Restoration and the Affective Ecologies of Healing: Buffalo and the Fort Peck Tribes

Intentional acts of restoration are purported to have a multitude of benefits, not only for non-human nature, but for the people who conduct restoration. Yet, there is limited scholarship that considers the nature of these benefits in all of their complexity, including psychological and spiritual di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Conservation and society 2018-01, Vol.16 (1), p.21-29
Main Authors: Haggerty, Julia Hobson, Rink, Elizabeth Lynne, McAnally, Robert, Bird, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
affective ecology
American bison
Assiniboine
Assiniboines
Bills
Birds
Bison
Buffalo
Case studies
Community colleges
Ecological restoration
Ecology
Environmental aspects
Environmental restoration
Fort Peck
Human ecology
Humans
Indigenous peoples
keystone species
Mental disorders
Mental health
Methods
Native Americans
Native culture
Native North Americans
reciprocity
Relational sociology
Restoration
Restoration ecology
Sioux
Social aspects
Special Section: Affective Ecologies
Traditions
Trauma
Treaty lands
Tribal land
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Summary:Intentional acts of restoration are purported to have a multitude of benefits, not only for non-human nature, but for the people who conduct restoration. Yet, there is limited scholarship that considers the nature of these benefits in all of their complexity, including psychological and spiritual dimensions. Using the case study of the restoration of bison/buffalo by the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes to their reservation in Montana, USA, we observe that ecological restoration can promote and facilitate emergent and dynamic processes of reconnection at the scale of individuals, across species and within community. In an indigenous setting marked by historical trauma and other challenges, these re-connections have therapeutic benefits that align with the relationality that mental health frameworks suggest is a key protective factor for many indigenous people. Affective experiences of and with buffalo play an important role in building and articulating that therapeutic relationality in our case study. Our work points out the importance of access to spaces of affective ecologies and personal investment in spiritual traditions as elements of the therapeutic benefits of restoration in this case, raising questions and possibilities for future research that considers patterns and avenues of diffusion of restoration benefits within social groups more broadly.
ISSN:0972-4923
0975-3133
DOI:10.4103/cs.cs_16_90