Culture

The Mountain West News Bureau

A collaboration of public media stations that serve the Western states of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

How Denver is helping tribes bring back bison

Mountain West News Bureau | By Rachel Cohen

Published March 23, 2026 at 12:44 PM MDT

Sam Diswood, fish and wildlife manager for the Navajo Nation, watches bison that he'll take back to a ranch the tribe owns in southern Colorado. The bison are among the 34 the city and county of Denver is donating to tribes or Native-led nonprofits this year.

Today, tribes are working to bring back bison, which once roamed Indigenous lands by the millions. Some are getting help to rebuild their herds from the city of Denver, which manages two herds.

Colonial policies and hunting devastated bison populations.Today, tribes are working to bring back bison, which once roamed Indigenous lands by the millions. Some tribes are getting help rebuilding their own herds from the city of Denver, which manages two bison herds. The Mountain West News Bureau's Rachel Cohen attended this year's bison transfer.

Robert Simpson is a council member with the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana, which received ten bison in the transfer. "To take them to a place where they're going to be in a 15,000-acre pasture, where they're going to be happy there, makes me happy," he said.