In 2025, Native-led nonprofit INDIGENOUS LED, commissioned Hunter Robert Baker and Elias Gallegos to direct a three-part trilogy project supporting the rewilding of sacred, iinnii relatives, Buffalo on Blackfeet Territory. The project was executive produced by Chris Eyre (Dark Winds, Smoke Signals). To learn more visit Indigenousled.org
ACT I - IINNIIWA: The Blackfeet Buffalo Story
The Music Film
In support of these efforts renowned cellist, Yo-Yo Ma traveled to Blackfeet Nation to add his art to the chorus that calls to our
sacred Buffalo relatives. Yo-Yo performs “Amazing Grace,” a medley that provides hope and unity during divided times.
Evoking our largest humanity, Yo-Yo Ma honors the power of relationship in an uncertain world, demonstrating the ability of art to unite us. Ma
celebrates the Blackfeet Nation’s unwavering devotion to the return of free-roaming Buffalo, sacred iinnii, to their homelands.
ACT I will make its World Premiere at Santa Fe International Film Festival.
ACT II - IINNIIWA: The Blackfeet Buffalo Story
The Documentary
The Blackfoot people have always sung a Buffalo song. Nearly 150 years have passed since
these sacred relatives, called “iinnii” in the Blackfoot language, were nearly taken from Turtle
Island—but the Blackfoot people have never stopped calling their kin home.
The Blackfeet Buffalo Program has been at the forefront of returning buffalo to the Blackfeet
territory for over two decades. In June 2023, the Program made history by returning 49 iinnii to
their homelands at the base of Nínaiistáko, or Chief Mountain—a site sacred to all Blackfoot
people. There, in the foothills that the Blackfeet call home, the first free-roaming Buffalo
returned to the last intact grasslands in North America.
The homecoming was also a moment of fruition for the long-time partnerships between the
Blackfoot Buffalo Program, Blackfeet Fish & Wildlife, Glacier and Waterton Lakes National
Parks, and the Native-led nonprofit INDIGENOUS LED.