National Bison Month

Bison is America’s National Mammal, symbolizing a vision of unity, resilience, and health for our country. At this tumultuous moment in history, we all need buffalo more than ever. Nearly wiped from existence by the forces of greed and injustice at the turn of the century, bison’s recovery is a story for us all to turn to and celebrate.

This year, we've decided that commemorating National Bison Day is not enough. Join us in a month long blow out for buffalo. Let’s celebrate these mammals through conversation, art, and collective action. Join us and be a part of a bold vision for the future: rewilding the North American bison from Canada to Mexico.

Event Schedule

Throughout November, join bison supporters in celebrating these magnificent animals and building the movement to restore this icon. Check out the event schedule below and stay tuned as we post more links in the coming days.

National Bison Day

Saturday, November 6
Celebrate the annual commemoration of this icon. Click to share the Buffalo Way with this social media toolkit.

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Buffalo Storytelling Panel

Saturday, November 6 (recording available all month)
Join WCS, Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre, and our partners for stories about buffalo, reclaiming the Buffalo Way, articulating a vision for the future that draws on the wisdom and courage of Buffalo, and evoking Buffalo in our stories, films, literature, photographs, painting, and music.

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Face the Wind

Buffalo Voice: Mark Ruffalo
Thank you David Yarrow, Riverhead LLC, Alec Brown & BC Smith

We can learn a lot from Buffalo and Nature. We’re all in this together. It’s time we work together.

Join the Wildlife Conservation Society and our partners to restore buffalo to their native land.

Buffalo turn into the wind during a storm, rather than away from it. Let’s face the wind like buffalo and together create the just, healthy world we need.

Take Action

We invite you to lend your voice to foundational efforts underway in the United States to bring about the ecological and cultural restoration of wild bison and establish wild, wide-ranging herds that have the freedom to roam across North America, as they once did.

The Department of Interior (DOI) has demonstrated visionary leadership in the launch of its 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative (BCI). Please thank Secretary Bernhardt and the DOI Bison Working Group for their collaborative conservation leadership. Urge the Secretary to fully resource and implement the BCI.

We have a plan. Now we must take action to change the world.

Photo Credit: Julie Larsen Maher © WCS

Watch the Bison Month Poetry Events

Poetry Pachanga

Poetry Circle

In the News

For Bison Day 2021, conservation and reconciliation through buffalo eyes

By Shelly R. Fyant and WCS's Cristina Mormorunni for Mongabay

Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge—so often minimized or just poorly known—can offer us a critical model on how to effectively and holistically address ongoing planetary crises.

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National Bison Day

For National Bison Day, a collection of posts to WCS Wild View about America's National Mammal.

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My Relatives, the Buffalo Nation

By Joseph Gazing Wolf on WCS Wild View

To North America's native communities, relatives are those whose "movement through life and space complements yours in a natural dance that gives meaning to both your existences." The bison, he says, is one such relative.

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The Buffalo Way

By Cristina Mormorunni at Medium

In crisis we also opportunities to turn into the storm, rather than away from it, and Face the Wind as we work to create the future that we want and need.

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NM Helps Shape Bison Conservation

Joseph Talachy, Roger Fragua, and Cristina Mormorunni for the Albuquerque Journal
"A species’ extinction or designating a national monument were huge triumphs in their time, but are no longer bold enough today."

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Bison is a Unifying Icon

John F. Calvelli on Medium
No other native species tells America’s story better than the bison—a symbol of strength and Native American culture.

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Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes Gift Bison to the Bronx Zoo

By WCS Newsroom
The seven female and one male bison were from the Yellowstone National Park bloodline, which are among the few pure herds remaining.

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Pure Bred Bison Born at the Bronx Zoo

By WCS Newsroom

The calves, born to a herd of 7 females and 1 male that arrived at the zoo from Ft. Peck, Montana, helped the zoo further bison conservation efforts.

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A Historic Return of Bison to "Buffalo People"

Harry Barnes & Keith Aune for National Geographic
April 4, 2016, will long be remembered by the Blackfeet Nation, as close to 90 bison calves arrived at the Blackfeet Bison Ranch.

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From Animal Planet's THE ZOO

This new baby bison was one of the first few purebred bison born at the Bronx Zoo, as we work to establish a herd with no domestic cattle genes.

We Need Your Help

Together, we can seize the opportunity to restore bison, an iconic keystone species, to its ancestral habitat. Your support in this time of great challenges and uncertainty is deeply appreciated

Donate

Voices

As we look to shape the future of bison in North America, we must engage a diverse set of voices.

Let’s Face the Wind Together

Buffalo is life and the Buffalo Way embodies the values necessary to sustain all life on Earth.

We are living through some of the most heart-breaking and chaotic times in human history. Like Buffalo, we need to Face the Wind during stormy times, rather than turn from it.

Join the Wildlife Conservation Society and our partners in reclaiming the Buffalo Way. We work to embody the language and culture of the Buffalo Way: Relationship. Respect. Reciprocity. Resilience. Reconnection. Rematriation. Reconciliation.

We invite you to tell us – how do you plan to turn and face the wind? How will you follow the Buffalo Way and work to protect all life? Share on social media with #FaceTheWind.

Now is the time to act. Let’s turn and face the wind TOGETHER like Buffalo, and cleave a new path to a just, equitable, and wild future for all of humanity and the wild beings who share our home planet.

WCS Strategies

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