What was their slogan? 'Kill the Indian, save the man.'.
'Destroy the food source. Destroy their homes.'.
'If you take away the buffalo, you eradicate the Indian.'.
'You want to play Cowboys and Indians?' Nobody wanted to play Indians because
they always got beat.
We're reclaiming all of the things that were taken from us.
Our tribe isn't dying. We're contemporary.
I mean, sometimes we get [buffalo],
they haven't ever even seen a human being before.
America can learn from its Indigenous population.
I am proud to be a Quapaw woman, and I will shout it from the rooftops.
I take a lot of pride in it.
Thanks to the InterTribal Buffalo Council,
we've received buffalo from all over the United States:
the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the Badlands National Park,
the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the Grand Canyon National Park,
and most recently, the Yellowstone National Park.
I can't really express how, like,
much joy it brings to my heart to know that we're actually, like,
reintroducing this species back to the land.
They're just magnificent creatures. They're so fast. They're strong.
This election represents a reclamation,
20 years under the same tribal administration.
And I represent the next generation.
There were a lot of good feelings during that time about the return of the
buffalo. And I remember that day, it was raining,
but it was like a symbol. You know, our creator said,
'Ok, Quapaw people, Ogahpah ni-ka-shi-ka, your buffalo are home,
and we're going to go ahead and turn on the faucet
and let this rain not only cleanse you, but cleanse buffalo,
purify everything, and
make it so.' It was very spiritual. It was a spiritual moment.
We look at them as our relatives.
We have a symbiotic relationship with the buffalo.
Even once the buffalo was caught, you didn't waste any of it.
And this was true of other animals, too, that our people had.
We didn't waste anything. We only took what we needed.
Because we relied so heavily on the bison, on the buffalo,
federal policy at that time was to-'if you take away the buffalo,
you eradicate the Indian.' And so that
relationship of containing and placing Indians
on a reservation is very similar to how buffalo were treated at the
time.
Apparently, that's kind of the military mindset, too.
'Destroy the food source.
Destroy their homes.' But all of those millions of buffalo
were slaughtered. What a terrible thing.
Back in the day when buffalo roamed, so did the Indian.
Through years of federal Indian policy, Manifest Destiny,
and the railroad system,
all of these things played a factor in the near extermination of the buffalo
for the purpose of exterminating and eradicating the Indian people.
There is a lot of pain historically
that gets embedded in our own DNA.
Our ancestors carry that, and they pass that down.
Our herd is sitting between 230 and [270],
and I know that we are working to acquire more land to increase that herd.
I love seeing 'em. It's really cool. Like,
the contrast between coming from Illinois and having cornfields,
and then coming here and seeing bison roam the fields,
that's beautiful. It's amazing.
Buffalo are natural conservationists.
They're not detrimental to the ground at all. In fact,
they take care of the ground better than we do. So we're actually the student,
and they're the teacher.
More sustainably fed and they use less energy than, like,
cows or other livestock. I get excited every time I get to drive by them,
but we will never have the same cultural impact that our ancestors did.
When you hunt and kill a bison, and you use every part of it,
you have an intimate knowledge of this creature. You know how it moves,
you know what it eats, and you know where it lives, and you live there with it,
and it sustains you. Of course, there's a much bigger spiritual connection.
The Quapaw's version of the Trail of Tears
happens to be primarily in the territory of Arkansas.
We gave up our land there in Arkansas territory,
and we were told there would be land here in
Indian territory. Many people died on that trip.
Colonial settlers didn't want the pieces of land that were reserved to us. Well,
come to find out,
those are some of the most valuable pieces of land in the country.
The tribe now is the only tribe in the
United States to receive funding directly from the
EPA for remediation of their Superfund site.
And now we're entering into a phase of self-determination and
self-governance,
and we're reclaiming all of the things
that were taken from us.
What helps with that is the grazing or the roaming of the buffalo.
And so the buffalo, just in their natural coexistence with the land,
they help remediate the land, as well.
I read that their hooves actually evolved to till the earth as they walk.
[The land is] all we have left. It's the last thing that we've
been able to hold on to and what we've been able to retain throughout
the history of the United States and the history of our people.
We are doing so good for ourselves. And I am proud.
I am proud to be a Quapaw woman, and I will shout it from the rooftops.
I am so proud. I have nothing but hope for the future of our tribe.