(dramatic instrumental music) - [Narrator] To many Native Americans, the buffalo are considered a form of kin, and for centuries, were essential to their culture and their very rhythm of life.

Utilized for food, clothing, and tools, many traditional ceremonies revolved entirely around promoting the health of the buffalo herd.

In the 16th century, North America contained 25 to 30 million buffalo, but with white men moving west and a high price to be paid for buffalo skins back east, the North America bison were hunted almost to extinction.

To many natives, the loss of the buffalo from the land was equally as egregious as being forced onto the western reservations.

Now 130 years later and after decades of effort, buffalo are finally being re-introduced on Shoshone land at the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming.

(foreign language) - I'm very happy to offer a prayer for something that we haven't seen in a number of years here.

What our older folks used to thrive on, what we used to survive on, was the bison, the buffalo.

In Indian culture, we have survived on these animals, and it's a great day to welcome them back again today.

(upbeat instrumental music) - The Wind River Reservation is like two point three million acres.

There's hundreds of thousands of acres that are un-fenced and this was the ideal place.

If you go to many other reservations, there's private land here, little piece of tribal land there, and it's so fragmented.

You don't have these big landscapes.

- Through our relationship with the Department of Interior and the Lander Fish and Wildlife Service Office, we identified potential source populations that met the need of genetically pure or genetically reputable but were also from non disease exposed populations, which meant that we were a lot more flexible in bringing bison back here.

Wyoming and buffalo is highly controversial because of brucellosis.

- Society has been created that buffalo will threaten the cattle market, but elk also carry brucellosis.

There's never been a proven case of transmission of brucellosis from a buffalo to a cow, but the fear still exists.

- In this particular area, we have cattle producers, so we paid for a big fence that would hold them in and electrified it and gave the adjacent land owners the time for them to express what their concerns were so that we're not jeopardizing their livelihoods in any way.

- The idea that bison pose economic threat to cattle ranchers, that buffalo will eat grass meant for cattle, that buffalo meat will supplant beef.

Sometimes people talk about an obstacle so much, even if it's false, it becomes true in their minds.

It's really not a threat and it's something that we can overcome.

(dramatic instrumental music) - What my grand vision was to manage them as wildlife in the northern boundary of the reservation as a wildlife species.

That means basically letting them run on 700,000 acres.

That was obviously very controversial and I had to scale back my attempts to get buffalo back here by directly working with the Shoshone Business Council.

They said this is where we want to see our buffalo program and so I ran with it.

- And really, it was about building community and building relationships.

It was reaching out to the tribal liaisons to the governor's office and just saying, you know this is what the tribe wants and we want your support, and it happened today.

- Prior to today, the tribes managed six of the seven ungulate species that were here before Lewis and Clark, including the predators.

There's very few places in the west that that's the case.

(dramatic instrumental music) - There has been times through the years when the United States government has stood on the wrong side of this issue and it's truly humbling, but oh so proud, to now stand on the right side of this issue and to help restore bison to this landscape.

I just want to congratulate them in their leadership and Jason Baldes and everyone else involved in this in saying, we're just honored to have played any role and congratulations, what a truly wonderful day for the Eastern Shoshone people.

- This is incredibly important for tribal culture because this is not only about ecological restoration, it's about cultural revitalization.

The history between buffalo and Native Americans is almost synonymous.

We both occupy remnants of our vast territory that we once inhabited.

You know, they tried to stamp out our culture, they tried to stamp out our language.

They tried to annihilate the buffalo, to annihilate native people.

By being proud of who we are as native people and being able to have buffalo in our lives again means that we've reconnected a severed tie that's been 131 years old.

(dramatic instrumental music) - As dancers, we pay homage, and we pay respect to those who danced before us.

We express through our dance, as we offer the tobacco, when we offer our prayers.

We hope and pray that the ancestors are looking upon us in a good way.

We hope and pray that those in the audience, those who are sick, those who are afflicted, those who are hurting, those who are sad, that they will be uplifted, and they will feel the healing power and be inspired by our songs and our dances in this Powwow way of life.

(speaking Shoshone language) My name is George Abeyta, a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, and I'm also a Fancy Feather Dancer.

(traditional music) The dance that I do, the "Fancy Feather Dance," has a lot of flamboyance, a lot of flair.

