2026 Undergraduate Research Showcase

Indigenous Led Ecological Restoration: Buffalo as Teachers

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-24-2026

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Libby Lunstrum and Dr. Madison Stevens

Abstract

The Indigenous-Led Ecological Restoration project (ILER) explores the ways in which Indigenous groups confront legacies of colonialism to restore culturally and ecologically significant species such as bison. Using the buffalo restoration efforts of the Blackfeet Nation as a case study, we support Blackfoot-led research initiatives through collaboration with an advisory board of Blackfoot Elders, utilizing various forms of scientific and social methodology. This poster focuses on the theme of “buffalo as teachers” and what they teach us about connection, hope, and healing. Using interviews and coded transcripts, we identified how buffalo function not only as a species to be restored, but as guides who shape relationships, knowledge, and ways of being. Buffalo teach through their return by facilitating collaboration, strengthening relationships across generations and institutions, and modeling resilience. Their return supports reconnection to cultural identity through language and ceremony, while also guiding approaches to restoration. Buffalo as teachers also reframes research as a reciprocal process. Rather than viewing research as extractional, this work becomes relational, grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing. Iinnii act as teachers, guides, and compasses, demonstrating that restoration is not only ecological, but also a process of rebuilding relationships between people, land, and culture.

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