((PKG)) BUFFALO RANCHER
((TRT: 07.00))
((Topic Banner: Buffalo Rancher))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Dylan Baddour))
((Map: Waelder, Texas))
((Main character: 1 female))
((Sub character: 1 male))
((NATS: Singing))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
((in Spanish))
I have a lot of faith that before, many generations before, one of my grandmothers prayed, made prayers and offerings, offerings for the future because they suffered so much. They couldn’t be Apache because everyone wanted to kill the Apaches.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
My name is Lucille Contreras and I’m the CEO and founder of Texas Tribal Buffalo Project here in Waelder, Texas.
((NATS))
((Text-over-video:
This non-profit buffalo ranch aims to help rebuild Native culture in Texas. Today, the ranch keeps nine donated buffalo on 31 hectares.))
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
This is the first time in hundreds of years that Lipan Apache and Southern Plains bison have been right here on this land.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
Lipan Apache have lost land, culture, language as well as kinship with each other. And so, as part of that, I believe that we’ve suffered a lot of generational trauma.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
I know by being around buffalo personally, it has helped me in my life. It's helped me and my children be stronger, have more fortitude, be healthier in our minds, body and spirit. And so, I want to allow that, afford that opportunity to others.
((NATS: Lipan Apache singers))
((Richard Gonzalez
Vice-Chairman, Lipan Apache Band of Texas))
((in Spanish))
My name is Richard Gonzalez or Ricardo Gonzalez. I live in Brackettville, Texas. We are Lipan Apache from here in Texas, the band of Texas.
((NATS: Lipan Apache singers))
((Richard Gonzalez
Vice-Chairman, Lipan Apache Band of Texas))
Bringing buffalo back to where they are from is just like bringing us, our families, back to where we were from, to acknowledge that they actually lived here. There’s people in Texas today that never knew there were ever buffalo in Texas, just like they didn’t know there were Apaches here.
((NATS: Lipan Apache singers))
((Richard Gonzalez
Vice-Chairman, Lipan Apache Band of Texas))
All these different things, these symbols on these teepees, all these things are important because they remind us who we are but also reminds other folks that we’re still here and we’re not living back in 1700 or 1400 or 1800. We’re living today but we’ve not forgotten where we come from.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
I grew up in San Antonio, in the hood or whatever. I, you know, went to inner-city high school but my dream my whole life was to get out into the country.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
I graduated in 1992 from the University of Colorado in Boulder. And ever since I graduated, I have been in IT [Information Technology].
Being a Native American woman in a White, male-dominated industry in IT, that has a lot of challenges. And I had kind of like had my fill with that.
Then, as life happens and things in life happen, I ended up the last six years in Porcupine, South Dakota. Where I moved, there was horses and buffalo and a garden that I planted that was 40 by 60 [12 by 18m]. And so, I got to really practice a lot of what I had been studying for years on my own. Even though I was in IT, I still never let go of the dream of agriculture.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
Being able to learn the culture of handling or really not handling but caretaking for buffalo as relatives, that really happened for me in South Dakota with Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Society. That experience was so invaluable, to be able to learn from the Lakota Nation which holds so strongly the Buffalo Nation teachings. And I feel like if it wasn’t for the Lakotas, I probably, I don't think I would have been able to do what I’m doing today and bringing back to the Lipan Apache Buffalo Nation our relationship with the buffalo in this way.
((NATS))
((Text-over-video:
In 2020, Contreras returned home to Texas to start her own ranch.))
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
So, we don’t live on a reservation. We bought our land with the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] Beginning Farmer and Rancher Loan. So, I’m really, really thankful to the USDA.
((NATS))
((Lucille Contreras
Founder, Texas Tribal Buffalo Project))
I’m so happy. I, just yesterday, made my full one-year payment of $22,000. Yay! So, we’re set, man. At least this year is like covered. And my payment's not even due till March. And that’s because of the Tanka Fund and other grants, Honor the Earth.
((NATS: Singing))
((Text-over-video:
Contreras hopes to someday buy more land for a large reserve where Native people of Texas can come to practice buffalo culture.))
((NATS: Singing))