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Denver donates bison to Cheyenne and Arapaho nations, citing conservation and reparation

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Prior to European colonization of North America, millions of bison roamed the Great Plains. By the turn of the 20th century, those numbers had dropped to less than 1,000. The deliberate decimation of buffalo herds was a direct attack on the Native American people, who colonizers saw as an obstacle to their "Manifest Destiny," and who the U.S. government engaged in a systematic attempt to eliminate or force into docile submission.

For thousands of years, bison were a sacred, inseparable part of life for Indigenous tribes of the Great Plains, used for food, shelter, utensils, and clothing, in addition to spiritual and emotional well-being. Wiping out the bison population nearly wiped out the Native tribes they were connected to.

Though bison numbers have increased significantly thanks to conservation efforts, governments are still grappling with the ugly legacy, and some municipalities are taking steps to try to repair some of the damage done. As one example, the city of Denver, Colorado has taken the step of giving some of the city's bison population managed by Denver Parks and Recreation to Native American tribes engaged in bison conservation efforts.

In a unanimous 13-0 vote, Denver City Council gave the final approval Monday to donate 13 buffalo—around half of which are pregnant—to the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations in Oklahoma and one buffalo to Tall Bull Memorial Council in Colorado. In addition, Denver Parks and Recreation will no longer hold its annual auction to keep its bison herds at a healthy population size and ensure genetic diversity, but rather will work with tribal partners through the year 2030 to give surplus bison to Native tribes across the country to enhance conservation herds on tribal lands.

"This donation is the result and culmination of a very long, storied history and relationship with the State of Colorado," Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Governor Reggie Wassana told 9 News. "The Tribes plan to use the donated bison as a cultural, conservation and educational resource, with the goal of locating the bison on our own tribal natural plains habitat."

"We appreciate this gift and hope to grow our relationship with the great state of Colorado," said Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Lt. Governor Gilbert Miles.

Denver Councilwoman Pro Tem Jamie Torres told 9 News she was "proud and honored" to carry the ordinance forward.

"This is a unique opportunity to not only return the bison to tribes across the country and support their conservation efforts but to honor those who have cared for these ancestral lands before us," she said. "The land acknowledgment we adopted in 2020 asks us to work to dismantle legacies of oppression and inequity, and today we are doing that."

The land acknowledgment, which is read at each city council meeting following the Pledge of Allegiance, reads:

"The Denver City Council honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples. We also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.

"We honor Elders past, present, and future, and those who have stewarded this land throughout generations. We also recognize that government, academic and cultural institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples.

"May this acknowledgment demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression and inequities and recognize the current and future contributions of Indigenous communities in Denver."

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock also acknowledged the significance of the ordinance, according to NPR, seeing the annual donations as one form of reparation.

"I don't think it's ever too late to acknowledge the challenges and the wrongs of the past," he said. "We got a chance to simply apologize, acknowledge the challenges of the past and to forge a relationship going forward that allows us to exercise our common objectives around the conservation of the tribal lands and of these animals."

Nathan Hart, executive director of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes' business department who oversees the tribe's herd of 530 buffalo, told NPR that the city's donation will help the tribes toward their goal of sustaining a herd of 800.

"Everybody's really excited to grow the herd with this addition," Hart says. "The bison was very significant to our well-being in the past — we have still have a lot of respect for the animal."

He also credits the bison for the tribes' relationship-building with Denver's city officials.

"We're developing these relationships because of the bison," he says. "That's what brought us together ... it all came from the bison themselves."

Beautiful. Here's to seeing more of these restoration and conservation efforts in the future.

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Donald Trump is fond of giving people insulting nicknames that, presumably, have gotten more than a few people to crack a smile: "Crooked Hillary." "Sloppy Steve." But the name he calls Elizabeth Warren has never been funny.

The Massachusetts Senator is a political lightning rod known for "persisting" in even the most heated situations. On Feb. 14, she did it again — pushing back against the "Pocahontas" slur given to her by Trump and conservative critics.

"Our country’s disrespect of Native people didn’t start with President Trump," Warren said. "But now we have a president who can’t make it through a ceremony honoring Native American war heroes without reducing Native history, Native culture, Native people to the butt of a joke."

