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hi I'm Heather Marie montia and you're watching PBS books thank you for joining us PBS books is thrilled to host a conversation with award-winning filmmaker Juliana branam who is a Consulting producer for the American buffalo a film by Ken Burns and director and producer for homecoming this conversation is especially important as we celebrate Native American Heritage Month in collaboration with the American Indian Library Association today we are discussing Juliana's two outstanding films the American buffalo a film by Ken Burns it takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent's most iconic Landscapes tracing the mamals evolution its significance to the Great Plains and most importantly its relation reltionship to the indigenous people of North America let's take a moment to watch the trailer my people in the buffalo have a shared history together the Buffalo was sacred and they could not imagine existence without the Buffalo they were put on this Earth to help us survive to think that our greed and our industrialization would blink this thing out this is the buffalo's last chance they've survived we've survived we both persisted the American buffalo premiered in mid October you can watch it today at pbs.org PBS app or check your local listing will extending Ken Burns film Julie Anna's homecoming takes viewers into the 21st century and examines how the intertribal buffalo council's bison conservation and transfer program is supporting Buffalo restoration to the indigenous people whose lives spirituality and physicality were linked to the Bison for thousands of years this is an 18-minute Florentine film homecoming also premiered in mid October and you can now watch it at pbs.org on the PBS app and it premieres on PBS YouTube channel on November 24th so let's meet our guest Julie Anna branam is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Oklahoma and is a citizen of the quahada band of kangi nation of Oklahoma she was the director Andor producer for various PBS documentaries and series including Lonna Harris Indian 101 contious Point Native America season 1 and more it's my extraordinary honor to welcome Juliana thank you so much for having me it's so nice to have you here thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us you've been super busy and it's extraordinary to have you be able to talk about both the American buffalo and um your work on homecoming so last week we spoke to Dayton Duncan and we heard about his journey to work on the American buffalo film with Ken Burns and Florentine films how did you first get involved with Ken Burns and Florentine well um Julie dumpy uh Ken's longtime uh producer uh reached out to me and she was um she was aware that I was a PBS uh documentary filmmaker and had also learned that I am a direct descendant of Chief kanana Parker of the kamanche tribe and um she was looking to me to either possibly be an interview subject or uh you know to come on as a consultant and we ended up just really hitting it off and and um the whole team invited me to come on full-time as a Consulting producer and so part way um into into my work there they um asked me if I would be willing to produce and direct a short film from the Native perspective about contemporary uh tribal Buffalo restoration efforts and of course I was like yes absolutely sign me up that's extraordinary um can you discuss so for many people director producer consultant a lot of people don't know what that means so could you discuss your role in these important projects and you you already said what inspired you to to be involved but maybe just talk a little bit about um how you also were able to separate the work on the two different projects yeah I mean look you know um Ken and everybody at Florentine film are just you know the most intelligent people you'll ever know and they're so thorough and so um you know they they go through every piece of information with a fine- tooth comb and um you know they really know what they're talking about but I think you know they were uh also very smart in knowing that um a native perspective um is really important and and also not just in front of the camera I mean they clearly had a lot of native perspective in front of the camera but um you know behind the scenes stuff um I think is what they called on me to kind of help with so um for example I mean I did a lot of different things from casting the the voices um for the voiceover Parts um the native voices uh helping to find music that was appropriate for certain scenes you know for example I didn't you know if we were um talking about the kowa um but they had a Northern Plains drum on you know I would make sure that we had appropriate music for what we were talking about um I did a lot of Art IAL research that was a big bulk of my work um and so you know a lot of that was also talking with folks about what was appropriate to show and what um maybe we should steer clear from we had a lot of images of um the ghost Dan that are out there you know for everybody to see but um you know we would have conversations about what was appropriate and what was not we would you know contact our advisers um Rick uh West who was one of the founders of um uh the Museum of the American Indian and uh he was very helpful and pointing Us in the right direction if he didn't have you know if he didn't have an opinion on on what it was so um we would often go directly