The USDA’s goal in launching initiatives to support smaller processors after the COVID-19 pandemic was to support a more diverse and resilient meat and poultry supply chain.
However, smaller processing supports more than a resilient supply chain.
On an early Sunday morning in mid-June, members of several area Tribes, along with leaders of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Wildlife Fund and other organizations gathered around the Intertribal Buffalo Council’s (ITBC) mobile processing trailer at a TNC ranch south of Rapid City, SD to participate in the cultural harvest of a buffalo bull that had been felled by a sharpshooter in the pasture minutes earlier.
Sage wafted through the air and purified it as the community members gathered around the animal. Following instructions from the harvest leaders, participants set to work skinning the hide and breaking down the carcass in a manner mirroring traditions that stretched back thousands of years. Even the youngest children assisted under the watchful eyes of veterans of the process, who carefully guided them on how to use knives safely and efficiently separate the bones and muscles.
The bull’s inner organs and paunch were carefully removed and carried to a nearby spot, where an ITBC member oversaw the process of gingerly separating the parts—known as byproducts in modern society—into pans and trays for further use.
As each section was removed from the carcass, volunteers carried it to tables spread out under a large canopy. There, participants began the final work of separating the meat from the bone, while others vacuum-sealed the finished cuts to be held in ice-filled coolers that local participants would take home to feed their families.
Meanwhile, three young women laced the hide to a wooden frame to dry in the sun.
By noon, the harvest was finished, but the conversations and the connections continued.
Supply chain resiliency? The event in South Dakota hardly made a dent in the supply chain.
Cultural resilience? Absolutely. This harvest and others taking place on Tribal lands across the country, are helping indigenous communities recapture cultural traditions while feeding their communities and honoring a relationship with buffalo that is older than recorded history.
