Leon’s presentation is called, “Wild Bison and the Buffalo People: Re-imagining ‘the Heart of Everything That Is'”
Passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, oral histories told by Plains Indian peoples – Lakota, Dakota, Arapaho, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and many other tribes – account for the origins of how things came to be, the animals, people, plants, and the natural forces of the world. Expressions of a cultural stream of ancestral memory, oral histories are interwoven with a people’s sacred ceremonies, dances, and songs, affirming their cultural significance. The Lakota speak of The Buffalo People, Sacred Beings who live below the surface of the earth and became the four-legged, shaggy-haired creatures we know today as tatanka, the buffalo, or wild bison. Hunted and slaughtered to near extinction by end of the 19th century, wild bison continue to endure, yet their existence as wildlife remains in peril, confined to a landscape we know today as Yellowstone National Park. Leon’s talk will explore the oral histories of Plains Indian peoples, the presence of wild bison, and the influence of Western Christian heritage with respect to how human beings see themselves in the natural world.
Leon Aliski holds an M.A degree in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and is a Ph.D. candidate in the same field. He is a writer, researcher and consultant for the tourism industry and has recently traveled to Yellowstone National Park, the Black Hills, Wind Cave, the Platte River, and First Peoples Buffalo Jump near Great Falls, Montana.