As a little girl, Indigenous filmmaker Tasha Hubbard would imagine herds of buffalo roaming the prairie landscape in which she lived. 165 years ago, a herd of buffalo on the Great Plains of North America would take two days to pass by. After three decades of deliberate slaughter, there were less than 500 left from the over 30-50 million that moved across the continent, drastically impacting Indigenous nations.

The buffalo’s fate reflected Indigenous people’s confinement to reserves. For over a century, neither have been free to walk the lands that have been Indigenous for millennia. 

Indigenous point of view, we understand the importance of rematriating teachings from the buffalo, and how the land needs the buffalo back more than ever in this time of climate change, food insecurity, and uncertainty. We meet Indigenous visionaries, leaders, scientists, and communities who are restoring the buffalo to the land they once defined. Their return back across the heart of North America signals a turning point for Indigenous nations, the environment and all of humanity’s long-term collective survival.