(upbeat music) - Yellowstone National Park marked its 150th anniversary in 2022.

Part of that commemoration was the creation of the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center.

Our guest today, Patti Baldes, is one of 27 representatives of American Indian tribes with cultural and historic connections to Yellowstone.

She's a photographer and an expert on Yellowstone buffalo.

I'm Steve Peck on Wyoming PBS.

This is "Wyoming Chronicle."

(bright music continues and ends) - [Announcer] Funding for "Wyoming Chronicle" is made possible in part by Wyoming Humanities, enhancing the Wyoming narrative to promote engaged communities and improve our quality of life.

And by the members of Wyoming PBS.

Thank you for your support.

- [Steve] As the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park's creation neared in 2022, park leaders established a new permanent addition to the nation's first national park, the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center.

There, representatives of 27 different American Indian tribes, each with historic ties to the Yellowstone region, host continuing tribal cultural presentations for park visitors.

One of the original presenters is Patti Baldes, director of the Wind River Native Advocacy Center in Fort Washakie.

This year she'll be back for her third season in Yellowstone.

She says the Park Heritage Center is helping restore her sense of belonging in a place important to her people long before any white men ever laid eyes on the Yellowstone country.

- It's quite amazing, because I think the whole point of this was for tribes to feel more at home, and I do.

Before coming to Yellowstone, before this all happened, it would be a show 'em your card at the gate and get through as fast as you can.

You're a tourist in your own home.

And I wasn't really sure how to...

I really, I guess I wasn't really sure at all that I felt something towards that until this happened and this came about, because now I definitely know what it feels like for it to be home.

I feel like I can share with the space that's here and not feel limited in what I can say or how I say it or how I look when I do that.

So the space that's been given or, you know, shared is very important to me, and I believe for all of those that come here to share.

- Before this happened, as you describe it, did you think a lot about Yellowstone?

You were from Wyoming, down the road to the south of the park.

Well, how big an issue, a factor was it in your general thinking about where you live and...?

- Well, I suppose I thought of it as somewhat of an amusement park.

I mean, almost to the point of a museum type place.

It all seemed very, I don't know, pedestaled and stroked and it didn't feel really honest to who we were.

I mean, we'd giggle and look at each other at a lot of things as young girls to understand that like how we're thought to be.

What it's done is kind of given me a good sanding so I can really grab onto what it has to offer as well.

Because I wasn't even allowing that, because it felt kind of like a place that- - Here's what we're supposed to do when we're at Yellowstone.

- And I heard someone speak this past weekend, and she's a great someone actually, Winona LaDuke, and she was in this area, in the Jackson area, and she was wondering, "Do they actually like Native Americans, or they just like Native things?"

And so I try to think of that in a way since those few days ago, and try to put myself out there as a way so as I am, I guess, obviously Native things, but there's a lot more to share that has a lot more to do than, I guess, the idea of Natives and where we fit in a place like this.

- Well, where do you fit in a place like this?

What do we know about the historic uses of Yellowstone by tribal peoples?

- The things that are all around us are very much storytellers in their own way.

And in paying attention to those things, the trees, the animals, the dirt, the rocks, the wind, the fire, and feeling like we weren't ever wandering in this area.

We knew right where to go for medicines and foods, and, you know, of course growing up I didn't think much about that at all.

A lot of the time things we were told by older folks about stories for our ancestors, I just had that in me to kind of think they were full of it, because a lot of it didn't seem that way, you know, in how I was growing up and what they were told.

They were like completely different trails and almost in the different directions.

- The two areas of your residencies, we're calling it, where you're here spending the day for a week here at the end of the park season, greeting people who come in and want to just talk to you about what you know and who you are.

And you have a couple of different emphases.

One is photography, and we can see many of your photos here in the shot that we're in.

And you have on a table that we'll be looking at later in the show, something that you have titled "buffalo box."

I think people know what photography is.

I do want to talk to you about that some more.

When you say "buffalo box," what is that and what does it mean to you?

- It has parts of the buffalo in it, from hide to sinew, bones, and tools, things, the items that were made into tools, and all of those items we use to share with students of all ages to help connect, to help understand a little bit more about who we are and why we are the way we are.

So there's just less of, like, I spoke of it before, less pedestalling, less stroking of feathers and beads, and, you know, buckskin.

So this helps me help other humans connect to this animal, knowing that as a keystone species, the ripples help all of us.

So it is the bones, the teeth.

So talking about all of those parts and how it's like an extension of you rather than something very special or extra.

I mean, it really was just right there for our use.

- And here's the box itself, and what we're seeing on the table are things that theoretically could have come out of the buffalo box.

Begin with the container itself.

Tell us about that.

- So this box was made by a gentleman in Pine Ridge.

His name is Larry Belitz.

He's an older gentleman.

Amazing work he does.

He does so many things.

I was able to visit him once, and he builds lodges out of buffalo hide.

And I imagine he's probably built hundreds of these boxes for people- - They're made of hide.

- across the nation.

Yes.

Made out of a buffalo hide.

And it just holds all kinds of goodies that normally would be inside a living one.

So we'll start here.

These are bladders.

These bladders were in other boxes.

This one actually came from a buffalo that we had harvested this summer.

- And it's been inflated.

- It's been inflated, - Some rather like a balloon, except it's rigid once it's dry.

- Once it dries.

And it's a perfectly great natural container.

So we would use this for water.

- So here's the question.

How do you blow up a buffalo bladder?

- Well, it's kind of crazy.

It does look just like a balloon that's deflated.

It's just this soft, mushy piece of guck, and you find the right spot and you blow it up.

Yes.

(chuckles) - Like that.

- Yes.

You do just that.

I mean, just depending on your perspective, it's about the cleanest it could be, but it is still kind of a bladder.

- So we see the bladder here in several different forms, one fully inflated, one partially.

What's the significance of the partially inflated?

- Well, this one was like this, and it's just been in our box for a couple years, so it got kind of banged up.

But this could definitely be rehydrated.

- It could, yeah.

- And blown right back up to full size.

And once you put water in there, for sure it would, the weight of it would.

These are also, like this is a big bladder here, and you can tell.

So if this was folded in the same way, it would be very small, more like this size.

So it's flattened and folded into somewhat of an envelope.

And so this one actually is holding some porcupine quills, and we could put anything we'd want to, you know, keep together, but the sharp things, you know, specifically needles and porcupine quills.

- And this is authentic.

This was done.

- This was all, yeah, all done.

We didn't go to the store.

(chuckles) Here we have sinew.

That's found on the back.

There's a big flat piece that is taken from towards the back of the buffalo, back through here.

- [Steve] That's teased out sort of.

- [Patti] Once we get it out, you can get it out in a big flat piece, and you would slap it on something flat and let it dry in a good way, and then you rehydrate them if you need to, but it's great thread.

Anything, and it's very strong.

I imagine you could even use dental floss.

The cool thing about all of this stuff and what I would like to share with young kids or anyone, it takes who you are inside to find connection to these parts.

And I could, you know, go and talk until I'm blue in the face about what I know, but there might be something inside of you that has a great tool or a great use for these things as well, and that's what connection does.

And using all these parts is a way for us to honor this being after they're gone.

So this is a rib.

The ribs are pretty...

They were used for many things.

A lot of times they were used for skill building, for hunting, for gathering food.

So, you know, we didn't have the guns then.

And small animals are probably a lot harder to hit with a bow arrow than a larger one.

So grouse, rabbits, you would teach yourself, but you'd get good at like throwing these at these animals, stunning them so you could get to them.

They could also be lashed together in a way if they were all from the same side.

And sleds, you'd carry your dogs, your babies, your tools.

This here are the horns.

This looks like this is a bull's horn, and this is a female's horn, a male and a female.

You can usually tell the difference.

The base of a bull's horn is a lot bigger and tapers down, where the cow's almost stays about the same, you know, circumference all the way up until the point.

- Now is it hollow?

- They're hollow.

They're also natural containers, so you could use this to drink out of.

Made out of hair, like an antelope, a pronghorn.

But the buffalo keep their horns their whole life, the sheath, where antelope do shed theirs.

- It was used to transport, am I right about this, fire sometimes?

- Well, yeah, you can... - Warm, or at least coals inside.

- Right.

- Well, to keep you warm while you're traveling, and to maybe to light a fire once you got to a destination.

- Yeah, it's quite the utensil there.

(chuckles) So this is also a horn.

So this would've come like this.

My husband actually made this one.

- [Steve] I'm gonna tell you what it looks like.

You tell me what it's for, and then I'll tell you what it looks like to me.

- Well, it is a spoon.

- A spoon.

- It's a spoon.

In my tribe, Northern Arapaho Tribe, it's called heebiyoo, and it's considered a living, animate object.

This is something we would keep with us at a very young age throughout our lives and make it our own.

Yeah, yeah.

It's very important.

- [Steve] It reminds me of a shoehorn.

- [Patti] For real.

(chuckles) See?

- [Steve] And maybe that's where the name comes from.

- [Patti] Yeah, for real.

- [Steve] First ones were made of, actually where shoe horns.

- [Patti] And this is also a spoon or a ladle type, also made out of a horn, but a very big one, a very big bull.

Probably close to a 10-year-old bull.

That one is pretty big.

Also from the keratin family are the hooves.

These hooves are quite special.

You do kind of overlap as you can see.

They kind of rub their own little way.

So when a buffalo walks, they move like this, but they have this curve that naturally aerates the ground when they walk, so they don't smoosh down good plants and things.

And also this bottom part here, maybe not used by my tribe so much, but the northern tribes, a caribou's hoof is quite similar.

And you'd cut this bottom part out, and it naturally fits the curve of your face.

So we would make glasses, and they would cut a slit to prevent snow blindness.

And also there is the magic inside of these is a bunch of collagen, so we'll make hoof soup.

I've had hoof soup.

Was lucky enough to learn how to make it with milkweed pods, and delicious.

But it's very good for you.

Here we have some wool.

Let's see.

I have another piece maybe.

But the buffalo hair is considered wool.

It has seven times more hair per square inch than a cow does, and, you know, they're able to live all the way from the north, all the way to as far south as we could.

- [Steve] And turn and face the cold wind.

- They do.

And, you know, they face that storm, I think, to get through it quicker, but, you know, they're just a smaller-backed animal.

- Yeah.

That's where the wool is.

- Right.

And that big hump is full of muscle that is able to move that big head back and forth through the snow and find the food they need to.

So this cord, you can make cordage.

It's very strong, and we're just trying to find more folks that know how to work with that stuff so we can make more tools for ourselves.

This is part of a bone, scapula here.

This is actually quite beautiful polished, and this is something that Larry had made in the box.

This is something.

This is a scapula.

This one's kind of beat up (chuckles) and a little dry, but we'll set them out to dry, and this is one of the only bones in the buffalo's body that's flat.

So this part here is very valuable.

We would cut it out to make forks, needles, fish hooks.

The kids always wanna make an oar out of it.

- If I'm a buffalo, the scapula are here.

- Yeah, yeah, right here on the front of the shoulders.

This is a part of the beard, part of the buffalo's beard.

Both females and males have them, but the males' can get pretty long.

As much as we don't like to name our buffalo, we do have one guy that we call Buffalo Goodbeard because he spread seeds like crazy, and you can just see his beard full of pollen.

Here we have soap.

- Soap.

- Buffalo tallow.

So we definitely were able to soap up years and years and years ago, and you can definitely mix it with the sages or sweet grasses or anything that you'd find to make it smell how you'd want it to.

Not like this, of course.

- [Steve] But another example of using everything, - Everything.

You know, you'd use this for fire.

A lot of these are used, and the buffalo scat is used for our ceremonies.

A certain number amount that are used.

I'm not specifically aware of that protocol, but we've had healers and people come out to gather that for our ceremonies.

And we have a tail here.

This one's been done up pretty well.

So it's on a stick.

Fly swatters, definitely.

Definitely, you could use this to clean things, you know?

- That's what they use them for.

Yeah.

- And like I said, if you found a good use for that, and of course, you know, we even actually have a couple tails on regalia, or, you know, jackets, just something that you'd like to wear.

Here we have, this is probably one of my favorite parts of the buffalo.

These are the foot bones.

These four are in each of the feet, and they kind of fit here somewhat like this maybe.

So this was a toy area of the buffalo.

So these are little ponies, or little buffalo that run around.

So you'd have quite a herd, you know, depending if your dad or mom were really good hunters, you could have a lot of those.

This is a really cool part, the smaller bone.

And these were also toys, but the size is really perfect for infants to grab onto.

It's knobby.

And when they're teething, they could grab onto this, and this part in particular they would rub it on their gums and chew.

But it's just the right size.

They can't choke on it either.

But they won't drop it.

- Reminds me, that's what worry bone almost too.

- Sure.

- Just a comforting thing just to have in your hand.

- One of the, I think maybe why that's my favorite part is we were doing a presentation in Lame Deer once, and one of the elders came up afterwards, and it's always a little, you always feel a little shaky presenting in front of elders and you don't wanna mess up and you don't wanna be disrespectful.

And he came walking up right afterwards, and he pulled a pony out of his pocket that he had had since he was a young boy.

Those are really cool.

These are some teeth.

When buffalo get older, their teeth get fuller, and then what I mean is more solid.

You can see some of these are hollow.

You can see right inside.

Like this is a good one.

So, you know, those were used for decoration as well.

It really is up to you.

I mean, in this day and age too, we're still learning, and what we say a lot in our ceremonies, or just trying to get to a good place of finding our, meeting our identity, is we know what we don't know.

But you have to participate or meet your prayer halfway to find that out.

- Well, there's no manual that says this must be used this way and only this way.

- No.

- It's whatever you can make of it.

- So here we have some bones.

This is from the hump bone.

It is dried, and then the outer layer is scraped off.

But this is a paintbrush.

It's very porous, and able to hold a bunch of paint.

Yes.

This is from a bone, probably the shin bone, one of the leg bones, and an awl.

So we have some tape on there.

That should go in the bladder bag.

And this is just a stick made to move to use for our hide glue.

The glue, which would come from, which I forgot, the hooves.

- Hooves as well.

- Yeah.

We would boil these down to make glue.

- [Steve] It reminds me of a honey stick.

- It does look a honey stick.

- The same concept.

- Yeah.

- [Steve] You'd drizzle the glue where you needed it.

- Sure.

Here we have dew claws.

They would be used as decoration.

They make great sounds.

We put them on our powwow regalia.

Maybe even if a bunch of them strung together to make somewhat of a doorbell outside your lodge, 'cause there's a really lovely sound when they make that.

And you can actually kind of hear those.

- Yeah.

I can hear.

- And these, when they walk.

Here's a hide scraper.

Very important tool.

Like the right angle here, and like, you know, scraping through.

The buffalo's hide around his neck and his hump, it's about an inch thick, so this came in very handy in that area of the hide.

- So we're seeing everything from containment, containers, hauling things, storing things, carrying things, making things, eating, entertainment, play, and that's just some of the things we can think of.

- Right.

- And many more than that.

- For sure.

The one thing I don't have here is in another buffalo box is a stomach.

They have four stomachs.

It very much interests me.

So being able to take them apart, learning how to cook them and prepare them, but even just get them to that point, it's a lot of work.

Kind of find out what you're made of.

(chuckles) So, but it's so interesting.

You know, we didn't have pots and pans, so the stomach was very important.

- As a vessel.

- To use as a vessel for that.

You know, we'd hang it on a tripod and put in the meat and the berries, or, you know, the sage, and next to this tripod would have a fire burning, and the hot rocks would be dropped into this vessel, and it would cook inside the stomach.

And the stomach is so thick.

I have gotten one down, actually when you first take it out of the animal, it's probably about that thick, pretty heavy.

And I have gotten it down to where it looks like Teflon tape, and that huge thing comes down to this little ball, and clear, and it's a huge water vessel.

- Using this?

- Just taking it apart with my hands.

- I see.

- It's very interesting how the meat grows around the stomach.

The big one, it's kind of like spaghetti.

It's like spaghetti meat, like strings of meat that you can pull off.

It just goes on and on, it feels like.

(chuckles) - For many people, Yellowstone is the place where you can come and see a big herd of bison as they're called here, buffalo as they're more commonly called elsewhere.

And we're gonna use that term.

But this is something you know a lot about outside Yellowstone, because you're deeply involved in the reintroduction, the restoration of the buffalo into areas of Wyoming that aren't Yellowstone.

- Mm hmm.

I'm lucky enough to know a guy.

(chuckles) So my husband, Jason Baldes, was very instrumental in reintroducing buffalo or bison back to our reservation.

He's Eastern Shoshone.

The Northern Arapaho Tribe has also reintroduced a herd.

They can see each other across the river, so we laugh and say like we can wave across and see our family.

- What's your tribal affiliation?

- Oh, I'm an enrolled Northern Arapaho, and my mother is a Northern Paiute.

Since that happened, the first 10 came in 2016, there hadn't been buffalo there for close to 135 years, at least harvested by a tribal member.

This last year and the year before buffalo were harvested for our ceremonies, our sun dances.

They're harvested for, they like to feed the community.

And with their reintroduction, the important thing to remember is that we want them to be buffalo.

- And you spend a fair amount of time in their presence, right?

- Right.

- So you hear them and smell 'em and watch 'em and... - Yes.

- Touch 'em sometimes?

- (chuckling) I haven't.

No.

- I know that's not recommended, but- - (chuckling) No, yeah, they're in our backyard.

They're right there.

Before the buffalo came in a way where we were almost like we're they're caretakers, we get to be near them.

And it was just funny, 'cause they're mostly like our caretakers.

But it was so exciting.

It's still exciting waking up and looking out the window and seeing one down in the field.

It's exciting to see the babies.

- [Steve] Well, it's a great animal to photograph, one of the very, very best.

How'd you get interested in photography?

- Oh, well, I remember being very young, and it was mostly around Christmas time with the Polaroid, but I almost wanted to crawl in the tree every year, and just feel like, get shots of the inside and what it looked like outside, because it's such a joyous time.

- And a camera's a great thing to get as a gift when you're a little kid, isn't it?

Just, it's all yours and no one can make you take the picture.

You can do what you want with it.

- I've been gifted cameras since then, and all of my photos really are of buffalo and flowers and the land.

I rarely take pictures of people, except my husband.

I mentioned I like to take pictures of pretty things, and he's definitely one of those to me.

- Or when you do, you can't exactly tell who you're seeing.

- Right, exactly.

- Is that him?

- That's him.

- That's him.

I wondered about that.

What do you want people to get from your presentation when they come in here and spend 10 or 15 minutes with you?

- Oh, I'd hope they could find something relatable, something that they can walk out and maybe share with someone that they met a Native person that wasn't what they expected.

I like to be funny.

I like to laugh with people, and I definitely like just to share a calm, fun way rather than having anyone treat me differently just because I'm tribal.

- What do you think their expectations of you might have been?

Does anyone end up being astonished at the way you are?

- I feel like they maybe expect a little more- - [Steve] This pedestal sort of thing?

- Like a flute music, and, you know, like, "Come in."

And when I am not that way- - In person.

- Encourage them.

Yes, encourage them to touch everything, ask the wrong questions.

It's important for me to have them see me how I would want to see them, in a comfortable way I guess.

- There was some thinking that went into creating the Tribal Heritage Center, better representation of tribal heritage at Yellowstone coinciding with 150th anniversary.

How do you think the park's doing with that?

Are you satisfied at least with the direction that it's going?

- I am.

The relationships that I've made seem honest.

I feel, like I mentioned before, I do feel like I can speak as I am and not have any compromise or contortion to make the whole project work.

And it's nice.

It's nice to sit and visit with Cam Sholly.

- This is the park superintendent.

- Superintendent, yes.

In a very honest, real way.

I don't think that anything is perfect by any means, but the real try and the generosity, I think from both sides is going to make it be better.

- Patti Baldes, I've really been pleased to talk with you today.

I feel I've learned a lot from you.

I'm sure visitors coming to see you here will feel the same, and I thank you for being with us on "Wyoming Chronicle."

- Thank you.

(bright upbeat music)