— (@)

She did it in front of the National Congress of American Indians.

Warren could have easily made the remarks all about her. Instead, she had the courage to address the legacy of discrimination against Native Americans head-on during a surprise appearance at the National Congress of American Indians' Executive Council Winter Session and Tribal Nations Policy Summit.

After going through a list of crimes against Native peoples — everything from racial slurs to tax policy — Warren made it clear the verbal attacks against her are only a funnel into addressing bigger issues.

"Washington owes you respect. But this government owes you much more than that. This government owes you a fighting chance to build stronger communities and a brighter future — starting with a more prosperous economic future on tribal lands."

That didn't stop a number of critics from going after Warren using the same insulting, offensive language and phrasing that she was criticizing.

— (@)

Still, Warren didn't let herself off the hook.

Warren's nickname has its roots in accusations that Warren lied about her heritage to further her career. She decided to address this claim directly in front of the group of people arguably most qualified to reject her authenticity.

"You won’t find my family members on any rolls, and I’m not enrolled in a tribe," she said. "And I want to make something clear. I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes — and only by tribes. I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career."

It's OK to criticize Warren and anyone else in politics — and even to have a little fun along the way. But it's never acceptable to use racist tactics.

If Warren's critics were actually concerned about cultural appropriation or the health of Native American communities, they'd do something about it. Instead, they're using the opportunity to troll her for political gain.

For everyone else, it's an opportunity to turn a painful situation into a more hopeful one. As Warren told the members of the NCIA, "I’m here today to make a promise: Every time someone brings up my family’s story, I’m going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities."

A pull-no-punches Q&A with a Native American teacher on how she teaches Thanksgiving.

There are two sides to the Thanksgiving story — the one taught in most American grade schools and a more complicated one that coexists alongside it.

Every year, millions of Americans gather around family tables to eat turkey and toast the fellowship of the Pilgrims and their American Indian hosts. And every year, Native American educators attempt to re-contextualize the holiday to add more first-American perspectives to the traditional telling of the history.

The differences are often striking: While most lesson plans treat the first Thanksgiving as a feast co-planned by the Pilgrims and their Native neighbors, from the Wampanoag perspective, the meal was one they happened upon by accident and nonetheless helped rescue with a successful deer hunt. While many non-Native Americans treat the feast as a celebration, many Native people observe the holiday as a day of mourning.

One such educator is Gillian Murr, a fourth-year eighth-grade humanities teacher at Marysville School in Portland, Oregon — and an alum of the American Indian Teacher Program at Portland State University.

Photo via Gillian Murr.

Murr, who is Walla Walla and Yankton Sioux, told me about how she approaches the holiday in the classroom and what other teachers can do to include Native perspectives in their lesson plans.

(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

UPWORTHY: What do you love most about your job?

GILLIAN MURR: My favorite part of teaching is really connecting with my students — sharing and learning from them. I don't remember ever having a connection with any teachers when I was younger, and I think it is so important.

I work in a very diverse school, and a Title I school, and I think connections, especially in eighth grade, can make or break the learning that goes on in my class.

UP: What kind of connections do you make with your students? What do you bond with them over?

GM: Having persevered through poverty and oppression, I really try to connect with my students on that level. I think there is a level of vulnerability that is required and that students, this age especially, need and respect.

I let my students know that I have gone through things like they are. I grew up poor, I had parents with addiction problems, I have family members in jail/prison, etc. I think it makes them feel more comfortable in my class. I also share a lot about my own children with them. They in turn feel safe to share and open up in my class. We also connect about current events, music, TV/movies, etc.

UP: Do you feel like your students come into class with a lot of misconceptions about Thanksgiving?

GM: They come in with all the typical myths. There is always one or two students who have already had the myths debunked, but by and large, the myths are strong when they enter my classroom: "The Pilgrims came on the Mayflower and the Indians helped them by giving them food and helping them plant and grow food, and then they all had a dinner together where the Pilgrims gave thanks."

Murr with students. Photo via Gillian Murr.

UP: How do you start breaking down these myths for them?

GM: We always start with what they know and then discuss why that is what they know. One of the overarching questions we always come back to in my class is: "Who is writing the history?" So I like to remind them of that.

