Charismatic and compelling, buffalo and the story of an individual’s perseverance and cultural and ecological redemption that follow are our shared future.
Featuring
Jason Baldes is the Tribal Buffalo Program Director for the National Wildlife Federation’s Tribal Partnerships. Since 2016, he’s worked to restore over 130 conservation buffalo to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
The ultimate goal is the rematriation of the land – “bringing the sacred relationships between Indigenous people and our ancestral land, honoring our matrilineal societies.”
Jason sits on the board of directors for the Inter-Tribal Buffalo Council, the board of trustees for the Conservation Lands Foundation, and the environmental commission of the Congress of Nations & States. He is the executive director of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative and an adjunct professor at Central Wyoming College and Wind River Tribal College.
Jason is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and manages the Tribe’s herd of 77 buffalo.
Patti Baldes was born on the Big Pine Paiute Reservation in California and raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Patti is an enrolled Northern Arapaho with Northern Paiute lineage. She lives on the Wind River Reservation with her husband, Jason, and their four children.
Patti is currently the Executive Director of a tribal non-profit, the Wind River Native Advocacy Center. She works closely and collaborates with other local non-profits, focusing on conservation, tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and relationships.
Patti enjoys sharing her story and conservation experiences through her photography line dubbed “Patti with an Eye.” Sharing photos for close to 20 years now, her focus has been and will continue to be the Buffalo/Bison and all that entails. Through art, photography, and storytelling, Patti assists in restoring and increasing tribal lands in Wyoming.
Filmmakers
Colin Ruggiero makes films about people, science, and wild places. He has extensive camera experience both in and out of the water. He especially loves stories about our place in the natural world. Colin has a wide variety of award-winning work shooting, directing, and producing films of all shapes and sizes for clients that have included National Geographic, Discovery, the BBC, PBS, ESPN, The Nature Conservancy, and The National Wildlife Federation among many others. You can learn more about Colin and his work on his website: www.colinruggiero.com“
Founded in 1936, the National Wildlife Federation unites Americans to ensure wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world.
For the last 30 years, the National Wildlife Federation has partnered with Tribes to return wild, free-ranging buffalo to their rightful place on Tribal lands across the nation and to their native homes in and around public lands.
Advisors
Angelo Baca (Diné/Hopi) is a cultural activist, scholar, filmmaker, and Ph.D. graduate in the Department of Anthropology at New York University, where he focused his research on the Bears Ears National Monument. Shash Jaa’: Bears Ears is Baca’s latest award-winning film about the five tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition who work together to protect 1.36 million acres of Utah wilderness through a national monument designation. He published the widely read op-ed in The New York Times: Bears Ears Is Here to Stay. Recently, he worked with Patagonia on the public lands film Public Trust, about the political and extractive industry’s attack on Indigenous and public lands.
His research interests are in Indigenous international repatriation, Indigenous food sovereignty, and sacred land protection. His work reflects his commitment to collaborative research with Indigenous communities on equal and respectful terms and a long-standing dedication to both Western and Indigenous knowledge. He continues to focus on the protection of Indigenous communities by empowering local and traditional knowledge keepers in the stewardship of their own cultural practices and landscapes.
Jordan Dresser is a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe located on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming. He graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and a Master of Arts degree in museum studies from the University of San Francisco.
Dresser served as the Chairman of the Northern Arapaho Tribe. He is a filmmaker and his latest film, Who She Is, is screening across the country. He currently serves as the Curator of Collections at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery.
Whisper Camel-Means is the Division Manager of the Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation, and Conservation for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. She began her career as a Wildlife Biologist Trainee in 1997 while studying Environmental Studies at Salish Kootenai College, eventually earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and a Master’s of Science degree in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University.
Throughout her career, she has focused on wildlife accommodation and movement corridors along US 93 within the Flathead Indian Reservation, contributing to road ecology initiatives globally. Whisper advocates for living harmoniously with nature and has played significant roles in various committees and societies such as the CSKT Climate Change Oversight Committee and The Wildlife Society, where she achieved Certified Wildlife Biologist status and served as past president of the Montana Chapter. As an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Whisper balances her career with motherhood, nurturing her two middle school-aged boys who share her love for the outdoors.
Bryant Waupoose Jr. serves as Director of North America for the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, of which he is an enrolled member. Bryant has dedicated his life to inspiring indigenous youth, both in his community and communities across Turtle Island, to live healthy lifestyles through fly fishing and the outdoors. At Menīkānaehkem Bryant uses fly fishing and indigenous concepts to connect youth to creation and promote wellness.
Menīkānaehkem is a grassroots organization based on the Menominee Reservation in Northeast Wisconsin working to revitalize their communities.
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