They say, believe it or not, that this dance has its origin among the non-native.

It was Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show that is sometimes credited with the origin of this dance.

They say that Buffalo Bill talked to one of his traditional dancers, the old style, very simple, single bustle, darker colors, and he asked that traditional dancer if he would add more feathers, more fringe, brighter colors, more bells.

And then they say that Buffalo Bill went to the singers and said, "Hey, we're gonna come up "with this new kind of dance.

"I want you boys to sing louder and faster."

And he went back to those dancers and said, "You know, they're gonna sing loud and fast, "so feel free to put in some freestyle, "some modern, contemporary, "feel free to do some kicks and spins."

They say that is how that "Fancy Dance" began.

Others will tell you that's a bunch of nonsense.

A dance this awesome could never come from a crazy white guy, like Buffalo Bill Cody.

They say this dance has its origin among the Ponca tribe, Southern Plains of Oklahoma.

They say there was a couple of warriors studying the horses as the horses were running about, and watched them, how proud they were, how they danced and pranced and thought it would be cool if we could dance like the horse.

So the warriors put on extra feathers, braided up, and they put out their chest, and they dance sideways this way and sideways this way and the pranced around like that horse.

And then others wanted to outdo them, and they added more and more and more.

Then it became known as the "Crazy Dance."

But today, it's the "Fancy Feather Dance."

It's the most modern contemporary of all the male dances in the Powwow arena.

(traditional music) (performer singing) The outfits, the designs in the beadwork and the different styles, the different materials, the different colors, they go with that family.

They ask, "Who made your outfit?"

And I have to give them a long list of people.

Maybe they're Powwow family.

Maybe their direct relatives, immediate family.

Maybe they're distant relatives, but we all join, and we put these beautiful outfits together.

A lot of times a dancer is gifted a certain part of the outfit.

A lot of times a champion dancer will go and win a full set of beadwork or a full set of "Fancy Dance" bustles or a head roach.

So some of these things are gifted.

Some of these things are earned.

If you were to go to a real Powwow, you would see hundreds of dancers, maybe even thousands of dancers at the grand entry.

That's the beginning of a Powwow session.

In the grand entry, we follow our flags.

We follow today's Native American warriors.

They are the veterans.

They have earned that right to lead the people, for it was their honor, it was their valor.

It was their courage and their bravery.

It was their sacrifices that started this Powwow way of life.

Or when they went into a battle, or they went on a successful hunt, the women would sing those victory songs of gratitude, thanks to (speaking Shoshone), Heavenly Father, creator for bringing their warriors home.

And there was a big celebration, and there was also those victory dances by our warriors.

Those were the first Powwows.

And today's Powwow oftentimes focuses on competition dancing where each category will showcase their style, all at the same time for the judges.

At the end of a three-day Powwow, the announcer will give the list of winners.

And we all hope to be on that winners' list and make it to the pay window at the end of the celebration.

(traditional music) (performer singing) We pay honor, respect and homage to our drums and our singers, for without that drum and without our singers, there would be no dancing.

The old ones tell us that the heartbeat is that drum beat.

The heartbeat of Mother Earth is that drum beat.

As long as there's that drum beat, as long as there's a heartbeat for Mother Earth, there will be a beautiful life.

So we celebrate this way.

Each of those Powwow categories has specific songs that go with it.

A true mark of a championship drum group is their ability to pull up the appropriate song at a moment's notice.

That song, (traditional music) that drum beat, those voices has great power.

You can feel that positive, uplifting power of the drum.

It's healing.

It's good medicine for the people.

(performer beating drum and singing) Some say that the best dancers, especially the Fancy Feather, the Fancy Shawl, some of the Chicken Dancers, they say that they're the best athletes in the world.

You know, I don't doubt it when they say that, because it is very rigorous.

Some of the songs are (clapping) fast tempo, and you have to keep up with those drums.

And sometimes there's a tie.

Maybe the judges cannot make up their mind, and they ask for another song and another song and another song to break that tie, to pick their favorite dancer, so you have to be in really good shape.

The old ones tell us that our songs and our dances, this Powwow way of life brings blessings of strength and happiness to the people.

So when we have the opportunity to dance, we share that blessing with the people.

(traditional music) (performers singing) Not everybody that's a warrior has been to the service, but everybody that's been to the service is a warrior.

