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Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya chronicles a decades-long initiative by members of the Blackfoot Confederacy to bring wild buffalo (Blackfeet: iinnii) back to the Blackfeet Reservation.
Berkeley Public Library is proud to present a screening of the documentary film Bring Them Home. Join us for light refreshments, all ages activities, and the amazing story of how the bison at the Oakland Zoo were brought back from near extinction through the perseverance of members of Blackfeet Nation and the Iinii (Buffalo) Initiative! Join us at North Branch for a Saturday matinee!
About Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya:
Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya chronicles a decades-long initiative by members of the Blackfoot Confederacy to bring wild buffalo (Blackfeet: iinnii) back to the Blackfeet Reservation. A thriving wild buffalo population would not only reconnect Blackfeet with a central part of their heritage, spirituality and identity, but would provide economic opportunities and healing for the community. Along the way, however, the initiative faces obstacles from ranchers who see the buffalo as a threat to the cattle ranches that dominate the land and are a legacy of colonization.
Bring Them Home examines the deeply meaningful role that buffalo played in Blackfeet life prior to the arrival of settlers who nearly eradicated wild buffalo in an effort to eradicate the Blackfeet people. For Blackfeet, the buffalo are seen not only as fundamental to a healthy ecosystem, but as spiritual relatives. Their removal from the land meant the loss of the Blackfeet way of life, the trauma of which still reverberates today.
In the present day, the film focuses on main protagonists who are at the heart of the effort to reclaim these traditions through wildlife conservation: Ervin Carlson, director of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program and Paulette Fox, co-creator of the Iinii Initiative They join forces with non-native conservation groups, such as the Oakland Zoo, who recognize the buffalo as a keystone species not only for Blackfeet lands, but for North America’s ecological stability. Ultimately, they strive to return to the wild a herd of buffalo that are direct descendants of the buffalo that originally inhabited their land.
Learn more about the Iinnii Initiative at Oakland Zoo:
Oakland Zoo aids in increasing the wild population of North American bison through an outbreeding and release program. This partnership allows new genes to intentionally be integrated into buffalo herds. Buffalo are brought to the zoo’s rolling hills habitat to roam and breed with the zoo’s bison population. Once old enough, offspring are returned to the Blackfeet tribal lands to roam freely. In 2016, Oakland Zoo, WCS, and the Blackfeet tribes began this partnership. The agreement allowed 88 Bison from Elk Island National Park in Canada to be relocated to their ancestral lands on the Two Medicine River, in Browning, Montana. Oakland Zoo selected 11 animals from the herd to be part of the outbreeding program. The ultimate goal is for descendants from the new blended herd, including calves born at the zoo, to supply further restorations on wild landscapes in the Blackfeet Territory. The resurgence of bison where they have been absent for a century will greatly benefit the prairie ecosystem and other wildlife as well.
EVENT TYPE: | Movies, Music & Performance | Cultural & Heritage |
