From the Texas Tribune:
SULPHUR SPRINGS — Silence falls over a crowd of 40 people on a windy afternoon in early November, each breath held in anticipation as two 800-pound bison slowly approach.
Among the spectators are Native Americans from various tribes, some who traveled two to three hours to experience the awe of seeing bison up close for the first time.
A female bison less than 100 feet from the crowd bellows, signaling the others with a nod of her head that the coast is clear. The rest follow, advancing toward the mesmerized onlookers. Phones rise as spectators eagerly capture the intimate moment.
The bisons’ new home is the 60-acre GP Ranch in Hopkins County, about 90 miles northeast of Dallas, owned by Muscogee (Creek) Nation member Theda Pogue.
Pogue, 45, received the four cows and one bull earlier that week from the Medano-Zapata Ranch Preserve, a nature conservancy ranch in Colorado. It’s part of an effort by the Tanka Fund, a native-led nonprofit based in South Dakota, and The Nature Conservancy to restore more than 700 bison — also known as American buffalo — to Indigenous lands across the country this fall in partnership with tribal nonprofits and nations.
Pogue invited people to her ranch on National Bison Day, Nov. 4, to celebrate.