Thanks to the Cedar Tree Foundation, Native American Agriculture Fund, and First Nations Development Institute for helping to fund several internships this summer.

Interns worked with a volunteer Yale graduate student to interview Native buffalo producers/caregivers. These interviews will be used as short clips to tell the story of Tanka and the people, land, and lives that support reintroduction of buffalo.

Interns were also responsible for working with a film crew who came to do a short film on Buffalo and Healing to premiere sometime next spring or early summer of 2023. They were also responsible for helping with soil sampling and vegetation photos to document changes over time in buffalo pastures. Interns were responsible for collecting data and data analysis.

It is the first summer for Tanka Fund to hire interns. All are college students working towards regenerative agriculture or animal science degrees. This pilot project will continue in the summer of 2023, to teach and hire high school graduates and college-aged students working towards degrees in business, marketing, natural sciences, animal science, and other agriculture-related studies.

Tanka Fund will be starting a NAAF grant in the fall of 2022 that will focus on bringing young people together to outline the young producer/caregiver buffalo institute and what that will look like in the future for the next generation.