Enter To Win a Buffalo Journal & Bison Star Soap

Enter to win a Buffalo Journal (Eighth Generation) and a Sage Pine Soap Bar (Bison Star Naturals)! Eighth Generation is a Seattle-based art and lifestyle brand owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe. They  partner with community-based Native artists around the country. Bison Star Naturals is a Native-owned, small family business whose products are made with organically, naturally and locally sourced ingredients.  

Native Americans and bison have a long and interconnected history. Bison played a crucial role in the lives of many Indigenous peoples— particularly on the Great Plains. They symbolize resilience, cultural identity, and the ongoing connection between Indigenous people and the land.

Cultural and Spiritual Significance

Native Americans and bison have a long and intertwined history in North America. Native Americans heavily depended on bison for their survival and well-being. The buffalo provided everything they needed —the meat for food, the hide for clothing and shelter, the bones for tools, the sinew for thread and bowstrings, and more.¹ The importance of the buffalo to Native American Tribes may be best stated in John Fire Lame Deer’s book, Seeker of Visions:

The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, holy. Out of his skin we made our water bags. His flesh strengthened us, became flesh of our flesh. Not the smallest part of it was wasted. His stomach, a red-hot stone dropped in to it, became our soup kettle. His horns were our spoons, the bones our knives, our women’s awls and needles. Out of his sinews we made our bowstrings and thread. His ribs were fashioned into sleds for our children, his hoofs became rattles. His mighty skull, with the pipe leaning against it, was our sacred altar. The name of the greatest of all Sioux was Tatanka Iyotake—Sitting Bull. When you killed off the buffalo you also killed the Indian—the real, natural, “wild” Indian.

Impact of European Contact

Although the buffalo was hunted regularly for its materials, the tribes never used more than they needed for survival. In the 1500’s herds were once estimated at up to 60 million. But in 1884, only 328 bison remained in the wild. The near extinction of the buffalo was the culmination of hide trading, hunting, and even intentional slaughter to put pressure on the tribes and loss of natural habitat due to westward expansion.¹ The near extinction of this unique animal put a strain on Plains tribes to relocate away from their ancestral grounds toward less-occupied areas. Eventually, it contributed to their relocation to Indian reserves.¹

Conservation Efforts Today

The buffalo only started to recover after protection laws were enacted in 1894 by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1919, the Secretary of the American Bison Society released a statement saying 2,048 bison were protected by the United States. The Canadian government had roughly 4,250 under protection, bringing the total captive bison to nearly 6,300 compared to the mere 1,000 reported in 1889. This was the first glimpse of recovery for the bison, and it would slowly improve.¹ In recent years, there have been efforts to return the buffalo to Native American Tribes. The InterTribal Buffalo Council, founded in 1992, is a collection of 80 tribes in 20 different states that facilitates the management of over 20,000 buffalo.³ “Collectively those tribes manage over 20,000 buffalo on tribal lands, our goal and mission is to restore buffalo back to Indian country for that cultural and spiritual connection that Indigenous people have with the buffalo.” – Troy Heinert, a Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Executive Director of the InterTribal Buffalo Council ⁴

Buffalo or Bison?

For many Indigenous people, buffalo, a name used for hundreds of years, remains the name of choice for these animals. Generally, buffalo is often used in a cultural context, while bison is used in a scientific context.⁵