Dances withbisons

A bison roaming on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, home to the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes. More than a century after a mass bison slaughter, the animals are restoring Great Plains ecosystems and reinvigorating Indigenous customs like the sun dance. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

FOR years, meals at the summer sun dance ceremonies on the Eastern Shoshone tribe’s lands in Wyoming in the United States were missing something that was once a staple of the sacred rituals.

There was no presence of home-grown bison, an animal central to the spiritual customs and beliefs of the Shoshone and other Native Americans.