356 Buffalo Returned in 2023!
As we enter our 10th year at Tanka Fund, we are so happy to share that our mission to RETURN BUFFALO TO THE LANDS, LIVES AND ECONOMIES of Native American people took a leap forward in 2023. As the graphic illustrates above, Tanka Fund:
* RETURNED 356 BUFFALO to their Native homelands. As a keystone species for the ecology and for Native people, returning as many buffalo as possible to our lands is paramount to our mission.
* ADDED 7 NEW PRODUCERS for a total of 19 NATIVE RANCHERS in the Tanka Fund family. Buffalo need caretakers, and we are focused on helping expand existing Native herds and giving new ranchers the assistance and animals they need.
* PROVIDED $780,000 in grants and technical services to our ranchers. The generous grants and donations that we receive are why we can provide the animals, funds and technical assistance that our ranchers need.
You can read more good news about our growth in 2023 below!
2024 Tanka Fund 10-Year Anniversary Campaign
In celebration of the 10th year of our journey, we want to raise even more money to Return Buffalo to Native Lands, Lives and Economies. Join us as we launch our 2024 campaign in March!
$394,076 in producer grants in 2023
From technical assistance to infrastructure challenges, your dollars helped us provide a robust roster of resources for our ranchers in 2023. These funds are crucial in our mission to return buffalo to Native American Lands, Lives, and Economies. For a closer look at what the Returns Campaign means, economically and culturally, see the video link below.
Tanka Fund rancher numbers up 58%
We started 2023 with 12 ranchers. By the end of the year Tanka Fund added 7 new ranchers for a total of 19. That’s an increase of an incredible 58 percent.
New to Tanka Fund in 2023, THEDA POGUE (Muscogee Creek Nation) and her husband CHRIS received buffalo in November on their 60-acre GP Ranch in Hopkins County, TX — about 90 miles northeast of Dallas. According to The Texas Tribune, Theda said, "This herd is for us to share with our younger generations who will know what our ancestors have gone through.”
Additional key wins of 2023
Climate Smart
To encourage more producers to choose responsible grazing practices for their livestock, the United States Department of Agriculture partnered with Tanka Fund in 2023 to implement the Climate Smart incentives program. This is a national funding effort to create market opportunities for livestock producers that utilize land management practices considered to be “climate smart” and sustainable under a recognized “Climate Smart Agriculture” (CSA) label. Currently, our Tanka Fund Climate Smart team is taking applications for Summer 2024 internships.
Youth Program
In partnership with Sweet Grass Consulting, LLC, Tanka Fund created a youth program last summer called the Young Adult Buffalo Lifeways Society. This is a long-term plan to help Native youth develop skills, build relationships, and establish career paths centered on our buffalo relatives. The year culminated with a presentation at the Intertribal Agricultural Council Annual Conference in Las Vegas in December.
Blanket Campaign
In preparation for the launch of our 2024 Tanka Fund 10th Anniversary Campaign, we offered our 1st Tanka Fund Limited Edition Collectible Blanket, designed by Oglala Lakota artist Sonja Holy Eagle, at the end of 2023. With a donation of $500 or more, donors received the beautiful blanket shown above as a “thank you” gift. The campaign raised more than $18,000. We will be releasing the 2nd Tanka Fund Limited Edition Collectible Blanket in March as part of the launch of our 2024 Tanka Fund 10th Anniversary Campaign. The blanket was designed, and is modeled in the photo below, by artist Delaena Uses Knife, a Mnicoujou Lakota enrolled member of Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in Eagle Butte, SD. Tanka Fund’s blanket campaign is supported by Windrose Fund.
Thank you to our supporters
We humbly acknowledge that none of our 2023 accomplishments would be possible without the support of our many partner funders and direct donors, including:
The Nature Conservancy (TNC), who, through their Buffalo Restoration Project, provided their surplus animals to us for re-granting to our rancher families, some who have never had buffalo on their lands prior to the release. This is the largest release for Tanka Fund producers in the three years we have worked with TNC. Learn more at nature.org.
Bush Foundation, who has worked with Tanka Fund since 2021, helps us make grants to producers, increase our capacity building and to provide opportunities to promote sustainable land management and production to grow Native economies. Learn more at bushfoundation.org.
Northwest Area Foundation is one of Tanka Fund’s original funding partners. They support our Returns Fund producer grants, our efforts to create economic opportunities for producers and our ability to tell our stories effectively. Learn more at nwaf.org.
The three organizations listed above are part of a larger network of supporters and funders that we are grateful to partner with, including Butcher Box, Native American Agriculture Fund, Cedar Tree Foundation, The Builders Initiative, National Philanthropic Fund, The Peace Development Fund, Ceres Trust, Windrose Fund and First Nations Development Institute.
We are also incredibly grateful to the many individual anonymous and direct donors who supported our mission directly through matching funds, contributions on tankafund.org and sharing about Tanka Fund to friends, family, and social media.
