Carter Roberts talks with Ervin Carlson about the importance of buffalo to Native Nations

Ervin Carlson Carter Roberts

Carter Roberts talks with Ervin Carlson (Blackfeet Nation), president of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, about the importance of buffalo (bison) to Native Nations and restoring what’s been lost.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

CARTER ROBERTS It’s great to see you. Thanks for taking the time.

ERVIN CARLSON Happy to. 

CR Let’s start at the beginning. Will you tell me about your childhood and what you learned from your parents?

EC I was actually raised by my grandparents. That happens a lot in Indian country, and I’ve even done it myself. Grandparents will take their first grandchild and raise them. In my case, I lost my mother when I was 10 years old, and then my grandparents took over. Through them, I grew up learning how to work.

My grandmother moved to town during the winter, so my brothers and I would stay there and go to school and go home on weekends and during springtime. When school was out, most kids looked forward to sleeping in and enjoying themselves, but we had to get up earlier. During springtime, we repaired fences that were knocked down from the weight of all the winter snow. Through the summer, we’d take care of the cattle. And then there was the haying season, when we’d cut, dry, and store grass for cattle feed.

CR Let’s jump ahead a bit. How did you get into ranching?

EC I attended community college and worked all kinds of jobs. I quit one job and my grandpa said, “Well, go buy your own cows, and ranch. That’s what you like to do.” So I did that for a while, but it’s not a real money-making business. And from there, I went to work for the [Blackfeet] Tribe as the agriculture director, running their Tribal ranches and building a cattle herd for them.

The first year I was running the ranches, we did some farming as well. I learned quickly how much money goes into farming and what a risk it is. It was pretty stressful. I had to make money to pay the bank back.

Then the Tribal Council decided to move the buffalo program under my direction. My passion at that time was making sure the Tribe’s ranching and farming projects could participate in USDA programs like the Farm Service Agency. At first, I tried to treat buffalo like cattle, but I learned real fast that buffalo were not domesticated animals. You can’t work them like cattle, or they’ll hurt themselves. You just work them as little as possible. I was also appointed to the InterTribal Buffalo Council at this time, in 1996, so that’s giving away my age a bit.

“We want to tell our own story. That’s the way it should be.”

ERVIN CARLSON
InterTribal Buffalo Council

CR This may seem like a basic question, but I want our readers to hear the answer from you. Why are buffalo so important to Tribes?

EC In our history, we’ve lost a lot of things—our land, our language, our autonomy. The buffalo were hunted to near extinction. To us, buffalo represent our spirit. They remind us of how we once lived free, in harmony with nature. So much of our history and our culture have been taken from us, so over the years, it’s become my passion to help bring back some of what’s been missing. It’s interesting, though; the whole time I lived with my grandparents, I never heard any stories about buffalo. They never had any connection to the buffalo. That’s how far back buffalo have been gone.

CR Can you tell me what you’re wearing around your neck?

EC It’s an Iniskim—a buffalo stone. Legend has it that many years ago, during an especially brutal winter when our Tribe was starving, some warriors went out to find buffalo to kill for food. At a lake, they found this stone, and shortly thereafter a herd of buffalo came out of the lake and presented themselves for a hunt. Buffalo stones are still found by people around that area.

This stone was transferred to me in a ceremony, so it means a lot to me—it’s meant to be my protection whenever I wear it.

CR Also, it means that when you’re wearing it, there’s no question that you’re all about buffalo.

EC I’m all about buffalo.

CR You recently talked to our staff about a collective effort to restore buffalo to Native lands, and to reconnect buffalo to landscapes and to livelihoods and cultures. It’s something we’re honored to be a part of. What’s your vision for what this collaboration could achieve?

EC My vision is to be able to help get all the buffalo that we can out to the Tribes that want them back and to provide funding to sustain those homes. Tribes are always strapped for dollars. When they do have money, it goes toward social issues. So the funding piece is important.

CR I think this story about restoration is one that the world desperately needs. It’s not only about the survival of buffalo, but about expanding their numbers and their range. What I’ve learned from you and other Tribal leaders is how important that is to restoring your food sovereignty, your traditional cultures, your lands, and your profound connection to buffalo that has spanned millennia. When you were talking to our staff earlier you said something about how to move from distrust to trust.

EC Distrust has unfortunately been a big part of our history, especially with the US government. So many things were taken from us—land, health, education, sovereignty, livelihoods, traditions. A lot of treaties were never honored.

Sometimes, I can feel right away who wants to work with us in a good way, and who is just there for themselves so they can say, “Well, here I am doing these good things.” You have to have that trust to make things work. And if there’s no trust, it just won’t work. And sometimes you have to build the trust, but it takes a long time. So to have it right from the beginning is a good thing.

CR Was the trust there from the beginning in our work together?

EC I have to be real honest. Maybe not at the beginning, at least not with everyone. But there’s people within your organization who have learned, people I feel that trust with now. I’m always going to be leery of things at first. But I feel a little more comfortable today than I did yesterday.

CR We’re a work in progress, toward a shared cause.

EC I will tell you, I felt that trust from the beginning with you.

CR I felt the same way. There are people, when you meet them, who don’t say anything except what they think and what they feel. And that’s how you are. It’s important for your voice to be heard. Not for me to tell people what you said, but for you to say it yourself.

EC Thank you. We want to tell our own story. That’s the way it should be.

CR Somehow I don’t think this is the last time we’re going to see each other.

EC I hope not.

Learn more about the Tribal Buffalo Lifeways Collaboration.

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