Tanka Fund moving, restoring bison

In 2006, co-founders of Native American Natural Foods, Mark Tilsen and Karlene Hunter, started making the Tanka Bar, the first commercial meat and fruit bison bar, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Hunter and Tilsen went on to create Tanka Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation whose mission is to "return buffalo to the lands, lives and economies of Native American people."

Led by The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit that began buying land in that part of South Dakota in 2007, sold some of it to Badlands National Park in 2012. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Defenders of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy teamed up with the National Park Foundation, Badlands Natural History Association, Badlands National Park Conservancy and the National Park Service Centennial Challenge fund to expand the bison range at Badlands National Park by nearly 35 square miles. 

Today, restoring and rewilding American ecosystems are parts of the Green New Deal and with cooperation from the InterTribal Buffalo Council and Democratic former South Dakota State Senator Troy Heinert more bison are coming home to the Nations. Encouraged by President Joe Biden's America the Beautiful initiative the Cheyenne River Buffalo Authority Corporation purchased West Side Meats in Mobridge—now expanding to Eagle Butte. 

Democratic Colorado Senator Michael Bennet and co-sponsor Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) have reintroduced legislation to better clarify the labeling of bison products and prevent the substitution of species like water buffalo.

Dr. Trudy Ecoffey has over 20 years of experience working on research, management, and ecology of bison. She started working with bison and bison related issues when she wrote a curriculum for tribal colleges for her MS degree in Range Ecology and Wildlife from the University of Nebraska. She then completed her PhD from South Dakota State in Biology with a dissertation that investigated tribal bison herds which focused on culture, ecology, management and financing. She later assisted on writing a management guide to help tribal bison managers. Her focus was on disease and health issues for the InterTribal Buffalo Council. Because there are only (approximately) 500,000 bison in North America, animals often need to be acquired through surplus, either from the nonprofits, like the Nature Conservancy or the National Park Service, Ecoffey explained. The Nature Conservancy is providing Tanka Fund and the InterTribal Buffalo Council, a nonprofit whose mission is in alignment with Tanka Fund’s, with approximately 800 bison for Native American producers. [Makers of Tanka Bar look to support, source bison meat from Indian-owned herds]

Mark Tilsen's son, Nick, continues the family's long line of Indigenous activism through work at NDN Collective based in Rapid City.

Learn more at the Bismarck Tribune.

ip photo: Wind Cave National Park in occupied South Dakota.