As I understand the story, a fellow by name of Happy Wise, who had died in 1945, had left this piece of land to the American Legion for the purpose of building a American Legion clubhouse.

The American Legion Post and the Wind River Development Fund teamed up to build the Frank B. Wise Business Center where the American Legion now has office space.

The second thing that we agreed to was to build a memorial commemorating that the magnificent stuff that the natives have done as as far as the service goes.

Scott, along with Lisa Wagner of the Wind River Development Fund, worked with Lyle Wadda of the Fort Washakie American Legion Post.

They started developing plans for a fitting memorial to the veterans of the Wind River Indian Reservation, and we brought in an artist from Riverton by the name of Jon Cox.

The four of us kind of become the team to to make the decisions on what to do next.

And so Scott came to me and asked me, You know, what would you do?

But I sat for a little bit and thought, Here's what I'd like to do it.

It was a big it was a much grander scheme than I think what they had envisioned at first, but I presented it to them, this kind of what you're seeing right now.

And they took it.

We talked about some bronze sculpture.

We talked about building a pyramid of rocks, and ultimatel Jon drew out the first, the first stone on a piece of paper and the minute we all seen it, we we knew that, that it captured the spirit of what we wanted.

The group wanted to encapsulate what it means to be a warrior, a very important concept to those they were honoring For native people, The term warrior means a lot.

It's it's a badge of honor.

It's something that that we feel is is something that you take on as as a responsibility.

And it's been that way for for generations and years.

The warrior had a responsibility that they lived up to.

Native people have been participating in in the armed services long before we were actually citizens and had a significantly higher percentage than any other race in the United States.

I mean, just there's just a real pride in being a soldier, a warrior.

It was important to the American Legion Post that the memorial honor both native and non-native warriors that had ever lived within the boundaries of the Wind River Reservation.

We all served next to a variety of races, and so it was it's it's certainly a part of this, that everybody be welcome.

This is about military veterans, and I think that is one of the coolest things about this.

How it came to be is that there's been some division on the tribes inter-tribal and stuff.

They put everything aside to build this thing and they did and look at this.

So we have people from everywhere.

We have both tribes and blacks, whites.

If you lived on the reservation and you were a veteran, you have your name at the website here.

And some of the people on here like that right there is my dad He lived on the reservation for 20 years.

He was a Korean War veteran.

So they were so open and willing to allow everybody to be a part of this.

It really is.

It's cool.

It's also humbling.

I mean, it was really neat.

The design and construction process reflected the group's desire for the imagery to be representative of the Warriors who lived on the reservation.

Jon's skill as an artist brought their vision to life.

I had a scale model built of stones and a site layout at that point in time, and from there we just kept adding and buildin and saying it can only be there.

So it can be that we went to Vermont to a quarry for the granite.

And these are actually sand blasted in here.

My drawings, I sent them in a file and they sand blasted those onto the face of the stones the first stone represents from the scouting era.

And then the next era, you know, when all through the wars up to World War two and then the next one is Korea.

The next one is Vietnam and Desert Storm.

The last one is from there to a current.

There's some beautiful quotes on the back of the stones.

There's there's there's a lot of message in the faces and the activities on the front of it.

If you if you're able to get just right, the four stones line up and make the silhouette of a buffalo.

The buffalo is a significant part of the native survival.

You know, We used it for food and warmth and and tools and shelter and I mean on and on and on.

And so we felt it was very befitting that we that we try to bring that, that part of it into this memorial as well.

... On August twelve, 2021, the memorial was dedicated, over 400 people attended the emotional ceremony which included words from state dignitaries, tribal leaders and veterans.

It proves just how important the memorial is to the community.

I'm in awe.

I am absolutely in awe to think of the veterans that we have here today and to think of those that are in this program and the spirit that is here today.

It is, I think, recognized and you can feel it.

You can feel the horsepower in this room because of those that have gone before and those that have served, and you can feel it in this beautiful Wyoming day.

I bet I've talked to 300 people that have either at the dedication or have made the journey to come up here and without exception, every one of them has just really felt the warmth and wonderfulness.

When you go to war, you experience things that that are difficult.

They're they're they're haunting sometimes, and not everybody has that.

