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The city of Denver bought a handful of bison more than a century ago, displaying the animals as a Wild West novelty. Who knew? Colorado Public Radio Sam Brasch did and reports that now the herd helps Denver's Indigenous residents connect with their heritage. We should warn you - you'll hear a rifle shot about a minute into this story.
SAM BRASCH, BYLINE: It's a cool, clear morning in Daniel's Park, a rocky ridge that's actually outside the city with a wide view of its skyline and the Rocky Mountains. That's where Lewis TallBull welcomes more than 100 visitors.
LEWIS TALLBULL: I'd like to say good morning to each and every one of you. It's good to see you.
BRASCH: A fenced area nearby holds half of Denver's roughly 70 bison, known as buffalo in Native communities. For the last seven years, it's given one annually to the TallBull Memorial Council, a cultural preservation group founded by Lewis' grandfather, a legendary Cheyenne activist who made a point of living in the tribe's ancestral homelands in Colorado. And the group slaughters the buffalo each fall.
TALLBULL: A young warrior's going to lose his life today. But in that way, he's going to provide life.
BRASCH: After a ceremony, TallBull leads the crowd to the edge of the fence.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL GATE CLANGING)
BRASCH: He takes a handful of men through a gate towards a corral holding a 600-pound bull. We watch one of them steady a rifle and fire.
(SOUNDBITE OF RIFLE FIRING)
BRASCH: The buffalo slumps to the ground. Bison harvests are common on reservations. Many tribes keep herds to restore the species and maintain a reliable food source. During the recent government shutdown, for example, some tribes slaughtered bison for meat to make up for partial cuts to federal food benefits.
TALLBULL: Us Indians who are forced to live in the city, we don't have anything like that.
BRASCH: And census data shows nearly three-quarters of American Indians live in urban areas.
TALLBULL: That's what we're doing is we're bringing these traditional ways and these bison harvests that only happen on reservations to the inner city urban communities.
BRASCH: That's possible in Denver. The city first obtained Bison around 1900 from Yellowstone in Northwest Montana - kept them coraled as zoo animals. A few decades later, it moved them into the city's far-flung mountain park system. And to control their numbers, it historically held an annual sale, says Denver Park Ranger Ryan Phillian.
RYAN PHILLIAN: Where we would auction off our calves every single year, and you could have come out and bought a baby bison.
BRASCH: The city started to shift its strategy in 2018. Today, it no longer holds auctions and instead transfers excess bison to Tribal nations, and it allows the TallBull Memorial Council to hold these events.
(SOUNDBITE OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT BEEPING)
BRASCH: That still involves some modern equipment. After elders pay their respects, a frontloader carries the bison to a butchering area. Nine-year-old Malcolm Sanchez is pumped to participate.
MALCOLM SANCHEZ: I think I might get in on that - on cutting that bison.
BRASCH: You can do it?
MALCOLM: I've cut things before.
BRASCH: And he's ready for his mom's bison stew. It's a meal that makes him proud to be Native. His family doesn't belong to a single tribe.
MALCOLM: The only tribe I know of that I'm, like, part of this is the Pueblonian (ph) tribe. I don't know the rest of them 'cause my family is, like, a big mix.
BRASCH: That's common in Denver, a city known as a crossroads for Indigenous people. TallBull is grateful Denver's bison can help bind that community together.
TALLBULL: Reestablishing our identity as Indian people 1% each day is good enough. So this right here is a huge step for us.
BRASCH: He hopes to someday organize multiple harvest events every year. Beyond feeding people, he says it's a way to connect Denver's buffalo to their own heritage, not as curious emblems of the Old West, but cultural sustenance for Native people.
For NPR News, I'm Sam Brasch in Denver.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT SONG, "EVERYBODY DAYLIGHT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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