the spring, but every once in a while we'll get a couple cows that give birth late. Actually, real late. I think the latest one we've ever had was December. Oh, wow. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's when the best are born. Heck, yeah, that's my birthday. I was like, oh, the strongest ones are born in December. That's right. I can just about see the little one. Energetic new calves, they're called red dogs because of their color, are important. They're a sign of the health of their mothers. But here, far from the buffalo's native range and cut off from natural breeding, It's a job to keep the herd strong. They need to keep adding new genes so the herd doesn't get inbred. So the buffalo boys are always looking beyond the borders of the reservation. After the break, where do you go to top up the genes of your buffalo herd? We be right back on Seattle to list to the artificial intelligence age we get into the stories that hit your wallet and our region Listen now on the KUOW app or wherever you get podcasts Hello, Wildlings. I hope you're enjoying the Buffalo episode. We had so many amazing conversations during this trip and we couldn't fit them all into one episode. So I'm excited to share an extended interview with you over on our Patreon. This first one is my conversation with Shirley Black Bear. What a wonderful name. Can you tell I'm jealous? We'll have her extended interview out on Patreon in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out. You can find a link to Patreon in the show notes of this episode. All right, back to the buffalo. So, yeah, so this is our country. It goes all the way up to Clark Fork, Flathead Lake. That's Pendray Lake. then this is just the Salish or how we kind of tie into the Montana country. So this is Montana right here. Yeah, I'm in JR's office, the Kalispell tribal elder, and he's showing me a fascinating paper map of the Kalispell tribe's original territory. It's colored in blue and spreads from where we are in today's Washington across the top of Idaho and at least halfway across Montana, way beyond the eight-mile strip of today's reservation. That really brings it to life, doesn't it? Forget these borders, right? I mean, this was where your peoples were. Yeah, yeah. That's where they found us. As recently as the 1870s, the Kalispell tribe never stayed long in one place. Like the buffalo, they moved with the seasons, creating a rhythm they developed over thousands of years. They had camps all through this region that now spans three American states. Back in history, I mean, we traveled to the buffalo. And that meant a long journey eastwards, over the mountains. Sometimes it started right here at one of their winter camps on the Ponderay River. They'd launch canoes and head upriver towards Montana. There was a name for this route. They called it the Buffalo Trail. We had camps from all along the river, all the way to Montana, all the way to Thompson Falls, that whole northern Idaho, western Montana. And then basically our road to the Buffalo went that way. And you'd go kill buffalo and bring the meat back? Bring it all back, just the meat. And over the mountain ranges? And they would take care of it all over there. I mean, it's not like us. Like today, we would haul it back here. No, no, the work was done there. The camps scattered across the land offered different opportunities for hunting and gathering. In some places, the tribe picked berries. At others, they caught salmon. There was elk and, of course, buffalo hunting. Everyone kind of had their, oh, yeah, I'm definitely a salmon camp, So I might be in there drying the salmon. Same with the buffalo. You're processing all that, you know, not just the meat. You're taking care of the horns, the hide, the tout, everything, all that food, taking care of it there and then coming home. And bringing it back on horseback. And you did it all. Yeah, you did it for the tribe. It wasn't mine. It was ours. Hunting buffalo was tough and began with a 350-mile journey, one way, just to get to the hunting grounds on the plains. You know, we might go be thinking, okay, we're going to go hunting next month. So we just start working with our families. And then all of a sudden we're already in Montana. And along the way we'd follow, we might pick up our relations. So there's Kalispell's from here all the way to St. Ignatius to Missoula, Montana. So we were all Kalispell's. So as we went, we would just slowly grab our party and we'd continue on to the plains. I don't think it was a big deal. Well, you know, today we think it's a big deal, but it's what they did. The hunting expeditions lasted weeks long enough to gather enough hides and dried meat for the winter then they turned around and began the long journey home But then as the 1800s came to a close this whole way of life ended and I can tell JR is being very diplomatic when he describes why that happened And just from the evolution of time and that just got cut off and we stopped doing that When was that cut off? What was that? No, it wasn't, I don't know what it was. I think it was just the change of the world, the explorers coming in, just the native life ways changing, whether it's just from the encroachment of people into our country. This is my land now. You can't come. All of a sudden, you know, lines were cut off, and then we just started finding other paths, you know. You're putting that in very kind words. Yeah, trying