The Buffalo Box sits in the center of a small table, surrounded by objects taken out for display—everything from handheld weapons to body lotion, all of which derive from the American bison.

Two educators from the InterTribal Buffalo Council are stationed here, beside the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Kitchen Garden, meticulously handling pieces of buffalo that their Native communities have transformed into this wide array of functional and cultural items. (In North America, “buffalo” commonly refers to the American bison, which is distinct from the true buffalo species found in Africa and Asia.) As wide-eyed visitors pass their demonstration, the pair explain how this animal and their Native American heritage walk side by side through history—that is, up until colonial settlers arrived on their land.

“We call ourselves Buffalo People,” explains Summer Afraid of Hawk (Cheyenne River Lakota), a herd development grant specialist. “It’s in our DNA to share this relationship with them.” She presents a pouch, made of a bison’s liver and skin. “The buffalo provide us with food and clothing. We use every part of it and are very grateful for their presence.” She picks up a small white buffalo bone, smoothed down to use as a paintbrush.

“Native people and the buffalo have coexisted for millennia,” says wildlife biologist Mikiya Reuther (Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe). For the Plains tribes, the buffalo is not just an animal; it represents life and survival. Native Americans have used the buffalo in every aspect of their lives: their wool for warmth, meat for sustenance, skins for clothing, and bones for tools, weapons, and jewelry.

Afraid of Hawk introduces the next object on the table: a hollow horn. “You can drink out of it,” she says. “We use it in a ceremony like a cup.”

The Plains Indians hold a post-hunt ceremony to thank the spirits for the bison they have hunted and the animal for its sacrifice. In the past, their appreciation for what the buffalo gave them, and the way they carefully culled the herds, allowed the animal to thrive.

The arrival of European colonizers shattered this coexistence. Although some settlers, following the example of the Native peoples, shot bison merely for their pelts and meat, the U.S. government sought to diminish tribal populations by pushing the buffalo to the brink of extinction. Military commanders were given license to kill as many buffalo as possible. Dignitaries from around the world attended massive hunts organized by the U.S. army. Troops shot buffalo for target practice. The U.S. government encouraged the slaughter by providing settlers and tourists with ammunition and reward money.

The strategy aimed to weaken, starve, and push Indigenous tribes off the land, forcing them to give up traditional ways of living. “Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone,” wrote army colonel Richard Dodge, then stationed in the Black Hills, located in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming.

Before settlers pushed west, the American bison population was estimated at 60 million. By the mid-1880s, that number was reduced to a few hundred. The tribes of the Great Plains began to lose knowledge of how buffalo was hunted and prepared.

“We were being forced off our lands and moved onto reservations,” Reuther explains. “We weren’t allowed to have cattle. We didn’t have these rights. But a lot of tribes and families would capture stranded buffalo calves and raise them in secret.”

Since the 1900s, numerous efforts by public and private groups have worked to restore bison populations. Efforts by the Smithsonian to return bison populations began with William Temple Hornaday’s work in the late 1800s, when he collected some of the last remaining bison to create a mounted collection, as well as aiding in the establishment of the National Zoo, where the first live animals were bison.

In 1991, tribes from over twenty states united to form the InterTribal Buffalo Council. Representatives from the Lakota, Crow, Shoshone-Bannock, Gros Ventre/Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Pueblo, Winnebago, Choctaw, Round Valley, and other tribes convened in South Dakota, uniting to restore bison populations on tribal lands for cultural and spiritual enhancement and preservation.

Today, Plains tribes hold buffalo harvests about four times a year, each lasting two to three hours. They use modern rifles, but these hunts are more than just a means of sustenance—they are a profound rite of passage.

“That’s where our young boys became young men,” Afraid of Hawk explains.

The past fifteen years have witnessed a surge in the cultural reclamation of the buffalo, a movement that has breathed new life into old tribal practices. “The community comes together and learns how we use the buffalo and our cultural ties to it,” Afraid of Hawk notes.

Central to the InterTribal Buffalo Council’s educational mission is the Buffalo Box, which is also useful outside of Native lands. “We want to demonstrate all of the ways you can utilize the buffalo, both historically and today,” Afraid of Hawk says. The council aims to reestablish herds while educating the public—like visitors at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival—about the significance and history of the buffalo’s connection to Native Americans.

“Through education, it shows non-Natives our perspective and our relationship with the buffalo,” Reuther says. “We have a profound connection to the Earth and the land. The goal is to showcase how we live and our rituals.”

The organization manages over 32 million acres of tribal lands in the United States and has successfully restored buffalo to nearly one million of those acres. To promote sustainable upkeep of the herds and self-sufficiency among Native communities, the council also maintains a harvesting trailer, which hunters can use to process all parts of the animal on-site in traditional ways, similar to their ancestors. This practice connects the present to the past, bridging Native Plains people with their predecessors.

“It’s beautiful to be able to do the same practice that our ancestors have done before us,” Afraid of Hawk. “I’ve seen a young man take down a bison with a bow and arrow.”

Among Lakota people, she explains, the division of labor during a harvest was clear: men hunted and women processed the animal. “It was traditionally the woman’s task to break down the animal, take down the hide, remove and clean the organs, and do all the processing.” Now, it’s not the individual roles that are important but the collaborative nature of their community. “It’s really nice and fulfilling that we get to work with an organization that helps restore buffalo.”

The revival of these practices is not just about honoring the past; it’s about learning and growing.

“In this way, we connect to our relatives,” Afraid of Hawk continues. “We get to learn about our ancestors in a different light. We can start to think like them, start asking the same questions as they once did. That’s how we teach ourselves, and that’s how we learn.”

Hannah Pomeranzeva is a writing intern at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. She is a senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, with plans to pursue creative writing, human rights, and international relations.