Why a famed cellist played for a heard of bison on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The cellist Yo-Yo Ma has played for presidents and in the world's great concert halls. This weekend, he took his cello to a meadow on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana to play for a herd of bison. Montana Public Radio's Aaron Bolton was there.

YO-YO MA: (Playing cello).

AARON BOLTON, BYLINE: Yo-Yo Ma is playing on top of a hill in the middle of the Blackfeet Nation's buffalo pasture. The vast golden prairie and the mountains of Glacier National Park loom in the distance. There are some locals listening, but he's here to play for the bison grazing at the bottom of the hill. As Ma unloaded from a pickup truck, he said he's been traveling the country to bring his music to places like this.

MA: More and more, every music I play is about trying to figure out what is human nature, what is nature and how the two combine.

BOLTON: On the way to the meadow, Ma said, this is part of his Our Common Nature project, which celebrates the connection between humans and the landscape.

MA: Music is listening to the sounds of birds, listening to the grass and, you know, to the wind, to the waves and, very importantly, to one another.

BOLTON: When Ma heard that the Blackfeet Tribe was reestablishing a free roaming bison herd, he knew he wanted to see that work for himself. Bison haven't been seen here and most of the West in over 100 years. That's because the U.S. government led a campaign to kill herds to near extinction in order to gain leverage over tribes.

MA: Thirty to 60 million buffalo were roaming all the lands, and this was a great symbol all over the world for a young country.

BOLTON: About two dozen bison were released into the wild last year, and more will be soon. They will roam over contiguous Blackfeet Lands, Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. Blackfeet bison program director Ervin Carlson says, Ma is an important advocate.

ERVIN CARLSON: That we have the support of them kind of people that are out there to make things change and for the better...

BOLTON: Releasing the first of the free roaming herd here took decades of work. The tribe had to get buy-In from park officials on both sides of the border and battle opposition from ranchers, worried the animals would bring disease. Carlson says that struggle makes him think about how his ancestors fought to survive.

CARLSON: We lost our lifestyle. We lost our lifeline. The Buffalo were everything to us. They were our economy, food, clothing, lodging.

BOLTON: He says, the new free roaming animals will restore that lifestyle for future generations. Christina Mormorunni, with the Blackfeet nonprofit Indigenous Led, says this work doesn't stop in Montana.

CRISTINA MORMORUNNI: We have so much to do because this relative belongs to all of Indian country.

BOLTON: The Blackfeet Nation is helping other tribes restore Bison. The goal is for 30 to 60 million to roam the West.

MA: (Playing cello).

BOLTON: Ma says, it was surreal playing to the herd that could help make that happen.

MA: I'm not sure whether the Bison heard me because I was trying to play toward them, right? So they might have heard something.

BOLTON: For NPR News, I'm Aaron Bolton in Browning, Mont.

MA: (Playing cello). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.