In Texas, Rematriation Begins in Your Roots

In Waelder, Texas, nearly 80 miles outside San Antonio, Lucille Contreras stands in a pasture surrounded by native grasses and trees. Her feet are rooted in the soil of a healing land and healing culture. But the land she stands on isn’t just a parcel to commoditize or take from, it’s her relative and ancestor that has seen the flow of indigeneity and holds the history of her people, the Lipan Apache—Texas Indigenous lineal descendants—in its roots. Helping to heal this relative are the 28 buffalo, or lyane’e, that now roam across 77 acres, providing a pathway and connection for Indigenous caretakers like Lucille and the other women who lead the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project.

These women have taken on the monumental task of helping to heal generational trauma of the Lipan Apache, and other native nations bordering their traditional ranges, through rematriation with the land by restoring the southern plains bison to the landscape.

The American lyane’e’s story is not untold but for those unfamiliar or just learning, the bison once ruled the great plains from Montana down to southern Texas, however reached near extinction toward the end of the 19th century due to white colonizer’s attempts to subjugate Indigenous peoples. The Iyane’e represent sovereignty as a source of spirituality, food, shelter, clothing, medicine, tools, and other living essentials. To eliminate the species was to eliminate Indigenous culture and way of life, paving way for a new regime.

Beyond their ancestral and familial tie, the bison’s natural behavior improved soil health, and promoted biodiversity and plant growth, acting as a keystone species that rejuvenated the land and brought prosperity to ecosystems, including Indigenous peoples. But like the resurgence of the Lipan Apache and Indigenous descendants in Texas, the lyane’e have also experienced a prolific reintroduction across turtle island, commonly known as North America.

“As Lipan Apache women we are interested in providing a resurgence of a native life that promotes health and vitality to the land and people, providing space where Tribal people living on indigenous Texas Tribal lands, can reconnect with our Buffalo relatives and live in balance with nature.”

“As Texas Indigenous people we have longed to be home. Longed to be together. Longed to be returned to our roots in the soil. Our roots in the grass. Our roots in our native trees. And these connections were lost when the buffalo was taken away from us. The devastation that occurred to the land, the dust bowl, was a direct result of the loss of the bison relatives on our land. And that was also the result of the loss of our language as Texas Indigenous people.” 

A Regenerative Agriculture

With the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, Lucille and her team are setting the groundwork for a regenerative bison herd that mimics the natural movement and behaviors of their ancestors, helping to heal the land they graze on. By roaming, the herd’s graze patterns naturally regenerate the soil and encourage diversity of plant growth. This regenerative agriculture is part of a traditional Native way of farming that focuses on improving the overall health of the land, including practices like crop rotation, cover cropping, and minimizing chemical use.

Currently, the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project’s Regenerative Agriculture Initiative involves restoring blackland prairie and cultivating brome grass, with the goal of using the most suitable seed species to remediate the land and enhance biodiversity.

“Western and modern agriculture is embracing holistic or sustainable practices. Those are actually older, traditional, Native methods of identifying with the land as our relative. We are not here to gain and see what we can extract from the land, we are here to see what we can offer to the land for the land’s wellbeing for our future generations. This is how my grandparents raised me and that we know is part of our cultural way of being. It’s considered holistic but really it’s just the way we live on the red road.”

In short, when you nurture and care for the land it will in turn care for and nurture you in return in a cyclical, regenerative practice.

Food Sovereignty

This idea of regenerative agriculture also relates to food sovereignty and the importance and right of Indigenous peoples to control their own food systems with an emphasis on local, community-based food production and culturally appropriate sources. As the largest mammal in North America, bison have been central to Indigenous food systems for millennia and are critical to the survival of Indigenous peoples, supplying their food, shelter, and tools.

Food sovereignty also advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples to be independent of large corporations or external sources and reconnect with the nourishment that sustained their ancestors. The Texas Tribal Buffalo Project food sovereignty initiatives includes partnerships with local school districts and indigenous community food banks to provide bison meat for their relatives.

This offers better health alternatives through the sale of quality bison meat while providing education and reconnection for the community about the cyclical agriculture practices that help sustain them.

A Path Forward

The Texas Tribal Buffalo Project is creating a model they say can be replicated by any Indigenous community, their approach based on economic and environmental justice, agriculture and land regeneration. Right now, their herd is at capacity for the land they have available and they’re determined to continue expanding their footprint.

Lucille and the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project recently acquired land in Floresville, some 90 miles away but they need help to secure fencing materials and labor before they can focus on expanding the herd. Visit their website to learn more about how you can get involved by volunteering or contribute to their mission.

With support, the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project can continue providing for Indigenous communities and improving the health of the land for future generations.