Texas Tribal Buffalo Project Hosts First-Ever Open House on Ancestral Land

Join Us on the Land: Open House Ranch Day – June 21, 2025, in Floresville, Texas

You’re invited to a special gathering with the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, a Lipan Apache–led nonprofit working to restore kinship between Indigenous descendants and Buffalo relatives in South Texas.

On Friday, June 21, 2025, we’re hosting our first-ever Open House Ranch Day on 150 reclaimed acres of ancestral land in Floresville, Texas. This historic land holds deep meaning for the Lipan Apache, Coahuiltecano, Carrizo Comecrudo, and Southern Plains Buffalo peoples.

This day is about opening our gates and our story to the community.

What to Expect at Ranch Day

• Location: 7693 Farm to Market Road 536, Floresville, TX 78114

• Date: Friday, June 21, 2025

• Time: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

• RSVP: Click here to RSVP

Enjoy a day of:

• Walking tours of the pastures

• Local Indigenous foods and seasonal treats

• Storytelling from our team and community leaders

• Conversations about land, healing, and cultural restoration

• A chance to witness the work of Texas’s first Native woman–led Buffalo organization

This is a day to connect — with the land, with the herd, and with one another.

A Ranch Built on Relationship and Rematriation

The land where Ranch Day will be held is not just a site. It is a story.

In 2021, we began stewarding this land with just 9 Buffalo. By 2024, that number had grown to 27 — a testament to healing and resilience.

We are now in year one of a three-year journey to repay The Conservation Fund and fully reclaim this land for good. Hosting this event is part of our commitment to transparency, community-building, and kinship.

Our leadership follows an Indigenous matriarchal model, where care and responsibility are shared. Like the Buffalo herd itself, our community is guided by strong matriarchs who protect and nurture the whole.

The Impact of Service, Shared

Our team includes veterans and AmeriCorps VISTA alumni. Their background in service deeply shapes how we lead.

Earlier this year, the federal government eliminated $400 million in AmeriCorps funding. Over half our staff were affected, alongside 32,000 service members across the country. Texas was hit especially hard. We lost more than team members. We lost part of our heartbeat.

But like our Buffalo, we continue forward. Always moving. Always together.

Building Food Access with Buffalo

We are proud to be the only Indigenous Bison meat producer in the United States that accepts EBT/SNAP and ships nationwide. This commitment expands access to nutrient-dense, culturally significant food for families in San Antonio and across Turtle Island.

When you walk this land with us, you are not just witnessing food justice in action. You are helping to sustain it.

How You Can Get Involved

• RSVP and attend: Click here to RSVP

• Donate: Help us secure this land permanently

• Share: Invite friends, community leaders, and family

• Connect: Follow us on socials for stories, photos, and updates

About Texas Tribal Buffalo Project

The Texas Tribal Buffalo Project is a 501(c)(3) Indigenous-led nonprofit focused on restoring Buffalo to their rightful place in our ecosystems, foodways, and cultures. We blend matriarchal Indigenous values, regenerative agriculture, and food access to rebuild community from the ground up.

Native Nonprofit Day: 3 Campaigns You Can Back Today

Photo by Cipi Ortiz

This Native Nonprofit Day, we invite you to support the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project (TTBP)—an Indigenous-led nonprofit in Texas restoring Buffalo lifeways, reclaiming ancestral land, and rebuilding Native food systems across the Southern Plains.

When you support Native-led organizations like ours, you’re investing in climate resilience, generational healing, and a future led by Indigenous knowledge and food sovereignty.

We’re also proud to be the only Bison ranch in the country that accepts EBT SNAP Benefits, making healthy, native-raised Buffalo meat accessible to more families than ever before.

Here are three active campaigns you can support today:

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1. The Original Protein: Eat and Buy Buffalo

Support Buffalo Rematriation. Use EBT SNAP to Buy Native-Raised Bison.

Our campaign to rematriate the Buffalo is more than a food movement—it’s a spiritual, ecological, and political act. We invite you to eat and buy Bison raised by Native producers.

Your support helps us:

• Restore kinship with the Buffalo Nation

• Strengthen Native food systems in Texas

• Build a market for Native-raised Bison meat

Did you know?

