Man’s relationship with his surrounding nature is also the tale of his evolution. Across the globe, civilizations evolved by depending on animals, land, and how humans chose to interact with our environment. A new documentary by Ken Burns, The American Buffalo, will tell the biography of the US national animal tracing its near demise and ultimate return and will examine the species’ connection to Indigenous Communities. The two-part series has been in production for four years, and will take viewers on a “journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes”
“It is a quintessentially American story,” Burns said. Adding, it is “filled with unforgettable stories and people. But it is also a morality tale encompassing two historically significant lessons that resonate today: how humans can damage the natural world and also how we can work together to make choices to preserve the environment around us.” For the director, the story of the American buffalo is also the story of Native nations who lived with and relied on the buffalo to survive and developed a sacred relationship.
For long, the American buffalos have evolved alongside Indigenous people who relied on them for food and shelter. These stories of Native people anchor the series, featuring the Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne of the Southern Plains, the Pawnee of the Central Plains, the Salish, Kootenai, Lakota, Mandan-Hidatasa, Aaniiih, Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Blackfeet from the Northern Plains, among many others. Historian Rosalyn LaPier divulges in the documentary.
