[upbeat folk music]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
- Inga: Well, this is a beautiful day to be out here.
- TJ: Yeah, it's gorgeous.
- So tell me about where we're at.
- We are in Oneida, Wisconsin,
on the Oneida Nation Indian Reservation,
which the Oneida Nation Farm
runs approximately 6,000 acres here,
which includes our beautiful buffalo herd.
- Inga: Do you call it bison or buffalo?
- TJ: Buffalo. - Inga: Buffalo, okay.
How many buffalo are you raising here?
- TJ: Currently, we have about 200 head,
approximately 60 cows, 20 bulls,
and then the rest is our yearlings
and two-year-old cattle. - Inga: Bison were endemic
to this region of Wisconsin, correct?
- TJ: Yeah, they were.
- And they probably don't mind the winter,
they don't really mind a whole lot of it, do they?
- No, no, you can see we're out in the middle of nowhere,
basically, out here,
and they survive the winter, probably, season the best.
I mean, you look at how thick their fur coat is,
and when winter comes around, they love the cold weather.
They run out here and play in the snowbanks
just like a little kid. [Inga laughing]
- Well, I'm glad they love it.
- Yeah, nice to know some like it.
- I'm loving the fall. - Yeah, indeed.
- Inga: How long have the buffalo been back
on this tribal land?
- In 1996, Pat Cornelius, our previous farm manager,
worked together with the ITBC, the InterTribal Bison Council,
and they, together, brought 13 head of buffalo
from Yellowstone National Park out here,
and it was this small 40-acre pasture at the time.
Now we have over 200 acres that we graze,
and there was 13 head of buffalo introduced.
- Inga: And why did they wanna bring buffalo back?
- Not only to protect the sovereignty
of the Oneida people, but the buffalo.
They tie them together in very closely.
Pat said when those 13 buffalo got off the trailer here
at Oneida on the reservation, it shook the ground.
[rhythmic music]
- Well, it's neat seeing bison.
I've seen a few herds around the state of Wisconsin,
and they seem to do well here in Wisconsin, right?
- Yeah, they strive.
I mean, if you go out in the Dakotas or Wyoming,
where they're more so found, there's no protection,
there's no barn, there's no shelter.
They strive in the winter months.
Not only in the winter, but then spring,
summer, and fall with grazing, too.
- Well, your pastures are looking really great here.
I love grazing.
That's the whole reason I farm is I love grazing,
and I think it's nice to have these animals come in here,
and they're harvesting their feed,
spreading their manure.
But bison, I think, are used a lot now
as managing those native prairies
in different parts of the United States.
- You bet.
- And that's just one of the benefits for having them.
- Correct? - Yeah, correct.
For us, I mean, Oneida took back a lot of this land.
They had the reservation; they lost a lot of land.
Now, as they became more financially wealthy and stable,
they were able to buy this land back,
and one of the uses with it
was to put Oneida Nation's buffalo herd on their own land,
and it really does mean a lot to all of us.
- It must be so rewarding for the tribe to know
that they're raising their own meat,
it's staying in the community,
and they're feeding people really, really healthy foods.
- Exactly.
With the buffalo here, that's what we strive for.
It's grown here, it's raised here.
It's not bought off the reservation;
it's born on the reservation.
From farm to food to table is 100% here,
and we take great pride in that.
- You grew up on a beef farm,
so you're used to eating a lot of beef.
How does that compare to eating bison?
- Bison is a much leaner meat, but it is a juicy meat,
it still has enough fat in it for the marbling,
and likewise, you fry it up on the grill,
it is probably second to none.
It is very good.
- Yeah, I've been eating a lot more in the last few years
and I really enjoy it.
- Yup, the bison graze in the grass,
they're a much leaner meat, like I said,
and short-term and long-term, they're healthier,
just less fat in them.
- How are you managing your pastures here?
Are you doing a mob grazing, or?
- We inter-rotationally graze,
so basically we run about eight paddocks,
20 to 40-acre size paddocks,
and then we rotationally graze those paddocks
to allow proper regrowth of our grass,
and then yet still mow it down so it's short enough
to kind of eliminate any weeds or any unwanted trees and weeds.
- That's what I love about farming, especially grazing,
is that you're coexisting with all these different species
that are out there, with all the different bugs,
the bees, all these pollinators,
and having those grasslands is a great area
for those nesting birds,
and those different species to come
and have that little haven.
So I love everyone that pastures, you know?
- Oh, yeah, it's nature at its finest.
You're still managing the land,
but you're allowing the animals to do it.
There hasn't probably been a tractor out here in 15 years.
The animals are managing the land,
they're getting the feed, they're harvesting the feed,
and they manage the land.
We just have to manage the animals.
- One thing people ask me, "Well, why should we eat local?
And why should we be supporting these farms?"
And I say, "Because these farms are thinking so much
"about our land, our water,
how the environment is doing around us."
As farmers, we think a lot more
about what they're eating than they ever will, right?
- Oh, yeah, that's one of Oneida's biggest philosophies,
is to take care of the next seven generations ahead of us.
So that's not just me and you,
that's the next seven generations,
so that's a very long time, and that's what we take pride in.
It's preserving the Oneida reservation,
our farm fields, our pastures, for the future.
- Well, this has been really great
and I'm gonna get on down the road,
but thank you so much for taking time with me.
- Yeah, you bet, thank you.
- All right, it's time for us to go pick some apples.
[upbeat folk music]