Bringing bison back to indigenous lands

About this episode

The episode discusses the documentary 'Bring them Home' and the efforts to return bison to their ancestral lands.

Montana filmmaker Daniel Glick decided to make a film about bison just because he loved the animals and wanted to be around them. He teamed up with Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald to co-direct the documentary, Bring them Home, narrated by Lily Gladstone. The film explores the history of bison on the North American continent and the Blackfeet nation in particular; the parallel genocides of native people and the animal that provided them with sustenance, both practical and spiritual; and the movement to bring surviving herds of bison back to their ancestral lands. In this podcast Ivan and Daniel talk about the process of making the film, the significance of bison, and the challenges—and moments of grace—in the decades-long grassroots efforts to return them. TIMELINE 2'28 WHY bring home buffalo 4'54 bringing back a wild herd that was once with Blackfeet people to their ancestral land 5'42 do the buffalo know they're coming home? 6'35 how the film came to be, Daniel wanted to spend time with buffalo 7'54 the creation stories and the relationship between Blackfeet and buffalo 9'35 vision of buffalo returning to the land, but it wasn't easy to implement 11'27 Blackfeet…

People in this episode

Guests: Daniel Glick, Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald

Topics covered

• bison
• indigenous lands
• documentary filmmaking
• Blackfeet culture
• grassroots movements

Keywords

• bison
• Blackfeet
• documentary
• indigenous
• grassroots
• wildlife
• colonialism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Blackfeet

Books & works: Bring them Home

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