Spring 2026 News
Spring in the West: A Rare Window Before the World Arrives
Spring arrives quietly in the West—then all at once.
Across the valley, herds begin to move. Elk leave their winter grounds at the National Elk Refuge, pushing toward the high country. Buffalo follow the greening grass. And pronghorn—guided by instinct older than recorded history—trace their way north along the Path of the Pronghorn, completing the second longest land migration in North America, Alaska’s Caribou are number one.
For a brief moment, before summer crowds arrive, Jackson Hole offers something rare:
A front-row seat to a landscape in motion.
The Return of the Buffalo
Not far from Jackson, on the Wind River Reservation, something powerful is happening.
The Eastern Shoshone are restoring buffalo to their ancestral lands—reviving a relationship that once sustained both people and place. From an estimated 60 million across the Plains to near extinction in the 1870s, the story of the buffalo is inseparable from the story of the American West.
Its return is more than conservation.
It is restoration—of balance, of culture, and of a way of life that has endured against the odds.
That history is not static—it continues to live and evolve.
From May 5–9, Native Voices & the Teton Powwow bring together artists, storytellers, and dancers from across the West. Through film, art, and gathering, the event offers a rare opportunity to experience Indigenous culture not as history—but as a vibrant, living tradition.
It’s not just something to attend.
It’s something to understand.