But but those that have it know what I'm talking about and and so we purposely put a red path throughout this memorial and in the native world, we call that red road, that path a healing path.

It's it's where we get our strength to start healing and.

And so for me, this has been part of that to be able to to to walk that path and and to turn loose some things that I needed to turn loose of and then just walk a little closer to the creator.

- Up in Sinks Canyon, there are some petroglyphs up there that depict bighorn sheep that have been dated at around 6,000 years old.

So, bighorn sheep have had a major presence in the Wind Riverr Mountains at least since the last Ice Age.

Even when early settlers moved into this area, they report that bighorn sheep were impressively abundant in the mountains behind Lander.

- If we look at the history of sheep across the West, and including Southern Canada, we had about 1.5 to two million sheep estimated.

Then in the late 1800's, early 1900's, we had domestic sheep come into the area.

Because of disease transmission, those numbers dropped to about 25,000 was all.

That's kind of what happened across the West.

- It wasn't until the early 1960's that some residents in town talked to the Game and Fish Department about getting bighorn sheep back into the area.

So, they brought some bighorn sheep down from Whiskey Mountain, up in Dubois, and started to repopulate Sinks Canyon and other areas along the Wind River front here.

That continued into the '80's.

At that point in time, a pretty thriving herd existed of bighorn sheep.

Unfortunately, in 1992, there was a gentleman that lived near Sinks Canyon.

He and his wife brought 15 or so domestic sheep onto their property there.

They only had them for four months, but in that four month period, there was some co-mingling between bighorn sheep and domestic sheep.

Some pneumonia causing bacteria were passed to the bighorn sheep.

Within a couple years, bighorn sheep had just virtually disappeared again.

Of course, we all know that Bam-Bam was the very last bighorn sheep that was alive in Sinks Canyon.

He'd butt people, and he'd chase cars, and what not, and he got himself in trouble.

For safety reasons, his and people, the Game and Fish Department removed him to the Sybille Big Game Research Station.

He died, I think, in 2013.

His body, now, is back up in Sinks Canyon mounted in the Visitors' Center at the State Park.

We're looking at information and some other alternatives now that will hopefully enable us to find a good pathway to restore the population along the entire Wind River front.

- We look at several projects per year, and this was one of the projects that came in for funding.

We've raised about $42,000 in the last couple years just for the Temple Peak herd, and to capture the sheep that we have recently.

Of course, the funds are used for the radio collars, the capturing themselves.

The most most expensive part is the helicopter.

(guitar music) - This is the second year of deployment of collars here, and we've got some movement data from last year that showed some of the bighorn sheep from this area spending time up near the Cirque of the Towers.

Some of the others went into higher country on the reservation in the Bull Lake Creek drainage.

Some stayed pretty much right where they were when we caught them last February.

Certainly, we're gonna need to see where some of these bighorns that are being collared today move to, try to figure out suitability of migrations from places where we don't even have bighorn sheep right now, like in Sinks Canyon, or Little Popo Agie Canyon.

If those bighorn sheep were released there, do they have the ability to even get to the high country with habitat conditions between the alpine tundra and the low elevation winter ranges.

- A lot of those collars will stay on for several years until they either drop off or the battery dies.

They either have the information stored on board, or they can actually upload that information to a satellite, which you can then download within a day.

A lot of the samples that are collected, blood samples, a lot of the biological samples, we'll actually send them out to the State Vet Lab in Laramie, and they'll go ahead and do tests for that, and run genetic tests, and look for any diseases that they might find.

- Right now, we cannot do any transplants from any other herds within the state of Wyoming or other states unless they're pretty well disease free.

We'll see exactly what kind of diseases they have, and that will determine whether we can transplant other sheep in there because we do not want to be introducing any other diseases to the existing sheep.

- [Stan] It'll take some time to get the results back from all the pathology testing.

- I mean, I think it's really important that states like Wyoming, and a lot of the other states across the Inner Mountain West, especially have cooperative wildlife research units.

I think it's important that not only is the state agency using science and some of these research techniques in their management objectives, but also gives graduate students like me a chance to work with game and fish.

Again, we're feeding right back into that system, and those managers are using some of the best technology, some of the best science in the field today to make some of those management decisions.

- It could be weeks, months, years before we move forward to start making decisions on whether to transplant bighorn sheep into the herd unit again.