Bison Return to Native American Lands, Revitalizing Sacred Rituals

For years, meals at the summer sun dance ceremonies on the Eastern Shoshone tribe’s lands in Wyoming were missing something that was once a staple of the sacred rituals.

There was no presence of homegrown bison, an animal central to the spiritual customs and beliefs of the Shoshone and other Native Americans.

Now, meals at the annual ceremonies, which have just begun for this summer, will feature bison meat that, for the first time in 138 years, was harvested from the tribe’s own lands. The multiday sacred ritual involves dancing, fasting and praying, often within a sweat lodge made from natural […]

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