When The Buffalo Were Introduced to a Wind River Reservation School, Students Began to Thrive
by Elyse Wild
“Everything changed,” Coleman said.
There’s plenty of data to show that food-secure kids have higher attendance rates and perform better academically. On the Wind River Reservation, transportation can be a barrier, and grocery stores are scarce. Being able to send kids to school and also stock the fridge can make all the difference. The nutritional benefits are compounded by the cultural health introduced to students when they learn about their role in returning the buffalo.
The Wind River Reservation is in west-central Wyoming and is home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. Long before the reservation’s borders were drawn, buffalo shaped life across the Plains, providing food, shelter, tools, trade and spiritual connection.
For the Cheyenne, Wyo.-based Buffalo Youth Nation Project, the food sovereignty work is both cultural and practical. The non-profit established a 13-member buffalo herd on 200 acres of the Wind River Reservation. The meat provided for the food lodges is provided by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe.
“It helps me put food on the table for them,” Posey said, describing how the food lodge is now a support service for her four grandchildren.
“A lot of grandmothers are raising their grandchildren, and so many of us don’t have good transportation,” she said. “It’s helped us with our health, and it has with the price of meat nowadays.”
Since the Buffalo Youth Nation Project’s food lodge opened at the school, Coleman said that increased attendance has led to improved academic performance.
“I have a kid who was in the first percentile in reading,” Coleman said. “Today, he earned a pizza party because he’s reading 105 correct words per minute.”
Buffalo Spaghetti
Colman now hears from kids who are proud of the meals they make with buffalo meat they get from the food lodge.
“I have third and fourth graders say, ‘Hey, you know that buffalo meat you gave me? I made spaghetti.’” Coleman said. “Without Buffalo Youth Nation, we would absolutely not have that. We would probably have given up by now, which would be such a loss, because I feel like these kids can change our whole world. They are learning their language and culture better, and they are going to thrive.”
like wolves or beavers restore the entire ecosystem. No matter how many lessons we witness, the powers that be can't seem to understand.No more letting the DNC choose our candidates for public office. They're not good at it.
on May 14, 2026, 6:22 pm