to tribes um and to their museums and talk to them about what you know we could use and and not use and just kind of be respectful through the whole process so so anyways that I think that was kind of my role as a as a Consulting producer it's extraordinary because I it's one of the things I thought about how I mean there are correct me more than 500 tribes in nation indigenous Nations right that are across the country and how complex it must have been to make sure to not offend or do something out of um out of what should be done so now I I understand a little bit more really truly the complexity because one voice is one voice and might not represent everyone um can you describe having said that the interconnectedness relationship between the Buffalo and Native Americans understanding the Buffalo meant different things to different Native Americans but kind of in the film kind of the the what it's trying to showcase the essence right so so you know the Buffalo was primary to the the plains tribes the northern and the Southern Plains you know maybe not so much in um uh the Pacific Northwest where maybe salmon was more um you know uh their cultures were centered on salmon or in um the Northeast where or the southeast where their cultures were very centered on agrarian culture and um say corn um and that kind of thing so so but for us we were um The Plains tribes were uh semi-nomadic if not all totally nomadic like my tribe and we were um just following the Buffalo so our entire lives were centered on that and because of that our uh spiritual practices were centered on that animal um and then you know everything um to sustain us physically you know every single part of the animal was used and that is like it it it sounds like such a cliche but one of our interview subjects Gerard Baker says it's so great you know he he goes through from you know the tail to the snout and he talks about every single piece of the animal that was used for what and then he said the only thing we didn't you know use was their grunting and actually we used that too because I'm sure it was in ceremonies that people were doing um you know mimicking the grunting noises of the Buffalo so it's um so that gives you like a real idea it about literally every single bone tissue um heart soul of this animal was related to um the identity of the Plains Indian there was um a part in the American buffalo it talks about the significance of wichan mountains and specifically it also discusses the importance of the white buffalo could you discuss that in terms of the spirituality aspect yeah I mean I think um a lot of tribes um had sort of this prophecy that you know as they were seeing these Buffalo uh the puff buffalo population dwindling um very quickly um and seeing the devastation and understanding that their lives were about to change dramatically this is also all tied into Indian policy where we were um being forcibly relocated we were being subjected to reservations we were denied our hunting rights and our traveling rights and um so this is also the boarding school era's beginning and it it's just it's a time in our history that is probably the most chaotic um and devastating and um I they all everybody knew what was happening and that our future was you know seriously at stake and so um there were some prophecies amongst different tribes and everybody probably has their own stories but the general um story is that um when a White Buffalo Calf would be born that was going to be the signal that um we will all come back as a people so we were really aligning ourselves with this animal so if this animal can come back and this magical creature can you know be born um white as this White Buffalo Calf then um perhaps we will be reborn too so um so a lot of our um you know stories are kind of of centered on on this white bu this idea of The White Buffalo so anytime one is born even today it's um a really big deal and people kind of rally around this animal because it's a sign of Hope and it's a sign of resilience the American buffalo film it highlights what happened in the US um and it represents the largest destruction of animal life by humans known it occurred as the film documents in the 19th century um and the film really outlines that many Americans aim to exterminate the Buffalo to harm the Native Americans do you feel that this was common knowledge up until this film was created do you think that this is known wi widespread um both in indigenous communities and outside of indigenous communities um I think indigenous communities definitely know that um especially at least for the the the PLS people whose lives are really centered on the Buffalo we've always known that it was tied on you kill that animal you're killing us um it was also the same with the horses um and when battle um with the commandes that was they they couldn't the Buffalo already long gone at that point and but we were still going out and hunting and and living our um our lives as best we could outside of the reservation when um the military um came and attacked and killed all of our horses one by one thousands of them um so they knew that we couldn't get by on foot so that's when we were marched to um our reservation in Southwest Oklahoma what is today Southwest Oklahoma so yes they while it may not have been an expliciting you know uh act uh passed by the government it was certainly tied into it it was um you know many people uh you know many politicians commented that