to, yeah. I might run for council one of these days. I'm just kidding. The truth is that across the West, the white settlers knew it would be easier to run cattle and grow crops if the buffalo and the tribes were gone. Professional hunters came in, protected by the US Army, and between 1850 and 1900, they killed millions of buffalo. There are shocking black and white photographs of their skulls piled three stories high, with white hunters standing proudly on top. The marksmen made money from the meat and hides, and at the same time, it was a brutal strategy to rob the tribes of their subsistence, their food. All told, an estimated 40 million buffalo were killed, and untold numbers of indigenous people lost their lives and lost their way of life. basically once those buffalo broke out of their natural and accustomed lifestyles because we're tied together it affected ours too we're talking life ways this is how we survived the Kalispell had never thought that moving across the landscape to catch salmon and hunt buffalo was a burden it was what made them into Kalispell people their traditions their family stories and their ceremonies were all tied to these seasonal journeys. And those were being taken away too. You're talking change of life, change of patterns that you can't really put that on paper. They didn't care about that. They just said, oh no, let's just give them land and put them over there. They'll be happy. It's like, what? You know, they forget about being connected to the lands. In the 1850s, the U.S. government forced many tribes to sign treaties, give up their seasonal hunts and saddle on a reservation. There wasn't an obvious place for the Kalispell to go. Some of the upper Kalispell joined the Salish and Kootenai tribes on the Flathead reservation. But the lower Kalispell tribe, JR's ancestors, refused. They stayed put around their winter camp. The land wasn't particularly valuable to the settlers. We weren't in salmon country. We weren't in the best harvested area, like the grasslands or the wheat. We weren't there. And that's why everybody didn't worry about us. Bottom line is the winters are no good here, and the whole grasslands are all clay-y, and it's not suitable. So that's one reason why no one came up here. We're very lucky. The tribe managed to slip under the radar for a while. The government left them alone for a few decades. But white settlers began pouring in and building homesteads. Soon enough, the tribe were getting squeezed from their territory, and the government wanted them pinned down somewhere out of the way. Basically, later on in time, they said, hey, there's Kalispell's here in Usk that need a res. And why was that? Well, because everything else was taken, now they're starting to fill our valley. the Kalispell reservation President Woodrow Wilson created in 1914 was only 4,600 acres a narrow 8 mile band along the river small compensation for the millions of acres they used to roam but even though their access to buffalo salmon and land were cut off the Kalispell people survived and built a new life and so by 1974 when the National Park was giving away buffalo, it was time for Derek, Shirley and JR's ancestors to reunite the Kalispell with these animals. The buffalo herd I'm looking at now stands in the winter camp that the tribe had refused to leave. For JR, the buffalo are a powerful reminder of roots and the buffalo trail of the past. Seeing the physical buffalo, it is a glimpse of our past and then it reminds us oh yeah that's right we went up river we oh yeah that's right we went by that medicine tree we gave our offerings and we thanked coyote for killing the mean mountain sheep so that's the stories that it just yeah and then when you get there there's lost stories of how did we set up camp how did we prepare it how did we take care of it how did we travel it back did we do different trips those are the things that i feel are going to come back. Having this small ranch with a hundred or so buffalo behind electric fences is a far cry from the traditional journey to the Great Plains. But JR told me that even just driving past this herd of buffalo, their presence reminds people every day of their deep connection. Hey Derek. Back on the ranch I joined Derek next to the field and a fenced paddock with a big gate. How's it going? Good. Good. What time are they due in? About an hour. Oh, an hour from now? Yeah. Okay. I'm excited because today I get to witness something special. Derek seems as chilled as ever. How are you feeling right now? No, I'm not nervous. I guess we do this probably four or five times a year. Even so, it's a big day. Today it's time to welcome some new arrivals to join the Kalaspel herd. The Kalispell are part of what's called the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council, a collaboration of more than 80 tribal nations that are restoring buffalo to tribal lands. In partnership with the Nature Conservancy, the council's members take care of over 20,000 buffalo on a million acres spread across the US. Whenever one herd has surplus animals, the council will find a willing taker among its members, like a buffalo swap meet. The buffalo arriving today have had a very long drive, all the way from Montana. Derek makes a phone call to Nolan's twin brother Miles to check in on their progress. He's probably going to say something stupid, just so you know. Hello? Where you at? Ah, we're just about past two