Tanka Fund helps launch regional effort to put Buffalo in schools

Bringing Buffalo back to the table is about more than nutrition.

It honors cultural memory, medicine, and connection — pieces often disrupted or erased in a post-colonization world. That’s why Tanka Fund partnered with Native ranchers, educators, and food sovereignty advocates to help launch the first-ever Regional Buffalo to School Conference at Western Dakota Technical College in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The weekend opened with a cultural harvest hosted by Lisa and Arlo Iron Cloud, offering hands-on teachings in respectful, community-centered ways to work with Buffalo. TJ Heinert of the Rosebud Reservation participated in the dispatch and shared powerful insights about the care, timing, and responsibility involved in honoring the animal.

Throughout the event, attendees explored how to navigate USDA requirements, connect state-certified meat to school systems, and create meaningful pathways to get Buffalo into tribal schools. Sessions featured Native ranchers, school food service staff, and Indigenous chefs like Sean Sherman, who led a live tasting of traditional dishes in “A Taste of Indian Country.”

This historic gathering marked a major step toward bringing healthy, culturally relevant meals to Native youth — and restoring Buffalo to the heart of community nourishment.
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Our Rancher Partners: David and Patra Wise

What started as a work project led David Wise (Ojibwe) and his wife Patra to something much deeper — a return to ancestral roots, a calling to care for Buffalo, and the creation of Native Wise LLC. Since purchasing their ranch in 2021, they’ve built infrastructure from the ground up, expanded their herd from 12 to 47 Buffalo, and created a space for youth education and community healing.
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Funder Spotlight: Wildseeds Fund

Wildseeds Fund is a movement-led, participatory grantmaker that supports frontline organizations and narratives working to transform food and agricultural systems through climate, land, and labor justice.

Their mission is to “advance frontline organizations and narratives that build power and embolden transformative change” — pairing flexible grants with hands-on communications support.

Wildseeds centers People Power and Reclaiming Ancestral Traditions, which are values that reflect our own commitment to restoring Buffalo to Native lands, lives, and economies.

Since 2012, Wildseeds has invested over $6 million into narrative-shifting communications, with nearly a third of that deployed in just the last two years.

Their support of Tanka Fund is helping us build capacity and amplify the stories of our Native rancher partners — reclaiming narrative, uplifting the community, and showing how Buffalo impacts both land and local economies.
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Honoring the season of renewal

At 8:42 p.m. MT on Friday, June 20, the sun reached its northern peak — marking the longest day of the year and ushering in the Lakota Sun Dance season. The word solstice comes from Latin for “sun standing still.”

Why Sundance matters

Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačípi — the Lakota Sun Dance — sits at the heart of the ceremonial year. Through prayer, fasting, and sacrifice, dancers seek blessings for The People, Buffalo, land, and water alike. At dawn, a cottonwood Tree of Life is raised to bridge earth and sky, reminding us that renewal is always a collective act.

Many of our team members and rancher partners step away from their corrals to enter the arbor this month.
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Restoring land through shared values

From June 16–18, Executive Director Dawn Sherman joined over 600 leaders at “Transforming Philanthropy Together” in Albuquerque — an inaugural gathering by Hispanics in Philanthropy and Native Americans in Philanthropy, hosted on Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache homelands.

The event highlighted values that echo Tanka Fund’s mission: long-term, trust-based funding over one-time charity; storytelling rooted in lived experience over metrics alone; and community-led land practices that drive real ecological results. By showing up and connecting, Dawn reaffirmed Tanka Fund’s commitment to restoring Buffalo and strengthening the ties between land, culture, and economic sovereignty.
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Question of the Month

Victory Day honors the 1876 Lakota and Cheyenne victory at Greasy Grass (Battle of the Little Big Horn). Which two allied leaders famously led their warriors to defeat Custer’s 7th Cavalry that day?

Think you know? Email your answer to info@tankafund.org for a chance to win exclusive Tanka Fund merch. Good luck!