You can use EBT SNAP Benefits to buy our healthy, pasture-raised Bison meat. We’re the only Bison ranch in the U.S. accepting SNAP/EBT, making it easier for families to eat Indigenous, local protein.

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2. Iyane’e House Fund – Phase 1: Safe Space, Big Vision

Help Build a Cultural Hub for Buffalo, Land, and Learning

The Iyane’e House will serve as a space for Buffalo care education, Indigenous foodways, and regenerative agriculture. But first, we need to make it safe and functional.

We’re raising $2,000 to complete critical structural repairs.

Your donation will:

• Create a culturally rooted gathering space

• Support intergenerational land-based learning

• Lay the foundation for long-term programming

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3. Land Back in Texas: 150 Acres Reclaimed

Support Land Stewardship on the TTBP Floresville Ranch

On February 6, 2025, we will move onto 150 acres of returned land—the Carney Family Ranch, made possible by the Texas Conservation Fund.

We’re raising $300,000 over the next three years to support this reclamation.

Your support helps us:

• Care for Buffalo on ancestral land

• Grow Native-led agriculture and Indigenous foodways

• Host land-based education, ceremony, and healing

Why Support Texas Tribal Buffalo Project?

We’re not just running campaigns—we’re leading a movement for Indigenous food sovereignty, land rematriation, and Buffalo restoration in Texas.

Your donation helps us:

• Hire Indigenous staff outside of extractive funding models

• Grow a regenerative, land-based economy

• Expand access to Buffalo meat through EBT SNAP purchases

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Take Action Today:

• Donate to one or more of our campaigns

• Buy Buffalo meat with EBT SNAP and support Native ranchers

• Share this blog or our social posts to spread the word

• Practice solidarity with Native communities year-round

Thank you for supporting Native sovereignty, Buffalo rematriation, and Indigenous food justice—today and every day.

The Heart of the Herd: Indigenous Women Leading the Way

Written and photographed by Julysa Sosa for TTBP

As day broke over the horizon, a thick plume of fog began to roll out across the ranch, camouflaging the Buffalo herd with low visibility and bringing with it, the deafening silence of prayer, responsibility, and love for our relatives. 

The morning was neither sad nor quite happy; instead, the reverence of this year’s Buffalo Harvest clung to the cool mist in the air, dampening the sounds of footsteps and hooves alike. 

Although Isaac Eaglebear, this year’s shooter, had carefully prepared and pre-identified which Buffalo would be chosen for the harvest, the herd had other plans.

In the moments leading up to the hunt, the Buffalo — who live in a matriarchal society — seemed to move with a collective purpose, as if they had decided together which one would be chosen. As the fog shifted, with a quiet step of defiance, she made herself known — clear in her stance.

In that instant, Eaglebear took the shot.

“I was reminded that this isn’t about a trophy. It’s not about personal gain, pride, or ego. This is for my people,”

Eaglebear said.

Portrait of Isaac Eaglebear and the bullet used.

With that action, the third annual Buffalo Harvest was initiated, and, serendipitously, the fog cleared, giving way to a beautiful, sun-soaked day. 

By midmorning, more than 300 people began arriving, flowing steadily throughout the day. 

Tribal nations and communities from around Turtle Island gathered at the new Texas Tribal Buffalo Project Ranch location in Floresville, Texas.

This 150-acre plot, recently re-matriated and returned to Texas Indigenous Lineal Descendants, was made possible through the acquisition of land from The Conservation Fund.

Bison on the Plains, circa 1906. Library of Congress.

Roots in the Buffalo Plains

The Lipan Apache’s connection to the Buffalo spans millennia. Before colonization, their ancestors ranged across the southern plains, participating in trade networks. As mounted hunters, they later became stewards of the Buffalo’s southern range.

Settler-colonial policies nearly eradicated both Lipan people and bison: and by 1889, fewer than 1,000 Buffalo remained from the millions that once roamed the great plains of Turtle Island. Today, the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project (TTBP) joins tribes across Turtle Island in restoring these relatives, managing herds on re-matriated lands.