degrees. Oh, okay. Alright, well we'll be here. All right, yeah, we'll be down in a couple minutes. All right, see you. All right, see you. Didn't say anything stupid. The one time he doesn't say something stupid. These buffalo are being sent as a gift from the Upper Kalispell tribe that relocated to the Flathead Reservation in Montana. It's a special way for the Kalispell to help each other. You know, we've seen them at Palau, and one of them mentioned that they have six that they'd like to donate to us, and that's kind of how it came about. Well, and so they're coming here because of that donation? Yeah, they're just donating them to us and this is our first donation from them, so I've never seen their buffalo before, so we'll see what they, I imagine they going to be pretty big because they coming off I don know I think it like 25 acres or something like that I not entirely sure but pretty big area How do you think they do in a smaller area It'll take them a while. If I have to guess they'll probably break out a couple of times, probably guarantee they'll probably break out, but once all the snow comes and there's no food, they're going to have to come back to eat, so I'm not too worried. The new buffalo are coming to provide that much-needed genetic diversity to the herd here, something that's vital for its long-term health. There's a quiet anticipation in the air among the buffalo boys. So both are good. There's nothing wrong with either one of them. Oh, they're here. All right. Where do you go next? What's there? I'm just going to back up into here. They've arrived. Derek oversees things as Miles reverses a big trailer to the gate of the paddock, away from the main herd. I stand on my tiptoes to see, and there they are, six beautiful buffalo. I can see the whites of their eyes, straining to look back at me over the trailer wall. Their curved brown horns are sticking up from the gaps in the top of the trailer, and hooves and heads are clanging against the metal from inside. Oh yeah, you can see their horns sticking out from the top. The whole thing is shaking. Wheels pressing into the dirt, carrying 8,000 pounds of buffalo. What's your first impressions? Yeah, they're pretty big. I mean, they're a pretty decent size, so I'm impressed. I'm happy. Hey, you guys, go take a look. Two buffalo boys pull open the wide trailer doors. You guys ready? Sure, here. And one by one, the new animals come running out. I'm just a few feet away, close enough to smell them. The rich scent of dusty Montana dirt. The seven buffalo boys lean against the corral fence, checking out the newcomers. The buffalo grunt quietly as they start wandering around the corral, shaking off the five-hour drive. Derek and his crew have spread some hay for them as a welcome, and the newcomers dig right in. Welcome to your new home, buddies. Two of them have got heads full of hay right now. They look like hay wigs. A couple of trendsetters. Yeah, it's catching on. Miles gives me the lowdown. Yeah, you can see that guy right there. Yeah. The hay, that's a bull. Yeah. And the one with hay on his head right here is a bull. Oh, yeah. The rest of the cows. Oh, it's pretty obvious when you look between the legs. You can see the paintbrush, yeah. The paintbrush, is that what you call it? Oh, cool. They've got their beady eye on us, haven't they? They're wondering where they've landed. A little bit different terrain from where they came from. Yeah. Derek is watching it all quietly. It feels like the small size of their new home weighs on him a bit. You know, like I said, it's a big change for them. They're coming off big acres, you know, to 300. It's a big change for them. them. What do you think that's like for them? Probably not good. I don't enjoy it myself either. That's why I'm trying to work on doing some open grazing. I'm trying to get people on board about, you know, let's just let them out, you know, just let them graze the reservation. That'll give them, you know, 8,000 acres, you know, to roam and graze upon instead of 300. It's going to take some convincing of the locals to let buffalo roam freely on the reservation, but I understand why that goal is important. I asked JR about the space too, how he feels about the buffalo being confined. I'd love to have them not captured. That means a lot of people need to give us back our land, but I don't think that's going to happen. I mean, basically our Aboriginal ground was, what, 15 million acres? You know, we'll take every fence down and you give us our 15 million acres back. Not a problem, you know. So I think it's just the reality of today. does it diminish the cultural value of the buffalo i don't think so i don't i mean yeah if you're comparing it back to when we traveled it's it's not the same i think that's the evolution of culture that's the evolution of a people you know we as people we you have to evolve you know we are evolving we try to hold on to these things that gave us the strength and the buffalo is just one piece of this whole puzzle it's not the answer it's it's part of the answer the buffalo mean different things to different people here. For JR, it's mainly about restoring culture and the traditions of his ancestors. For Derek, it's about providing his community with nutritious food. My main goal is food security for my county. You know, that's my goal. I want everybody happy and fed. Is it working? It is. You know, I started donating to, you know, like