When Elsie DuBray was a high school senior at Timber Lake High School she took her analysis of lipid structure in buffalo meat to the Intel World Science Fair, where she placed fourth in the biology division.

DuBray is the daughter of Fred and Michelle BuBray who have been ranching buffalo on the Cheyenne River tribal lands in South Dakota for over 30 years. Together, they have created a family legacy of healing people, reviving culture and healing the land through buffalo restoration.

Elsie’s achievement captured the attention of the First Nations Development Institute, which included her, along with three other Indigenous activists, in a 2020 feature-length documentary entitled “Gather,” which celebrates efforts underway nationwide to reclaim and rebuild Indigenous food systems.

The film features First Nations’ community partners through its Native Agriculture & Food Systems Initiative, as well as others who are advancing Native foods as a way of asserting tribal sovereignty, reclaiming control of their food systems, and helping restore the health and well-being of Native communities.

First Nations’ Native food policy expert A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa) said, “Indigenous people and their food systems are resilient. We have withstood assault and attempts to starve, change, and alter every facet of our food systems, whether it be through displacement of our lands, alteration of our natural spaces like water and soil, or prohibition from our natural gathering and hunting grounds. We continue to push for access and protection of our food systems because we inherently know that it’s for the benefit of humanity that we care for our foods.”

Currently in her senior year of undergraduate studies at Stanford, Elsie is pursuing an honors thesis in Stanford’s center for comparative studies in race and ethnicity. She is writing about her community’s unique conceptions of health and well-being in relation to buffalo.

I was deeply motivated and excited to amp up my own involvement in food sovereignty and connecting others. Food sovereignty looks different for everyone, but it also unites us. This movement is of significant importance to the health and well-being of our peoples and this land.”

Elsie DuBray

After watching the film Elsie said, “… I am so inspired by the initiatives of (others featured in the film). …I was deeply motivated and excited to amp up my own involvement in food sovereignty and connecting others. … food sovereignty looks different for everyone, but it also unites us. …this movement is of significant importance to the health and well-being of our peoples and this land.”

Fred explained, “A lot of non-Indian people can understand (buffalo restoration) and the good it can do for the land, whereas they don’t understand the need to bring the culture back.” He adds, “We (Indigenous Americans) were almost wiped out, too. And we need to kind of grow back together. We can help each other.”

Romero-Briones agrees. She said, “…food is a connection to our past, to our people, and to our lands that ensures we as Indigenous people exist and continue to exist. We don’t have to say it to one another. We don’t have to explain it. We just kind of know.”

In her research Ms. DuBray theorizes that buffalo meat provides more nutrients than beef, such as a higher proportion of healthy fats and fewer saturated fats. She is committed to using the resources of Stanford’s biological sciences program to study traditional Indigenous diets to help combat the diabetes epidemic in Indian Country.

She said, “I’m writing the thesis for my community and hope it can be of use, especially to the tribe’s Buffalo program. I’ll be graduating with a BS in Human Biology and minor in Native American Studies and while I’m considering graduate school programs, my main goal is to come home and go to work further developing CRST’s Buffalo program to be the incredible, radical, culturally grounded holistic public health program I believe it can be.”

She continues, “…I think the biggest issue we face is upholding the integrity of the Buffalo, and not sacrificing them to capitalism and …the idea of animals as property undeserving of respect. I think this is a really, really hard thing to combat and something I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to.

“In the meantime, I try to connect with the traditional value and significance of buffalo and remind myself that everything I do must be value-based and done in a good way. I take that (value) as I continue to learn so I can fulfill my responsibilities to the buffalo and to my people.”

She added, “The pandemic really has illuminated how important it is for Indigenous communities to have food sovereignty. …the way the pandemic forced everyone to slow down made this idea (of food sovereignty) a lot more realistic to people because we’ve all really had to ground ourselves in gratitude and appreciation for what we have and what’s around us.”

Romero-Briones writes extensively about the protection of tribal traditional foods. She says there is a “resurgence of young Indigenous people who want to know and learn of their Indigenous lifeways, including food systems. It’s an institutional change where young people are calling to learn, to be taught, and to gain access to knowledge and skills that were once targeted for exclusion by federal policies such as boarding schools. …now we have a whole crew of savvy scientists, lawyers, doctors, nutritionists, teachers, and engineers who are using both their professional talents and their Indigenous talents to ensure that our food systems continue to function. … Lastly, there are a great many Indigenous people who dedicate their lives to learning the lifeways of their people.”

Fred and Michelle DuBray are perfect examples. Fred says he and other traditionalists are looking to the past for the shape of things to come.

“We have been working in food sovereignty for 30 years, specifically with buffalo restoration, says Michelle.” We have seen a lot of progress and that is exciting. However, there is so much more that can be done and should be done.

Fred added, “My understanding of food sovereignty is the inherent right of people to access traditional foods…(which) are considered medicine that keep the mind, body and spirit healthy. …many of these foods were destroyed, so in order to even have access to these sources of food, they must first be restored to a healthy state before they can be utilized in a traditional manner. Those restoration efforts can be very difficult to accomplish in light of the political realities of why they were destroyed in the first place.”

In 1991, Fred and Michelle DuBray founded the Intertribal Bison Coalition (ITBC). Fred became its Executive Director and Michelle served as the Administrative Director and then the Development Director.

ITBC is now a collection of 69 federally recognized Tribes from 19 different states whose mission is to restore buffalo to Indian Country to preserve the Indigenous historical, cultural, traditional, and spiritual relationship for future generations.

Today, buffalo remain a vital part of well-being not only to the land but also to Indigenous communities. “We have to restore the buffalo if we are going to survive as a culture,” Fred says.

Michelle added, “I have a lot of hope for the future when I see the next generation’s committing to save the environment, protect the water, all the animals, the plants. They are working to save grandmother earth and to protect her for future generations. Despite the dire situation, they are willing to do everything they can to protect and restore the earth.”

Michelle DuBray runs her own business, Pinto Horse Woman Consulting, working with nonprofits in the community development field. Most recently, she took the part-time position of Coordinator of the South Dakota Indian Business Alliance (SDIBA) assisting with the Native Entrepreneur Investment Fund.

She declares, “I am still striving to make the world a better place.”