Then we just really get into the meat of the lesson. In the past, I have done a couple different lessons. My main objective for them is to be able to look at Thanksgiving from the tribe's perspective.

UP: How do you fold the Wampanoag perspective into your lesson plan?

GM: Last year, I found this great lesson on the Teaching Tolerance website, which has a speech and an essay about Thanksgiving from two different Natives. We analyzed these and then discussed why what they learned is different. We also watch portions of Part 1 of the "We Shall Remain" series. It gives students, especially students who have different learning styles, a solid understanding that it wasn't all potlucks and thanks.

I generally have a class discussion after students have had time to analyze the texts and watch the movies where I have a few leading questions, and they are allowed to come to their own conclusions about why we know what we know. A lot of them are truly blown away with what was left out of history and their earlier teachings.

UP: What parts of the Thanksgiving story are typically left out?

GM: The Native perspective is usually completely left out. I think it is important for them to know while, yes, the Wampanoag people helped the Pilgrims, that help was not reciprocated.

The Pilgrims were religious people, and they gave thanks to their god for subduing the Native peoples. That's a pretty big myth, or lie, rather. Furthermore, this began the long genocide of the Native people of the Americas that continued, and still continues today.

UP: How do your students typically react when they hear this?

GM: There is definitely some surprise involved in their reactions, but at the same time, by this time, we have already studied Columbus, and so they have some prior knowledge about how our history books like to skew things.

Murr and family on the beach. Photo via Gillian Murr.

I don't really get any kind of pushback from students. Maybe partially this is because I am a Native educator, and they don't feel comfortable pushing back, and/or more likely also because I teach a diverse population who already have insecurities about how their families and ancestors have been treated in the history of the U.S.

UP: What's the most important thing you think your students get out of your lesson?

GM: I think the most important thing I convey to them is to look for what, or who is missing, and then [encourage them to ask] why?

UP: What advice would you give to fellow teachers who are struggling to teach Thanksgiving?

GM: I would say to look into what you teach now and ask the same question I hope my students start to ask: Whose perspective is being told, and whose is being left out?

From Your Site Articles

Denver donates bison to Cheyenne and Arapaho nations, citing conservation and reparation - Upworthy ›

Shailene Woodley's Columbus Day arrest reminds us how Native Americans still need support.

Columbus Day has always been a bit ... contentious in the U.S.

In elementary school, most of us learned about Columbus as the man who discovered America. By middle school, we learned that he actually went to South America and the Caribbean. And also there were already people living there.

Then in high school, we might have learned the truth: Columbus had nothing to do with the United States at all ... and also he raped and pillaged lots of indigenous peoples.

Our country's relationship with its native inhabitants has been complicated from the beginning.

In fact, you could call it downright awful. Inhumane. Genocidal. To this day, Native American communities continue to suffer from poverty and police brutality at alarming rates.

And this year, on Columbus Day, three things happened that proved how complicated all of this continues to be.

Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

**1. 524 years after Columbus "discovered" the "New World," actress Shailene Woodley and a bunch of other activists were arrested in North Dakota for protesting to protect Native American rights.**

The situation began earlier this year, when Energy Transfer Partners began construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7-billion project that would threaten the water supply that serves more than 9,000 Native Americans.

The Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes appealed to numerous government departments and courts to halt the project. But despite a few temporary rulings, the conflict continued.

The company behind the pipeline bullied their way through thousands of Native American protesters and clandestinely destroyed the same sacred lands and burial sites that the tribes had hoped to protect.

Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

**Over the weekend, Energy Transfer Partners denied another request from the U.S. Justice Department to voluntarily stop construction.**

Once again, the tribes gathered in protest, leading to the arrests of more than two dozen people on Oct. 10, including actress Shailene Woodley.

Woodley broadcast her arrest over Facebook Live, and while that publicity didn't keep her out of jail, it did help to raise awareness about the unfair ways which Native Americans continue to suffer.

Native American communities have been largely ignored, which has only made it easier for the U.S. government and corporations alike to get away with egregious mistreatments, like what's happening in North Dakota.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

2. Meanwhile, 26 U.S. cities and two entire states replaced Columbus Day with "Indigenous Peoples' Day."

Less than half of the country actually recognizes Columbus Day to begin with, which is a good step forward.

