Announcing the launch of Buffalo Nation, led by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota). This visionary project imagines a future monument that honors bison as kin, as casualties of American expansion, and as catalysts for Indigenous regeneration and connection.
Rooted in Luger’s creative vision, the coalition includes the artist’s ongoing collaboration with Monument Lab, and a new partnership for this project phase with Indigenous impact producer and founder of Good Trade Productions Amber Morning Star Byars (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma).
We are honored to share that this expanded research and development phase of the project is supported by Stelo Arts and Culture Foundation, with funding from the Mellon Foundation's Monuments Project to explore possibilities for commemorating the decimation of the bison, in light of ongoing bison cultivation and regeneration projects and the current monument landscape. Over the next 18 months, we’ll work across Tribal lands and historic sites—building relationships, engaging communities, and reflecting deeply on commemorative practices grounded in protocol, care, and long-term partnership. Through site visits, dialogue, and creative inquiry, the project will reckon with the mass slaughter of tens of millions of bison during westward expansion—and the lasting impact on Indigenous life, ecology, and memory.
The end goal of this phase is to advance the long-term planning for the design, expanded partnerships, and eventual construction and realization of the memorial.
Together, we are reimagining what a monument can be: how it’s shaped, whom it serves, and how it holds space for truth, resilience, and repair.
The current research and development phase of Buffalo Nation is supported by Stelo Arts and Culture Foundation, with a grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, in partnership with Monument Lab and Good Trade Productions’ Amber Morning Star Byars (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma).
Image Credits:
1) Cannupa Hanska Luger, (Be)Longing, 2019, mixed media life-size buffalo skeleton, sculptural installation, ceramic, steel, ribbon, fiber, video. Photo courtesy of Kate Russell.
2) Cannupa Hanska Luger, (Be)Longing, 2019. Photo credit: Cannupa Hanska Luger.