Episode 2 - Healing in Community with the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative

The Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative (WRTBI) is an Indigenous-led organization which is restoring the Buffalo as wildlife and relative through land rematriation on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes. Learn more about the importance of Buffalo restoration in this interview with Kaycee Prevedel and Dawn Stagner.

Kaycee Prevedel is the Partnership and Communications Director for the WRTBI. Kaycee is passionate about land protection and wildlife restoration. In college, she graduated with an advanced degree in American Studies with a focus on Indigenous Land Rights. Before WRTBI, she worked for the Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter as a wildlife and public lands advocate, as well as for the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, and the National Park Service at Mesa Verde National Park. Her expertise is in public/ancestral land protection and Tribal co-management. Kaycee is a Land Back advocate and is driven to amplify the efforts of Native-led organizations, especially WRTBI.

Dawn Stagner is the Community Engagement Director for the WRTBI. Dawn is a writer and award-winning journalist who specializes in Indigenous land rights. She has two degrees in American Studies – an undergraduate degree from University of Wyoming and a masters from Bowling Green State University – where she studied Indigenous history and literature. Born and raised in central Wyoming, Stagner is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and she is an Eastern Shoshone descendant. A lifelong interest in wildlife and Indigenous rights has guided her writing on Buffalo as well as rez dogs and cattle. She wants her skills as a storyteller to provide support for the Buffalo, youth, and community at-large here at the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative.

Show notes:

Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative: https://windriverbuffalo.org/

Learn more about Wind River reservation treaties and Treaty Day: https://windriverbuffalo.org/what-is-treaty-day/

WRTBI is a Rematriation partner of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery: through our Land Justice Fund the Coalition has helped raise funds to buy back parcels of land and expand the territory the Buffalo can roam. We also have a working group that works with WRTBI in support of their initiatives. To connect with and support the Coalition’s WRTBI working group email [email protected]

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