Create opportunity through our Tribal Youth Outreach Program for Tribal Youth to see Wild Buffalo for the first time and to gain Knowledge through Science-Based Facts and Policy for use in Learning, Treaty Tribal Rights, and Co-Stewardship.

Our Tribal Programs embrace cross-cultural cooperation to restore Yellowstone’s Buffalo and  their habitat, Indigenous lifeways and tribal sovereignty. Tribal Programs are embedded into the core of Buffalo Field Campaign, merging advocacy for the Buffalo with Indigenous leadership voices in policy decision-making and management.

Buffalo Field Campaign Board Member, James Holt, a Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu, tribal member, will welcome Nez Perce youth at our headquarters. Mr. Holt’s goal is to provide a tailored cultural experience for Nez Perce Tribal Youth, both inside Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and the GYE, including landmarks, village locations, history and subsistence lifeways. Buffalo Field Campaign Board Vice President and Tribal Programs Director, Dallas Gudgell, Yankton Dakota and a Fort Peck tribal member, will also lead youth groups from the Wind River Reservation to our headquarters. We provide a unique experience for tribal youth to connect with Aboriginal homelands and Aboriginal food sources in many ways, including visits with the Buffalo in the field. Our headquarters at the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park and 12-acre lodge overlooking Hebgen Lake fosters in native youth relationships with the Buffalo, each other and the natural world. We and our youth participants strengthen their relationships with tribes in Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho. Our highly trained staff curate and facilitate all outings as well as engagements back at camp headquarters. 

We work with all Indigenous tribes and communities with treaties and ancestral-placed tribal lifeways to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We wish to expand our youth program by including additional participants from tribes we currently have a relationship with including the Nez Perce Tribe, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Blackfeet Nation,  the Crow Tribe as well as non-treaty tribes of the Northern Arapaho and Chiwawia Cree of Rocky Boy.

We protect Buffalo against threats to their population, their habitat and species viability, moreover species vitality, and we stand with Indigenous tribes to honor the sacredness of wild Buffalo. We understand the importance of centering tribal voices in environmental and ecosystem-based decisions relating to the management of Buffalo. Our scientific principles guiding Yellowstone bison management, ecology and ecosystem science are supported by robust, objective research. The desired outcome of Indigenous leadership and management of wild Buffalo is to restore biodiversity and reverse climate warming.