PBS film on Blackfeet buffalo return narrated by Lily Gladstone.

13 hours ago7 min read4 comments

In the profound intersection of ecological restoration and cultural reclamation, a new PBS documentary narrated and executive-produced by Oscar-nominated actor Lily Gladstone, 'Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya,' chronicles the Blackfeet Nation's decades-long struggle to return the wild buffalo, or iinnii, to their ancestral lands. This is not merely a conservation story; it is a narrative of spiritual and sovereign revival, a fight against a historical wound inflicted when white settlers systematically exterminated the buffalo herds as a deliberate strategy to displace and dismantle Indigenous nations.For the Blackfeet, the buffalo is not just an animal but the core of their identity, a relationship Gladstone, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, describes as deeply personal, stating she cannot recall a time without a profound awareness that buffalo are at the heart of who they are as a people. Directed by Blackfeet siblings Ivan and Ivy MacDonald alongside filmmaker Daniel Glick, the film meticulously explores the complex, ongoing conflicts on tribal lands straddling the U.S. and Canada, where the ideal of free-roaming buffalo collides with modern realities of partitioned ranches and entrenched political resistance from cattle ranchers.The documentary reveals the painstaking, often disheartening work of tribal officials who must navigate internal politics, generational shifts in perspective, and the logistical nightmare of sometimes having to sell herds only to repurchase them later as sentiments evolve, all while striving to instill 'buffalo awareness' in their youth. This effort is mirrored in a broader context across the Great Plains, where similar battles between tribal elders, conservationists, and agricultural interests highlight a fundamental clash of worldviews: one that sees land as a relational relative to be healed and another that views it as a commodity to be managed.Gladstone’s involvement was contingent on the project centering Indigenous voices, a critical lens that elevates the film from a simple environmental piece to a powerful testament of cultural survival. She powerfully connects this struggle to her own lineage, tracing her bond to her ancestor Red Crow, a Kainai chief who witnessed the catastrophic 19th-century shift from a buffalo-based to a cattle-based economy, a transition he lamented by noting his people were transforming from buffalo people to cattle people—a reality that, as Gladstone observes, remains hauntingly true in many ways today. By linking the fate of the buffalo directly to the fate of the Blackfeet people, the film argues that true conservation is inseparable from justice and cultural continuity, a poignant reminder in an age of commodification that, as Gladstone concludes, connection to land and animals is not a transaction but a lived experience fundamental to existence.

#Lily Gladstone

#Blackfeet Nation

#buffalo restoration

#documentary

#Indigenous voices

#cultural survival

#featured

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