28 Thousand acres – Buffalo, Dakota #2

How long does it take to transverse 28,000 acres? In Italy some might say: less than half the time, because it’s equal to 11 thousand hectares. But this actually corresponds to: any part of the country, be it the Ligurian hills (with its coastal ups and downs) or the Tavoliere delle Puglie (in its maze of dry stone walls). Merciless geography. But elsewhere too it would depend a lot on your means of transport. If a fleet of planes took off and flew over those 28,000 acres of land, what would the buffaloes grazing in the Sioux Rosebud Nature Reserve in South Dakota look like from above?

 

Exterminating the buffalo, the conflicts among indigenous tribes

 

The herd has a name: it is called Wolakota, and its current headcount totals in the hundreds. The Rosebuds tribe aims to build the largest herd in the entire InterTribal Buffalo Council. Since 1991, the association of American Indians has expanded to 19 states with the goal of restoring the country’s buffalo population following the great genocide of the 19th century. It’s not hard to believe that the tribes saw this animal as a symbol to overcome the memory of past struggles. Free to graze, the buffaloes are indifferent to the boundaries separating reservations.

 

The buffaloes return across American borders.

 

But having the strength to cross great prairies is not the only reason Native Americans find the buffalo symbolic. We’ll reveal another one in the Journal’s final installment on the return of the buffalo to America.