“Physically, to ingest the Buffalo into our bodies once again activates our own Indigenous DNA,”

said Lucille Contreras, founder and CEO of TTBP.

While Texas has prospered and grown into an agricultural powerhouse, generating $32.2 billion in agricultural product sales as of 2022 (Texas Department of Agriculture), its Native descendants have suffered, been forced off their land, relocated, and subjected to massacres and trauma — just as the Buffalo have been displaced from their southern ranges.

In this way, and many others, the Lipan Apache and Buffalo are inseparably intertwined.

Lipan Apache encampment in the Texas hill country, as depicted by artist George Nelson. Image courtesy of the Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas at San Antonio.

The Honorable Harvest in Action

This year’s harvest was a record-breaking event for TTBP, but it also marked the first time the public was invited to join, witness, and participate on the recently acquired Floresville Iyane'e Ranch.

As the Buffalo arrived on-site, prayers, songs, and words were shared within the circle of attendees. Soon after, Chef Elena Terry of Wild Bearies began leading the butchering, as the community stepped in, moving in a unified flow to prepare the meat for distribution to take home.

Chef Elena Terry of Wild Bearies leading the community in the butchering process.

“Our lives depend on the Buffalo for sustenance, shelter, tools, wisdom, and examples of governance,”

Contreras said.

TTBP is an Indigenous, women-owned and founded organization, the first of its kind in Texas working within agriculture. 

This year’s Buffalo relative also happened to be a mother, carrying a calf.

This occasionally happens, and there is no way of knowing beforehand, but the symbolism of this year’s central theme became especially poignant. The event highlighted the re-matriation and the development of women and femme leadership, which took center stage at this year’s harvest.

Tipi Talks: Matriarchs Leading the Way

(Center) Denise Lozano, TTBP Ranch Manager, co-leading a discussion on Land and Bison Restoration.

Around the grounds, three tipi tents were set up, each hosting a Tipi Talk led by guest speakers. These conversations focused on three central themes: Food Sovereignty, Land & Bison Restoration, and Indigenous Roots & DNA.

These discussions, organized by and for Indigenous women, sparked meaningful dialogue and action. The tents quickly filled with women and femmes, while the men gathered outside in solidarity to listen. 

“Women are the core; we are the foundation of our communities, of our nations, of everything. It’s important that we continue to hold that space and have leadership in that space.”

Contreras said.

As the day progressed, groups of community members took turns butchering, cleaning, weighing, and packaging the meat. Meanwhile, tucked in the corner of the grounds, Chef Angel Bunch prepared bison stew and fry bread for all to enjoy.

“This is what our people did,” said Denise Lozano, TTBP Ranch Manager.

“The hunters would return with their kill, and they’d have the meat, feeding the people. And that’s what we get to do today: feed the people, feed the kids, educate — all those things that we all yearn for.”

And that hunger for food, knowledge, and medicine was palpable. The energy from the day was infectious, and connections were made seamlessly as strangers became community.

“Our ancestors didn’t just live in nature; they were nature. We need to respect all life, walk with reverence, and, most importantly, love ourselves and each other,”

said Eaglebear.

A Legacy Reborn

As the sun sank lower in the sky, the day’s events culminated in a quiet reflection. With the final steps complete and the line forming to receive meat, individually given by Contreras, there was a quiet knowing that what had begun was just the start of something much more profound.

“Historically, women led in our communities, and I believe we’re now returning to that, which is what we’ve been praying for in these recent generations,”

said guest Tipi Talk speaker, Chef Reb Mari, Co-CEO of Sana Roots Co, during a discussion on Food Sovereignty.

As the echoes spread across Turtle Island and beyond, they pave the way for a future where Indigenous communities continue to reclaim their sovereignty, culture, and deep connection to the Buffalo and the Land.

The symbolism of the Buffalo herd’s actions that morning became increasingly clear. What had begun as a quiet, self-determined act of reverence, transformed into a powerful statement: matriarchal leadership is alive and well in Indigenous communities.

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Your Support Matters

Help TTBP reclaim 150 acres of ancestral land and sustain Buffalo relatives.

Learn More and Donate Today!