yeah let's get rid of them and then we'll solve our Indian problem let's get rid of these Buffalo and solve that Indian problem we have so so it's directly tied in and and that's one of the great things I think about this film is that you do we do get to um while us Plains tribes may have known that history um other tribes and just the general public may not have known that and that is a really important lesson uh for us all to know okay so the film also touches on the fact that um and you discussed it a little bit in you when you were when you were giving the summary of the film it talks about Native Americans um and force assimilation and I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the policies and the pressure tactics that were used and and required for indigenous people to assimilate that are disgusting in the film yeah I mean aside from you know understanding that the Buffalo ridding the Buffalo um would deny us a big part of our culture aside from that there were um lots of other um policies um the boarding school policy being one of them which was to remove children from their families um at a young age so they would have no connection and uh no uh no longer understand um what their culture was so they were being raised in a um a school teaching them to be white people teaching them how to farm um how to sew um and um removing their hair they weren't allowed to speak their languages my my great aunt um who was born in 1899 went um to Carlile Indian School I was very close with her growing up and in her final days especially and um she would share with me the stories of what happened to her at boarding school and um if they would say one single word in kamanche they were beaten um with these big rulers and um you know that was much worse that was happening around the country than that even but um but yeah so the the the boarding school is probably the one I think one of the most fatalistic of uh the policies um and then obviously forced uh removal removal um pushing the tribes from out east into Indian Territory into the Oklahoma area with tribes that uh had zero relationship together or if they did have a relationship were usually um fra relationships so kind of pushing all these like traditional enemies together and all these other strangers into into one uh piece of land that nobody was really used to um that was a pretty devastating um consequence of the policies but yeah there there were so many I mean it's tragic um and the Buffalo was just sort of one uh sort of part of that that whole terrible story so I found the film The American buffalo to be very emotional heavy tragic um and I would say I I got emotional I cried at times as someone who knew the story you but were working on it a lot how did you you know what's self-care how did how did you take care of yourself or is this a story you've known and lived with and therefore this was maybe therapeutic to help the like what was that balance that's a good way to say it because I do think it was therapeutic for me it is a story that I have known my whole life um I didn't know all the gritty nitty-gritty details which you you go into all these interesting little uh Pockets um of the story so there's a ton of stuff I didn't really know but I I knew about the story and about how it was a um a part of um uh American policy to subjugate us um and the devastation that that loss of that animal caused and but it did it did the project really inspired me because um uh you know being able to share all this stuff and then also to learn more stuff along the way um I was just really excited about doing that um and um just I think what we do really well in the film um and you know this is you know thanks to Ken and Dayton and the interview subjects is we really dive into um the native perspective and helping people to understand our relationship to the animal but also to the natural world and I think once uh people understand um that the that that world view that we were like I think it's it's going to really uh help people to understand us a little bit better and what our value systems are and so that was really exciting for me I was really looking forward to that mostly most of anything um but but back to like the traumatic parts everybody gets very emotional about this story and um and uh you know we've all shed tears every time we watch it we shed a tear for sure but um uh you know I think for a lot of us too it's um a historical trauma and we hear hear about what historical trauma is and and and that's exactly it reliving those times in our history where um uh we literally feel what our ancestors were feeling in those moments and I think this this film does have a lot of that it brings up those old feelings and the devastation that you know your ancestors um felt and had to endure and so so yes that is tough but I think the self-care part comes in knowing that like we're able to share this with the world and help people to better understand who we are because for so long we were invisible and so I think that's one of the best parts about this film is that you know we're still here we're resilient people we are um uh we still hold all those traditional um values and World Views and and our belief systems are still intact and and that's um something that we're very proud of well in the in the beginning you shared about that you were a descendant of Chief Parker um and could you talk a little bit share a little bit about his role and also what