BRINGING BUFFALO BACK TO STANDING ROCK

For Ron Brownotter, buffalo are more than just livestock. They're a connection to his ancestors and a way to uplift his family and community.

- By Lisa Foust Prater

Ron Brownotter stood at the edge of an overlook, gazing for miles across the rolling hills, ravines, and plateaus of the Grand River Valley on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in northwest South Dakota. In the distance, the largest buffalo herd solely owned by an American Indian in North America Brownotter's herd were tiny, dark brown dots.

“Sitting Bull lived just over that ridge,” he explained, pointing to his left. Then, extending his arms and taking in the view, he said, “This is my office.”

Brownotter, a Lakota-Yanktonai person and member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, came from humble beginnings to own that herd of 600 buffalo and the 20,000 acres on which they roam.

But the path to the top of that overlook was a winding one, and Brownotter didn’t walk it alone.

A Long Road

Brownotter was one of nine children, and although his parents had plenty of love, financial times were very tough. Some of the children — including Brownotter, at age 7 — were sent to a boarding school for Natives more than 200 miles away. “It was brutal,” he recalled. “But the kids in the late 1800s really had it hard, and many of them died in boarding schools.”

Back at Standing Rock and attending a nearby high school, Brownotter knew he wanted to be a rancher. He used his $40 monthly check from the Bureau of Indian Education JohnsonO’Malley Program to buy supplies such as tools, shovels, and axes. The program was created in 1934 to reduce boarding school enrollment and place Native students in public schools.

“They cut me a check every month, and it had my name on it,” Brownotter said. “I thought that was the coolest thing.”

By that point, Brownotter had developed an alcohol addiction. According to the National Institutes of Health, American Indians have the highest rate of alcohol and other drug use disorders of any ethnic group.