{"id":556370,"date":"2026-05-06T15:02:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/?p=556370"},"modified":"2026-05-06T15:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T15:02:30","slug":"the-bison-is-americas-national-mammal-heres-how-indigenous-tribes-and-conservationists-aided-its-return-to-the-prairie-lands-after-near-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winklersart.com\/?p=556370","title":{"rendered":"The Bison Is America\u2019s National Mammal. Here\u2019s How Indigenous Tribes and Conservationists Aided Its Return to the Prairie Lands After Near Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The past, present and future of the giant bovine are front and center in a new exhibition as the country approaches its 250th birthday<\/h2>\n
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Alicia Ault<\/p>\n

| Museums Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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A bison herd on the American Prairie reserve roams at sunset on October 18, 2018, in Montana
\n Amy Toensing \/ Getty Images<\/span>
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They\u2019re massive, shaggy and majestic\u2014and best observed from a safe distance. The bison, North America\u2019s largest land mammal, has long been an icon in the U.S. and hugely important to Native cultures. Officially named America\u2019s national mammal in 2016, it is a perfect, beastly representative of the country\u2019s natural history.<\/p>\n

As such, the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History has created bison-centric exhibitions to coincide with the celebration of America\u2019s 250th this year. Opening May 7, \u201cBison: Standing Strong\u201d will run until May 2029 and chart the animal\u2019s evolutionary history and relationship with Indigenous peoples, its rise and fall and its place in the future. A six-foot-wide skull of a prehistoric bison sits opposite a six-foot-tall taxidermy bull in the display.<\/p>\n

From May 21 through summer 2027, \u201cImagining Bison,\u201d will showcase a trove of material\u2014artifacts, documents and photographs\u2014illustrating the animal\u2019s cultural importance. This exhibition will also offer further detail on the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s efforts to conserve the bison, often in partnership with Native American communities.<\/p>\n

Bison, also referred to as \u201cbuffalo,\u201d have roamed North America for thousands of years. Through all that time, \u201cthey\u2019ve been shaping us,\u201d supporting ecosystems by grazing and migrating, and influencing culture and history, says exhibition developer Siobhan Starrs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really are the American story, in a nutshell,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Close-up of a painted Kiowa buffalo tipi model<\/p>\n

Phillip R. Lee \/ Smithsonian Institution, Department of Anthropology, transfer from the Bureau of American Ethnology<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rosalyn LaPier, a historian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe and M\u00e9tis, explains the importance of the animal in a video for the \u201cStanding Strong\u201d exhibition. In 2023, LaPier wrote: \u201cI learned from my Blackfeet grandparents that bison emerged from the supernatural underwater realm and were given to humans by the Divine to use as food and as material. In return, humans are to respect and revere the bison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tens of millions of bison lived on the North American continent until the late 19th century, when hunters cut them down in huge numbers, aided by a rifle that accommodated large-caliber ammunition and could be fired accurately at long distances. Only around 1,000 of the mammals survived by the late 1880s.<\/p>\n

Western expansion and industrialization contributed to the bison\u2019s demise. The federally backed removal of bison by settlers purposely deprived Native Americans of a food source and culturally significant animal. Bison meat fed workers building the Transcontinental Railroad, and its hides were coveted by American and European manufacturers of clothing and industrial belts. The completion of the railroad brought even more hunters to the region.<\/p>\n

The bison\u2019s slaughter is eerily illustrated in the \u201cStanding Strong\u201d exhibition by an 1892 photograph of a man standing atop a mountain of skulls waiting to be processed at Michigan Carbon Works.<\/p>\n

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The exhibition displays the giant skull of a pre-historic Bison latifrons<\/em> nicknamed \u201cJunior,\u201d whose horns stretch over six feet across.<\/p>\n

Brittany M. Hance \/ Smithsonian Institution \/ Bison latifrons skull courtesy of the Idaho Museum of Natural History and the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This bull bison skull was collected in Montana by Smithsonian taxidermist William Temple Hornaday, who would go on to champion bison conservation through museum exhibits and the display of living bison behind the Smithsonian Castle.<\/p>\n

James D. Tiller \/ Smithsonian Institution, Division of Mammals, Department of Vertebrate Zoology<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, thanks to restoration efforts, the U.S. is home to some 500,000 bison, most in commercial herds. Some are under management by conservationists and tribes, while others rove within the boundaries of national parks such as Yellowstone and Theodore Roosevelt.<\/p>\n