it means to you to be able to highlight him and and I mean his bravery his work his life in this film absolutely so um kanana Parker you know he was uh a leader in this crazy time on the plains I mean it was just as wild as as as you know you can imagine and um you know the boarding school era as I mentioned um the relocation um era um he and and then the complete total demise and destruction of the Buffalo so he was just at an insane Turning Point um in his leadership career and um he became friends with a a cattle rancher named Charles Goodnight well he approached him and he didn't know that Charles Goodnight was an old Indian fighter who likely killed many of kana's uh relatives um on the plains in different battles and uh he had he was looking for for Buffalo and he came across uh his Ranch in the panhandle of Texas and Charles didn't want to admit who he was and so he didn't want to say he was a Texan because the Texans were mortal enemies with the commane so he said he was from um I think Colorado he said um uh anyways they started an unlikely friendship and um so when Charles goodnight's wife Molly wanted to go rescue some Buffalo calfs or buy some Buffalo calfs to kind of start their own herd um he did so at the behest of of his new friend kuana and so kuana was involved um just with Charles to to you know Express to him the importance it would be for for him because now at this point becoming neighbors because our reservation was pretty close to to where um uh the good night Ranch was well not super close but but in the same area is and so uh so they you know were starting like they formed this relationship um and especially when Charles began uh you know breeding U more Buffalo their relationship strengthened and so he also formed a relationship with Teddy Roosevelt um Teddy Roosevelt was a big game hunter but also a known racist and who despised Indians and um but you know quana was so Savvy and so smart that he did form these relationships with people that were his former enemies um because he knew he had to and he knew he was such a great strategist and um and then Teddy Roosevelt ends up going hunting with kuana and a Hunting Party Down um here in Oklahoma and they ended up uh creating the first um Buffalo Refuge The Witch Mountain Buffalo Refuge um and so so yeah quana figures kind of heavily into the in the restoration efforts of the non the non-native people and so so um you know he he was uh when looking back on his leadership it was just spectacular I mean what he was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time um the the just the complete shift in how um um you know he he believed that we should H or we had to form these new relationships because he knew it was going to be the end of us if if we didn't do something different so so yeah he's a he's a fascinating character and somebody that you know we are all very very proud um to be descended from and just quickly how much of the story did you know did you had it been passed down through your family did you also do research um what was the the blend for you and there were so many extraordinary photos as well and when I was watching the film I was like oh my goodness like so many family photos so many just uh it was really really amazing were you go ahead yeah I you know it's funny because um I did not know the FRA the the sort of background to the relationship with Teddy Rosevelt I did not know that Teddy Roosevelt was um you know very anti-indian he was he was you know a white supremist and I had always known you know when we would go to the quana Parker starh House which Still Standing um I in fact in my in college I made my very first film was a documentary about the starhouse and um anyways it was going going into the dining room with the table and seeing that same dining room in the same table that there's a photo um you know with um kanana and um all these Washington DC leaders that he was posting and thinking like oh my you know my great great-grandfather was you know friends with the president well it wasn't like that you know and it wasn't until I came under the project and and Dayton had already done all this research Dayton had done the research for you know many years and he understood the details of these relationships and it wasn't until I came on this project that I really knew oh this was a relationship out of convenience and um out of strategy it wasn't a true friendship and so like things like that I just didn't know um and I definitely didn't know the full story of Charles Goodnight and his wife Molly um she's really the one that um a lot of the credit uh can be given to um for rebuilding that herd um down on the Southern Plains because um you know history always kind of gives the male version of the story and kind of leaves out the women but she was the one who came up with the idea and who who really fought hard to to bring in these new animals so I did I did love that point I love that it was a woman right who is you know raising the these Cales it was extraordinary to learn that and to think about you know her on a ranch with probably very not a lot of people around that she knows you know and and uh it was pretty extraordinary well I want to restart the conversation I'm Heather Marie montia and I'm here with Julie Anna branam we're discussing her two extraordinary films the American buffalo a film by Ken Burns and homecoming so back to the conversation Ken Burns said homecoming is a powerful story