A Buffalo Story

Jason Baldes

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

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.

Colin Ruggiero

Colin Ruggiero makes films about people, science, and wild places. He has extensive camera experience both in and out of the water and he especially loves stories about our place in the natural world. He has done a wide variety of award-winning work shooting, directing and producing independent films as well as working with broadcasters and clients that have included National Geographic, Discovery, Smithsonian, the BBC, and PBS, among many others. You can learn more about Colin and his work on his website: www.colinruggiero.com

National Wildlife Federation

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.

Angelo Baca

Jordan Dresser

Whisper Camel-Means

Bryant Waupoose Jr.