DURANT: The last bison to walk the tallgrass prairie adjoining what is now the Choctaw Cultural Center in Durant disappeared more than 150 years ago, driven out by westward expansion, market hunting and the systematic destruction of the grasslands that had sustained them for millennia.
Three heifers took their first steps onto 100 acres of native prairie at the Choctaw Cultural Center, the opening act of a herd that will eventually include a bull, additional heifers and their calves. The Choctaw Nation said this homecoming was loaded with cultural weight, ecological intention and an urgency that extends beyond southeastern Oklahoma.
“One hundred and fifty-plus years translates to the time of our great-grandparents’ grandparents,” said Ian Thompson, Ph.D., senior director of Tribal Historic Preservation for the Choctaw Nation. “They lived in a vibrant and beautiful world, interacting with creatures like the bison and powerful landscapes like the tallgrass prairie. That life experience influenced their whole outlook on life. Today, most people don’t get to experience even a fraction of that.”
The Choctaw Nation’s program is deliberately local in scale and intentional in purpose. The animals are not going into a pasture. They are being placed on a documented tallgrass prairie remnant that researchers from the Oklahoma Biological Survey have identified as home to more than 200 native plant species.