about the important and exciting efforts now underway to restore bison and their ancestral lands and to help native people revive their sacred relationship with the Buffalo I want you to share in your own words tell us about homecoming um homecoming is a short documentary that follows um um Jason baldes who's a citizen of the Eastern Shon tribe and the work that he does with uh he's on the board of several conservation groups including the in tribal Buffalo Council and he works so hard uh to um to Lobby uh Washington DC to raise money to help start PR programs to get tribes to be able to start their own herds um he advises them on um building the infrastructure and what these tribes need in order to get their own herds and then he works with the different kind of like as a broker in tribal Buffalo Council council is almost like a broker who works with the different um preserves and parks and um uh herds that that need to um call their herds uh for space reasons and he takes those animals and sets up a transfer process to send them out to various tribes and so um we sort of just follow his work and and um we follow two um transfers one coming from the city of Denver to his tribal herd he has his own herd his own tribes herd uh in Wyoming on the Wind River uh reservation and we follow a herd going out there and then we follow another herd from um that was gifted by the nature conserves menusa grasslands to the monoman tribe up in Wis wiconsin and that was their very first uh heard of of Buffalo they hadn't had buffalo in you know almost 200 years and so it was a historic moment um for for them and you know for all of us as as viewers so um so yeah it's really kind of like we talk about this film being kind of like the third Act of the three act story so for the First Act is you know episode one of the American buffalo the second act of episode to and the rest you know and what what happened up until about the 1930s and 40s and then this third Act is what's happening today uh which is a really exciting time so the American buffalo film says that there were tens of millions of of Buffalo um they were brought nearly to Extinction as we learn about in in the film The American buffalo about how many buffalo live in the US today and how many are owned by Native Americans that's a really good question I don't know how to answer okay no I that's that's fine I mean so I will I can't I can't tell you this there are about uh 80 tribes today that are member tribes of the inter tribal Buffalo Council and I believe there's about 350,000 buffalo in those tribes um I'm not sure the total number um of non-tribal herds but but that's right where we're at okay um there are it's my understanding that there are more Buffalo that are under ownership by non-indigenous people is that is that true that's true correct yeah and I believe Mo most of them are kind of like um a feed lot situation um so being raised uh for um you know Mass consumer production so your film though how long did it take to from idea to execution about a year about a year yeah um it well it probably would have been shorter but when you're filming uh this kind of uh activity it's very difficult to schedule It's You Know It uh the weather is a big factor because they only transfer the Buffalo during the winter months and so you know what we had one shoot in Denver that we had to cancel because a huge storm came in and then you know and then they like right after the storm passed we had canceled everybody's flights and you know then they just like picked up and went and grabbed him really fast and so we weren't able to to uh catch that one so we had to wait a full year to get that that um next group of Buffalo coming out of the city of Denver and so so yeah it was just really hard and then you know it was like you know it's always kind of a last minute thing and it's really hard for me to book cruise at last minut minute and so you know it was it was a big challenge trying to get these shoots but um but yeah so that probably would have been a little bit shorter of a time span but but a lot of logistical uh hurdles we had to overcome why only in the winter are I think because of the the the heat uh would stress them out and you know they're very they get very very stressed when they're moved and so um uh the the more the the more stress uh on the animal the more likely it is that they can hurt one another they a lot of times they Gore each other in the trailers if they get too excited or scared um their horns can uh you know injure one another um so so yeah it's a real delicate process and you know their focus is the animal they they could care less about the film crew it was like what's best for the animal and what's best to to keep them um calm and safe so so your film it's it's so extraordinary because it not only captures the movement of the Buffalo but also the way you shot it the the it also is showing the importance of family and ritual and interconnectedness of indigenous people um how did you go about conceptualizing or instructing the I mean did you storyboard it did you tell people these are I mean I I still remember like a mother swaddling their their toddler in a blanket right and carrying them and just seeing this ground is wet it is cold out you know and just understanding yet people from all ages and the participation of complete families and I think of as I have you know kids of variety of Ages you know the fight that it sometimes is to get