Environmental historian and Indigenous writer Rosalyn LaPier often encounters a common misconception when they collaborate with international colleagues. “People from other parts of the world often think that Americans have all seen bison because they’re the national mammal,” said LaPier, who is a professor of History and American Indian studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. “But many Americans still haven’t seen a bison outside of a zoo.”
This lack of familiarity with bison (which are commonly referred to as buffalo) would have been unimaginable to LaPier’s ancestors, whose entire existence revolved around buffalo. LaPier is a member of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana and Canada’s Métis people. Both are Great Plains Native communities that revered buffalo and utilized the massive mammals for nearly every aspect of their daily lives including food, clothing and shelter.
The relationship between Native communities and buffalo is a central theme of the National Museum of Natural History’s new exhibition “Bison: Standing Strong,” which opened earlier this month. LaPier and several other Indigenous scholars and representatives worked with the museum as advisors on the new exhibition.