Over the last 25 years, communities across the country have started to use the holiday to celebrate the oft-ignored heritage of the country's indigenous inhabitants, instead of a man who did them harm. South Dakota was the first full state to replace the holiday with Native Americans Day back in 1990, with Vermont joining the charge just this past year.

"Indigenous Peoples Day represents a shift in consciousness," said Leo Killsback, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and assistant professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University, in an interview with CNN. "It acknowledges that indigenous peoples and their voices are important in today's conversations."

Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

3. The U.S. government also recently paid out nearly $500 million to 17 native tribes in a long-overdue settlement over property rights.

While European settlers took a lot of North American territories by force, the U.S. Department of Interior did enter into legal treaties with native tribes for the use of almost 56 million acres of land. Rather than selling the property outright, however, the tribes freely gave up the land, agreeing instead to take "just compensation" for whatever profits were made from the businesses and tenants that made use of it, including housing, timber harvesting, farming, livestock grazing, and oil and gas extractions.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government didn't do a very good job of managing the land resources or the money that was made from them. (And this is hardly the only example of U.S. interests ignoring legally-binding contracts with Native Americans.)

Since President Obama took office, though, nearly 100 lawsuits and billions of dollars have been settled between the government and Native American tribes — some of which dated back more than a century and had gone ignored all that time.

This might sound like some generous progress, but it's also something that the tribes have been legally owed for a long, long time. It's a tiny step forward.

Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.

This year, Columbus Day reminded me of just how far we've come in terms of respecting our indigenous brethren — and how far we still need to go.

We've taken two steps forward recently by paying back the Native Americans and beginning to abolish a problematic holiday. But we've also taken one giant step back by allowing corporations to destroy sacred Native American land, just to build an oil pipeline.

The good news is that social media is a powerful tool for change. Now that people are paying attention to their plight and the celebration of their culture is spreading, we might start to see some actual change.

We can't undo the damage we've already done nor can we change the fact that we've refused to make up for our mistakes so far.

But if we want to do what's right and build a brighter future for all the people who live in the United States, there's no better time to start than now.

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Montana's Blackfeet Tribe has gifted hundreds of COVID vaccines to its Canadian neighbors - Upworthy ›

Carlotta Cardana and Danielle SeeWalker first met in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1998.

At the time, they were both new students at the local high school: Cardana was an exchange student from Italy, and SeeWalker, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, had just moved to the town with her family.

Since then, they've remained friends despite living on different continents.

For many years, Cardana and SeeWalker talked about working on a creative project together.

Carlotta Cardana and Danielle SeeWalker in the winter of 2015 during an exhibit of The Red Road Project in Verona, Italy. Photo by Francesco Biasi.

But it wasn't until a random night in 2013 that they finally decided to commit.

Both women have journeyed to understand each other, and then to understand SeeWalker's Native American heritage together, over the past 20 years. But with this new project, they wanted to take that journey one step further: to the heart of America’s past, present, and future.

They decided to call their project the Red Road Project, a collection of stories that explore the relationship between Native American people and their identity in modern society.

SeeWalker, a writer, and Cardana, a photographer, made plans to travel to different communities all over America and record these amazing stories using images and words.

Dancers take a break in between songs at United Tribes Powwow in Bismarck, North Dakota. Photo by Carlotta Cardana/The Red Road Project.

They were both fascinated with Native American culture and history, so the project was a natural next step. “Danielle had always told me stories about her family and Native American culture in general, and I found that her stories were completely different from what I’d usually see in the media, which tends to focus on the negative issues,” Cardana said in an email.

First, they talked with SeeWalker's family and met others at community meetings. Then their project blossomed.

“From there, it was an organic growth through word of mouth. One person we spoke with would refer one, two or a handful of people and it grew from there,” SeeWalker said. And they have found this to be the most effective way of growing their project.

But they soon realized that their journey couldn’t just be an inward look at themselves; it was also an opportunity to inspire and educate the world with these positive stories. “I think during our second trip (summer 2014) it became clear that we weren’t doing this project just for the two of us, but that all the people we met had put their trust into us to get their story out there,” Cardana said.