Native American tribes are leading efforts to bring back bison across North America where they were once hunted to near extinction in the late 19th century. Tens of millions of bison, also known as American buffalo, once lived on the Great Plains of the United States and Canada. Many Native American tribes needed the animal to survive. They ate the bison’s meat, used its bones for tools and weapons, and made clothing and housing, called teepees, from its hide. European settlers turned killing bison into an industry. They used animal parts in machinery, fertilizer and clothing. By 1889, few bison remained: about 800 animals in the wild and 250 in zoos and private ownership. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is the first Native American to serve in the cabinet. She told the Associated Press, “We wanted to populate the western half of the United States because there were so many people in the East.” The thinking at the time, she added, was “if we kill off the buffalo, the Indians will die. They won’t have anything to eat.” Now 82 tribes across the U.S. have more than 20,000 bison in 65 herds. And that number has been growing along with the desire among Native Americans to look after the animal that their ancestors depended upon for thousands of years. The long-term dream for some Native Americans is to return bison to the large numbers that once shaped the landscape itself.