"A new pilot program announced this week aims to localize meat distribution, support small businesses and improve food distribution on reservations".
"EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. – Since the near extinction of the buffalo mostly by White settlers, the animal has become a symbol of both Indigenous resilience and food sovereignty. Now, buffalo are central to a new pilot program to improve food distribution on Native land.
Millions of buffalo were killed for the expansion of the transcontinental U.S. railroad and to reduce a key food source of plains tribes. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it is beginning to reconcile the government's role in the near extinction by supporting buffalo ranchers, specifically Indigenous-operated small businesses.
“The conservation efforts by the tribes and others to restore the bison population since then have been very successful,” said Heather Dawn Thompson, USDA director of the Office of Tribal Relations and a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. “The federal government has a role in ensuring that perhaps wrongheaded policy in the past is reversed. And so USDA is happy to be a part of the federal partnership and support the restoration of bison.”"
Amelia Schafer reports for ICT and Rapid City Journal October 13, 2023.
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