teenagers to go anywhere yet teens were there right so how did you maybe to talk a little bit about both the shot and also the importance of family in these rituals and the importance to the community well I love that you you notice that and are commenting on it because that was probably the most important thing for me it's like you can you can look on YouTube and find a ton of absolutely breathtaking shots of Buffalo coming off of a trailer into the wild or you know onto onto into a pasture and there's no shortage of those beautiful those beautiful shots but for me uh and for and for the tribe specifically uh this is a not about those that beautiful moment or you know seeing this animal on your landscape it's for the children and so for me it was super important and I Had You Know spoken to Jason when we got to his reservation you know prior to our shoot you know got to have children there we have you know and he's like oh there's children there all the time anyway so uh you know in tribal communities you go everywhere with your family and every every age group is there and it's just you go and that's we have such tight familial relationships and um we do everything together so that was a no-brainer but I really wanted to express it in the film um because all of this work that's being done are for those babies you see those young people you see their grandchildren and their grandchildren grandchildren so we're always thinking ahead to Future generations and um so it was really important for me to actually see those those spaces and yeah and then take the time just to you know all those were um those shots that you you know you refer to are uh intentional I wanted to set that scene I wanted you to see how cold and that how cold it is and you know um that people are still coming out to to greet these animals welcome them to their land and they're singing the songs and they're playing their drums and they're they're um you know burning the Cedar and they're doing all the rituals that we had we used to do and we're still doing them and I wanted you to see that those really intimate moments um so you can connect a little bit better I always think that that's the more interesting film anyway is when you um Can emotionally connect to people so so thank you for noticing that well I wanted to ask so Jason refers to in the film about the importance of education for future generations and and my question is a little bit about non-indigenous young people as well um and the you know the the education process is obviously essential for Native Americans but also people who are not native is there a right place or space for them to or is it part of the process to learn and I say that to also realize like tokenism right like them kind of participating as as a you know thing a token versus you know also just learning about about the importance about the culture and kind of that that balance and if you know if the intertribal Buffalo Council has has thought about it is addressing it um because obviously there's there's a lot and there's a lot of complexities both looking in and then also the sustainability looking out yeah so I think um yes absolutely it's it's incredibly important and you know we're living in an interesting time where our history um people are attempting to uh censor the history and I think you really have to um be careful about doing that because um uh we' be living in just you know a fake world if we don't have the full picture of what was going on and what is happening today especially with the restor restoration efforts today um so to educate people you have to be able to give them context right so without the context of um the native perspective and without the context of what um the settlers did to the natives to destroy this animal then then you're going to you're G to miss the entire story so so what's the point you know what is the point in educating people on the this history if if you can't um contextualize it and and make it make it understandable for all and um and yeah so I think um you know everybody is I think Native people are very open to sharing this story um openly um we have been invisible for so long that um we've seen the damage that that can do and so um you know we take every opportunity we can to educate people on who we are and what we're doing and you know there are certainly people today in you know cattle ranching um in some place that do not like the introduction of Buffalo and and you know you'd have to ask them what their concerns are about that um they used to say it was brucelosis which was a disease that they thought the Buffalo carried could pass on to their cattle but um there's been no known case of that so that's not true but um uh is it because they're worried about the economic impact on them is it because um the land um is um tribes are purchasing back land they're having to buy back land that was stolen from him which is insane anyway but but uh you know what is the threat and um let's talk about it so I think the conversations have to keep happening and I'm glad that you're sparking that conversation I mean for me that is what this film does it also one of the the really important themes in your film was food sovereignty um and I recall someone discussing the prevalent health problems among indigenous people that of diabetes and and various things that that really aligned with the near extermination elimination of the Buffalo and then the food that they were given