In response to the near extinction of the North American bison during 19th Century colonial westward expansion, the four Nations of the Blackfoot Confederacy have spearheaded the Iinnii Initiative to reintroduce free-roaming bison, or iinnii, across traditional Blackfoot territory bisected by the US-Canada border. The Iinnii Initiative is a key component of the Northern Tribes Buffalo Treaty, an Indigenous-led cross-border bison reintroduction project with over 30 Tribal signatories. Indigenous-led bison restoration seen across these projects reflects an expansion of Indigenous-led conservation and restoration efforts throughout North America and globally.

Grounded in the experience of the Iinnii Initiative, this research examines how Indigenous groups confront institutional and environmental legacies of colonialism to restore ecologically and culturally significant species like bison. The project advances geographic theory and methods across Indigenous studies, political ecology, and conservation biology by examining the ways in which Indigenous Peoples are leading innovative conservation efforts that jointly support Indigenous ecological, cultural, and political goals. Despite its potential to both support Indigenous communities and address the growing biodiversity crisis, Indigenous-led ecological restoration faces a series of obstacles tied to legacies of colonial dispossession. This project investigates how Indigenous-led restoration projects like the Iinnii Initiative engage with and transform relevant colonial structures by asking: (1) How do these projects negotiate colonial jurisdictional fragmentation—or the patchwork of land and land-uses into national parks, forests, other public lands, and private lands—to enable adequate habitat for reintroduced species? (2) How do the projects engage with Western conservation science and practice to incorporate Indigenous place-based knowledge systems and goals? (3) How do these engagements shape the resulting model of restoration and with what impact for species reintroduction? (4) More broadly, how might these engagements work to decolonize conservation thought and practice? To answer these questions, the project develops a generalizable mixed methods framework that combines interviews and Elder circles with novel spatial analyses of jurisdictional fragmentation.

Research is conducted in partnership with Iinnii Initiative actors and is overseen by an advisory committee of five esteemed Blackfoot Elders across the four Blackfoot Nations along with the Director of the NGO Indigenous Led. The study supports the Iinnii Initiative by providing qualitative and geospatial data that can assist their bison reintroduction efforts and by charting best practices in successful Indigenous-led restoration based on scholarly, policy, and popular literature. The study additionally highlights best practices emerging from the Iinnii Initiative to support Indigenous-led conservation and restoration in North America and globally. In helping advance these efforts, the research in turn supports proposed federal platforms for biodiversity protection and increased engagement with Tribal Nations.

The research supports and diversifies STEM education and scientific literacy by training and funding several Blackfeet students from the Blackfeet Community College and developing a generalizable student training module on Elder engagement and dialogue. The project additionally develops teaching modules and multimedia outlets for Blackfoot and other Indigenous institutions and the public on Indigenous-led advances in ecological restoration. This project is funded by NSF Grant Number 2117652.