Leaders from some 40 Native American tribes, along with their supporters, sang and prayed on the wind-swept grasses of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday to marshal unseen and political forces to bring back the sacred buffalo to their lands.

“Look up there. The eagles they want their cousins the buffalo to be healthy and thrive,” said Rick Williams, a member of the Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes as two eagles flew over drum songs and prayers during the final day of the first-ever Tribal Buffalo Conservation Summit.

The gathering, which started Thursday, brought together Native American leaders as well as cultural representatives and conservation experts to compare notes on the ecological, cultural and economic benefits of restoring buffalo herds on reservation lands in the West, organizers said. Once there, the buffalo can be preserved and hunted for the good of the tribe, as was the situation over a century ago.

“To us, the buffalo has always been nature’s commissary, providing shelter, food, as well as being central to our spirituality,” said Jason Baldes, a member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe from the Wind River reservation in Wyoming. He is also a consultant to the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buffalo Program. “To save the buffalo and bring the buffalo back to us is something worth fighting for.”

The buffalo restoration movement, which began about 20 years ago, has resulted in bringing back hundreds of wild buffalo to tribal lands in Montana, