Bring Them Home

A hundred and fifty years ago, the Blackfoot people witnessed the near-extinction of bison, one of the most important links to their identity, culture and spirituality – an act that nearly destroyed the tribe. Since then, the Blackfoot have endured a century long campaign of oppression and persecution from the United States government – a brutal and violent experience that they are only now healing from.

Bring Them Home follows a small group of Blackfoot who are working to right these historic wrongs by returning wild bison to their lands – an act that would heal people, re-enliven traditional culture and bring economic opportunity to their community.

But this mission has been thwarted at every turn by cattle ranchers, internal politics and the legacy of colonialism. If this opposition is successful, not only would bison never return to the wild, but it would threaten decades of work to reintroduce traditional tribal culture, language, livelihood – in essence it would complete a process started two centuries ago, a death of their spirit.

Our film charts the course of this struggle from past to present – from the near-annihilation of bison and the Blackfoot people to the origins of the effort to restore wild bison and the present-day threats to their work and culture. It closely follows the tribal members who have given their lives and hearts to this struggle for the betterment of their people and is an intimate look at the willpower and resilience it takes to survive and thrive in the face of near-continuous hostility.