Joseph Gazing-Wolf
About the artist
Joseph Gazing Wolf’s sound of belonging is the near silent humming of the buffalo. (5:04)
Joseph Gazing Wolf is an interdisciplinary Indigenous philosopher. He has a PhD from the School of Life Sciences at ASU. As a scholar in the academic and nonprofit sectors, Joseph partners with Indigenous communities to support the revitalization of their ancestral lifeways, ecologies and epistemologies. As a land steward in the conservation and agricultural sectors, Joseph works to provide technical support for Indigenous land stewards.
Audio transcript
Every day that I’m out on the Prairie, I see my ancestors. I see people living on the land in such a dignified and respectful way that it can only be life-enhancing. I see circular teepees in concentric circles representing the interconnectedness of all living beings on the prairie. This vision would have no substance to it if it wasn’t for the sounds of the prairie.
Sounds of thunder rolling through the hills and across the grasses, sounds of rain pouring down and crashing into the leaves of the trees and the soil beneath. And running through the streams to the lakes and ponds. In the waters, I hear the migrating birds talking to one another, expressing love, indignation or simply song.
And then there’s the sound of wind as it rushes through each blade of grass, as the grasses dance with the wind. And the sound of fire, a destructive and yet life-giving force, propagated by native stewards of the land as well as Mother Earth herself.
But the sound that I listened for the most is the near silent humming of the Buffalo, our closest kin. The soft hums and the deep grunts of the Buffalo are to me the voice and the spirit of the prairie. Without that sound, the prairie is soulless, a mere shadow of herself. To this day, it still amazes me how I could be standing in the middle of a herd of buffalo that are 1000 strong, and if I close my eyes, I would not even know that they’re there. They embody all the sounds of the prairie. From her silence to her deep groans and her thunderous voice. Today, having the privilege of managing large herds of Buffalo, I get to have a daily vision of what the prairie may have once been. How the air must have been filled with the soft grunts and humming of the herd and their soft movement through the grasses. The sound of loud bellows of the bulls and their rolling around and wallows acting goofy and playing. And I envision that when the matriarchs of the Tatanka tribe decide to move the herd, the that is when the thunder begins. The sound of thousands upon thousands of thundering hooves across the plains. And along with it, the sounds of human laughter and song as native peoples are restored to their lands, along with all of their plant and animal relatives.
This is what I listen for today and what I hope for in the near future for all our people as we continue to restore both human and more than human tribes that are native to these lands, now and forever.