The Intertribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), also known as the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, is a collection of 82 federally recognized tribes from 20 different states whose mission is to restore

buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

Indian Country Indian country is any of the self-governing Native American or American Indian communities throughout the United States. Colloquially, this refers to lands governed by federally recognized tribes and state recognized tribes. The concept of tri ...

in order to preserve the historical, cultural, traditional, and spiritual relationships for future Native American generations. Surplus bison from places such as

Badlands National Park Badlands National Park () is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in southwestern South Dakota. The park protects of sharply Erosion, eroded buttes and Pinnacle (geology), pinnacles, along with the l ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

, and

Grand Canyon National Park Grand Canyon National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in northwestern Arizona, the 15th site to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyo ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

are relocated to member tribes. Collectively, the ITBC manages over 20,000 bison on over 1,000,000 acres of tribal lands.

History

In February 1991, in the

Black Hills The Black Hills is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to , is the range's highest summit. The name of the range ...

of South Dakota, the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society hosted nineteen tribes to discuss ways to reestablish healthy buffalo populations on tribal lands. They decided to form an organization to assist tribes with buffalo programs. That June, Congress appropriated funding for tribal buffalo programs. Tribal representatives met in December to discuss how these appropriations would be spent. In April 1992 tribal representatives gathered in Albuquerque, NM and officially formed the InterTribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC). Officers were elected and began developing their criteria for membership, articles of incorporation, and by-laws. In September 1992, ITBC was incorporated in the state of Colorado and that summer ITBC was headquartered in Rapid City, South Dakota. In 2010 it was reorganized from a nonprofit to a federally chartered Indian Organization under Section 17 of the

Indian Reorganization Act The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...

as the InterTribal Buffalo Council. On September 25, 2014, in Browning, MT, eight tribes, including four ITBC member tribes, from the US and Canada signed the Buffalo Treaty committing to returning the buffalo to their lands and into their lives. On May 9, 2016, US Congress signed into law the National Bison Legacy Act, establishing the American bison as the national mammal. The ITBC was part of a coalition that helped pass the law. The ITBC is working to pass the Indian Buffalo Management Act, which would establish a permanent program within the Department of the Interior to develop and promote tribal ownership and management of buffalo and buffalo habitat on Indian lands. Since its formation, the ITBC has grown from 19 member tribes to 82 and continues to grow.

Members

As of December 2021, its members included: # Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor #

Blackfeet Nation The Blackfeet Nation (, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Montana. Tribal members primarily belong ...

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are a united, federally recognized tribe of Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne people in western Oklahoma. History The Cheyennes and Arapahos are two distinct tribes with distinct histories. The Cheyenne (Ts ...

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey ...

# Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Reservation # Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation # Confederated Tribes of Umatilla # Crow Creek Sioux Tribe # Crow Tribe of Indians #

Eastern Shoshone Tribe Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe () are a federally recognized tribe of Santee Dakota people. Their reservation is the Flandreau Indian Reservation. The tribe are members of the Mdewakantonwan people, one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) ...

Forest County Potawatomi The Forest County Potawatomi Community () is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people with approximately 1,400 members as of 2010. The community is based on the Forest County Potawatomi Indian Reservation, which consists of numerous n ...

# Fort Belknap Indian Community # Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes #

Ho-Chunk Nation The Ho-Chunk Nation ( Ho-Chunk language: ) is a federally recognized tribe of the Ho-Chunk with traditional territory across five states in the United States: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri. The other federally recognized tri ...

Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is one of two federally recognized tribes for the Iowa people. The other is the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. Traditionally Iowas spoke the Chiwere language, part of the Siouan language family. Their own name for ...

Jicarilla Apache Nation Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athaba ...

# Kalispel Tribe of Indians #

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, also known as the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa Indians or the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Ojibwe: ''Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag Ojibweg'') is a federally recognized Ojibwe band located in Minnesota and one ...

Lower Brule Sioux Tribe The Lower Brule Indian Reservation (, 'lower people nation') is an Indian reservation that belongs to the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. It is located on the west bank of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley counties in central South Dakota in the ...

Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians The Mesa Grande Band of Diegueño Mission Indians of the Mesa Grande Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Iipay Indians,Pritzker, 146-7 who are sometimes known as Mission Indians. Reservation The Mesa Grande Reservation () is a feder ...

# Meskwaki Nation (Sac & Fox Tribe of MS in IA) # MHA Nation (Three Affiliated Tribes) #

Modoc Nation The Modoc Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Modoc people, located in Ottawa County in the northeast corner of Oklahoma and Modoc and Siskiyou counties in northeast California.Self, Burl EModoc.''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia ...

# Nambé O-Ween-Gé # Native Village of Ruby #

Northern Arapaho Tribe The Wind River Indian Reservation, in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, is shared by two Native American tribes, the Eastern Shoshone (, ''meaning: "buffalo eaters"'') and the Northern Arapaho (). Roughly east to west by ...

Northern Cheyenne Tribe The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation () is the federally recognized Northern Cheyenne tribe and a Plains tribe. The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation is reservation located in southeastern Montana, that is a ...

Oglala Sioux Tribe The Oglala (pronounced , meaning 'to scatter one's own' in Lakota) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live on the P ...

# Ohkay Owingeh/San Juan Pueblo #

Omaha Tribe of Nebraska The Omaha are a federally recognized Midwestern Native American tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discip ...

Oneida Nation The Oneida Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Oneida people in Wisconsin. The tribe's reservation spans parts of two counties west of the Green Bay metropolitan area. The reservation was established by treaty in 1838, and was allotted to ...

Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...

Picuris Pueblo Picuris Pueblo (; Tiwa: P'įwweltha ’ī̃wːēltʰà is a historic pueblo in Taos County, New Mexico, United States. The federally recognized tribe of Pueblo people inhabit the community. Picurís Pueblo is a member of the Eight Northern Pueb ...

Pit River Tribe The Pit River Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of eleven bands of indigenous peoples of California. They primarily live along the Pit River in the northeast corner of California.Ponca Tribe of Nebraska The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is one of two federally recognized tribes of the Ponca people. The other is the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. , the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s total population is 5,334 citizens, of which 1,923 reside in Nebras ...

Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (, formerly the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Indians) is a federally recognized tribe of Neshnabé (Potawatomi people), headquartered near Mayetta, Kansas. History The ''Mshkodésik'' ("People of the Small Prairie ...

Prairie Island Community Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

# Pueblo de Cochiti # Pueblo of Pojaque # Pueblo of Sandia # Pueblo of Tesuque # Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma # Red Lake Nation Band of Chippewa # Rosebud Sioux Tribe # Round Valley Indian Tribes # Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska # Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community # Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska # Seminole Nation of Oklahoma # Seneca-Cayuga Nation # Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community # Shoshone Bannock Tribes # Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate # Skull Valley of Goshutes # Southern Ute Tribe # Spirit Lake Nation # Standing Rock Sioux Tribe # Stevens Village # Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians # Taos Pueblo # Tonkawa Tribe # Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa # Ute Indian Tribe # White Earth Nation # Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska # Yakama Nation # Yankton Sioux Tribe

References

{{reflist Native American organizations Nature reserves in the United States