child welfare cases and stuff like that. You know, kids, you know, have been, you know, in homes and stuff, you know, I'll donate meat to them, you know. So I donate to a wide variety of people that I need it the most, you know. All tribal? Most tribal, you know, I do non-tribal as well. Like I said, you know, everyone's different. You know, me personally, I don't really see tribal or non-tribal. I see someone who's in need. I don't care if you're enrolled or not enrolled. If you need something, you're welcome to come down and get what you need. One buffalo can feed 30 families. Sharing and looking after their elders is how the Kalispell have always lived, and Derek is dedicated to passing this on. Every year, he enrolls six teenagers to join the Buffalo Boys for the summer. They learn how to process the meat, shoot them, gut them, skin them. He teaches it to kids at the local school as well. I just want to teach them basic skills. If they ever come across a carcass or ever hunt something, I want them to be able to have the skill to do it without wasting anything. We always tell them, no waste. You know, if you shoot something, you've got to intend to eat it. You know what I mean? That's just how it is. You know, you don't kill for fun, you kill for food. Derek even has a program with the Buffalo to help military vets. He doesn't seem drawn to making a profit. Some people like to, you know, want to do more commercial, you know, but I'm like, no, you know, I'm the manager of this program. I'm going to do it the way I see fit, you know what I mean? As long as I'm in charge, this is the way it's going to be. It seems like each generation of the Buffalo Boys builds on the knowledge of the last, tweaks the approach a bit, learns from the past. It's been an incredibly uplifting few days meeting the warm-hearted Kalispell people, seeing everything they have going on here. An honour to be among them. The deep sense of family and history, the teasing and laughter. It feels inviting. And it's not just me. Last August, the annual powwow dancing and feasting ceremony, the one that began in the 1970s, welcomed over 3,000 people from all walks of life to celebrate. Bringing Buffalo to the reservation won't solve all the challenges the Kalispell face. There's no great seasonal migrations coming back. The Kalispell's way of life is different now. But the Buffalo seemed to be here for a reason. I turned to JR. I think in this crazy world, you know, there's a lot of different trails out there that people get on. They forget trails. They just, there's so many trails for our youth, our young adults, our elders. There's just too many easy trails to take in this world. We just need to be reminded that we had a pretty good trail. Our ancestors walked very good trails, and those are valuable, and that's really all we need to do to be successful. I ask Shirley Black Bear, what would she like to see here, say 100 years from now? Oh my gosh, 100 years from now, all I would hope for is that we still have the community relationships that we have now. I would hope that the Buffalo Boys pass it on to their sons and their children. and I hope that they tell stories. You know, this is the way we used to do it or, oh, do you remember when so-and-so did this? I hope that the boys are still called the Buffalo Boys and that the buffalo are still thriving and that we're still sharing. That's what I would like to see in 100 years. As I leave the reservation, I stop by to see the newcomers for my last time. They're a little nervous, breaking into a trot and kicking up the dust. Still got that wild streak. The sun's going down, tinging their brown fur with gold. They're all blissfully unaware of how their story really does seem to weave together the past, present and future of the people here, who call this beautiful place home. Thanks for listening to The Wild. If you like what you hear, share it. Tell a friend about the podcast or leave us a rating and review. It really helps. And don't miss an episode. Subscribe. It's free and easy. Special thanks to Roxy Davis and Alec Bluff for giving us such a warm welcome and helping to make sure our trip went smoothly. As always, there are some great photographs and clips from our travels on Instagram at thewildpod and mine at chrismorganwildlife. The Wild is a production of KUOW in Seattle and Chris Morgan Wildlife with support from Wildlife Media. Lucy Suchek produced this episode. Jim Gates is our editor. Writing for this episode by Christopher Preston. Fact-checking by April Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker. Additional music from Musicbed and Blue Dot Sessions. The Wild is hosted, produced, and written by me, Chris Morgan. A very special thank you for their kind financial support to Jill and Scott Walker, Rose Letwin, Ellen Ferguson, the Isdell family, Anna Kimball, Barbara Stallman, John Taylor, Paul Lister, Bob Yellerlees, and John and Julie Hanson. Take care of yourselves, and do what you can to take care of our beautiful planet. Thanks so much for listening. Every Friday on Seattle Now, we break down the week's news. This week, Seattle knows how to party, but boy, we left behind a lot of trash at the Seahawks Super Bowl parade. If I do produce trash, I'm going to carry it with me. You're that gal. Yeah, no question. Like, for as long as I need to. I'm a trash gal. Did you see me? Hear that and more on Seattle Now, wherever you get your podcasts. you