so that many indigenous people didn't starve can you discuss that a little bit because I you know I think it's really important I don't think many this is not something you learn in school right no it's so important and it's probably one of my favorite topics of the whole film um Kelly uh pin grief from the Wind River uh food sovereignty project talks a bit about it but basically um when uh our buffalo went away and our lifestyle went away we our bodies started to die and today we suffer proba not probably we definitely suffer the highest rate of diabetes um in the country of any uh ethnicity or race and uh we also um suffer uh uh the highest rates of heart disease and that is a direct a direct response to our diet because we were given rations uh when we had no more Buffalo to hunt we had nothing else to hunt elk was dying out as well at that time so um our healthy food sources were completely gone we a lot of us Plains tribes were not Farmers so we were first forced to learn how to farm um and uh we were given uh uh pork which we found just disgusting and we were given um beef and FL flour sugar and coffee and that was pretty much it and all of those we now know are just terrible for you and so we survived on those and then still to this day I mean I remember you know um my family uh we would sometimes get the the rations the government rations too which was like a block of Vita and a can of spam so like it continued on through the 70s like we're still getting this really unhealthy food for us but the difference is is that a lot of these tribes um are impoverished but not only that they're far far away from any food source from any grocery store if there's a grocery store it's outrageously expensive so you're talking a food desert to the extreme and so you have no healthy options your only option is to get you know processed food from the gas station and a lot of times that's the only thing on a reservation is a gas station so um so yeah it it's a major major problem and as Kelly says in the film um she says uh you know in order for us uh to to go on in healthy ways and and and become healthier people and um become uh successful people we have to take care of ourselves and our own bodies and that starts with food and so the Buffalo is one of the healthiest if not the healthiest meat you can get so um that's why for centuries and centuries we did so well um is because we had access to that to that food source all right as a closing question what do you want your viewers to take away from your film um I hope they're inspired and um I hope that people have a better understanding of um who we are as a people and what our goals are um we are not um we are very different let's say from from capitalist America um we're not you know raising these animals to you know start some big you know Enterprise we're there to feed our communities we're building these herds to feed our communities to feed our souls and to help uh you know with biodiversity uh development we are working to fight climate change we are working to fight um greed we are um I think um doing all these things for the future generations of all of us not just for Indian native people we're talking about for the entire world and so I hope that people will see us as um um you know for the value that we have and and and perhaps we can this will give us afford us more opportunities to have a seat at the table when talking about the future of our environment especially with regard to climate change I think people need to be looking towards Native people for um a science that we have been studying for uh over 10,000 years and so um you know I really hope that this uh helps people to understand that that we we have a lot of valuable input to offer Juliana if someone wanted to learn more if they wanted to get more involved or support the efforts of indigenous peoples where should they look what should they do um I would suggest working you know starting local and um seeing what you can do for your local tribal communities you know if there's a new um community in your area that's um looking to um U start their own herd maybe it's it's something as simple as like having some hands to build a fence or um if you have the money to donate I think donating to um these different organizations that um that work in Buffalo restoration for tribes I think that would be uh incredible the tribes I think the biggest I think you know and I'm not an expert on this but I think uh you know the biggest hurdle to overcome is raising money to buy land to be able to house the animal enough land um and so I think that is you know that's what a lot of that that money goes to is just buying the land to be able to to to bring their animals home well this has been an extraordinary conversation Juliana thank you so much for all of your work uh it's really tremendous for your your amazing perspective for your insights and and just thank you for being here today thank you so much for having me I appreciate it well just a reminder don't forget to watch homecoming and the American buffalo on pbs.org and the PBS app you can also watch Homecoming on November 24th at PBS's YouTube channel check your local listing Well we also like to thank all of you for joining us it's always extraordinary to be able to share this important content with libraries across the country and numerous PBS stations thank you for being here well until next time I'm Heather Marie montia happy [Music] reading [Music]