Ervin Carlson, president of the Intertribal Buffalo Council, manages an 800-animal herd for the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. The council, which operates in 22 states and across close to 90 tribes, was formed in the 1990s to help bring bison back to Indigenous lands. Many of the animals come from national park herds. Those animals help inject genetic diversity into tribal herds, says Carlson, which is crucial to the species\u2019 survival.<\/p>\n

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Quick facts: Bison genetics<\/p>\n

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  • To learn how the animals\u2019 genetic diversity shifted after their decline, museum scientists have analyzed DNA from bison specimens collected by Smithsonian taxidermist William Temple Hornaday in the late 19th century.<\/li>\n
  • Sarah Johnson, a research fellow at the Natural History museum, says that so far, she\u2019s \u201cidentified more than 200 specimens in the collection from which we can extract genetic material, including over 150 that predate the near-extinction event.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    The Blackfeet Nation established its herd in 2016, when it received 87 calves from Canada. Carlson says that when he saw the animals\u2019 energy and the way they uplifted fellow Blackfeet, he quickly became passionate about conservation. He believes that all Americans should care about bison restoration, as the animals represent \u201cthe history of this whole continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

    North America\u2019s \u201cgrasslands and all the animals that live in them are the single most endangered ecosystem in the world,\u201d says ecologist Andy Boyce of the Smithsonian\u2019s Great Plains Science Program and Migratory Bird Center.<\/p>\n

    The fertile, flat land has continually been taken for commercial agriculture and livestock operations. As a result, native birds and animals, like the bison, that are dependent on the ecosystem have been in decline, says Boyce.<\/p>\n

    Bison are keystone creatures in part because \u201cgrasslands need grazing,\u201d Boyce notes. The bison\u2019s behavior\u2014applying pressure \u201cin all the right places\u201d by wallowing and making shallow depressions in the dirt, which creates microhabitats, and dispersing seeds through defecation\u2014helps preserve plant diversity, he says. And that, in turn, nurtures mammalian, avian and insect life.<\/p>\n

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    An Arapaho toy buffalo on display in the new exhibition \u201cBison: Standing Strong.\u201d The toy is fashioned out of real bison hair.<\/p>\n

    Phillip R. Lee \/ Smithsonian Institution, Department of Anthropology<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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    This mounted specimen, a bull plains bison collected in Montana, serves as the centerpiece of the new museum exhibition \u201cBison: Standing Strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

    James D. Tiller \/ Smithsonian Institution, Division of Mammals, Department of Vertebrate Zoology<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The Smithsonian works with the nonprofit group American Prairie and tribal organizations to preserve Montana grasslands and the bison. (On Monday, the New York Times<\/em> reported that the Bureau of Land Management has canceled grazing permits for American Prairie, jeopardizing the bison\u2019s future in the region.)<\/p>\n

    Great Plains Science Program ecologist Olivia Cosby helped put together the Intertribal Grassland Network, a consortium of tribal communities in Montana that trains participants, many of them students, to be stewards of the ecosystem. The tribes Cosby has worked with want to re-establish a relationship with the animal and \u201chave them come home,\u201d she says. \u201cHaving their communities be able to actually see buffalo and interact with them is really meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Much of this work was being done by individual tribes\u2014especially at Fort Belknap Indian Community, which started reintroducing bison in the 1970s. But many of those programs don\u2019t have the resources for big projects. The Smithsonian is \u201ccreating an opportunity where we can think bigger together, more regionally,\u201d notes Cosby.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe\u2019re looking at everything from soil health to the mammal community using camera traps and vegetation chemistry,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

    Managing an animal that has historically wandered freely in the wild is a big challenge. \u201cIf you get a ton of bison in a confined area, it\u2019s not good for the land,\u201d Cosby says. Conservationists must navigate a tension between the legal requirement for fences and protecting the bison\u2019s wild nature.<\/p>\n

    Boyce notes that \u201cwe revere bison as a symbol of the wildness of our country,\u201d and put their profile on sports team logos and various products. \u201cIf we value these animals,\u201d he says, \u201cwe need to figure out a way to conserve them.\u201d<\/p>\n