Bringing us to the Wind River Reservation, this week’s guest, Jason Baldes, shares his work to bring back wild Buffalo to Wind River and to rematriate land to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes. Jason offers his deep wisdom about the ecological, spiritual, and cultural importance of buffalo.
Jason’s work with the Wind River Tribal Buffalo initiative has already had an immense effect. The physical and cultural landscape of the so-called United States is steeped in a colonial worldview, but work like Jason’s is changing the tides and aligning conservation with long-standing Indigenous values. This healing work honors those ancestors who had buffalo, land, and ritual stolen from them by the United States government.
Jason, an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Land Resources & Environmental Sciences from Montana State University, where he focused on the restoration of buffalo/bison to Tribal lands. In 2016 he spearheaded the successful effort to relocate a herd to the Wind River Indian Reservation and works with both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes in buffalo management and expansion. He is an advocate, educator and speaker on Indigenous cultural revitalization and ecological restoration who has also served as director of the Wind River Native Advocacy Center, where he was instrumental in the passing of the Wyoming Indian Education for All Act. He currently splits time as executive director of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, and Tribal Buffalo Program Senior Manager for the National Wildlife Federation's Tribal Partnerships Program. Jason sits on the board of directors of the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council and the board of trustees for the Conservation Lands Foundation.
For an extended version of this episode, please join us at patreon.com/forthewild.
Music by Jayme Stone and A.R. Wilson. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.
BETTY MARTIN on The Language of Consent /358
KURT RUSSO on a Prayer of Mourning /357
ERIN MANNING on the Choreography of Neurodiversity /356
CORRINA GOULD on Settler Responsibility and Reciprocity [ENCORE] /355
FARIHA RÓISÍN on the Courage of Listening to Our Bodies /354
PERDITA FINN on the Long Story of Our Souls /353
JACQUELINE SUSKIN on The Poetry of Seasons /352
OBI KAUFMANN on the Ecotone of Art and Science /351
The Edges in the Middle, VI: Báyò Akómoláfé, Madhulika Banerjee, and Minna Salami
STEPHEN JENKINSON on a Lucid Reckoning /349
ABDOUMALIQ SIMONE on Urban Entanglements /348
ANDREA GIBSON on The Blessings of the Wound /347
KATRINA SPADE on New Life from Death /346
KURT RUSSO on the People Under the Sea [ENCORE] / 345
KEIARA WADE on Generations of Black Cowboys /344
JAMES BRIDLE on Modes of Intelligence /343
TOKO-PA TURNER on Dreams of Belonging /342
AMY GLENN on a Life in Thresholds /341
The Edges in the Middle, V: Báyò Akómoláfé, Naomi Klein, and Yuria Celidwen
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL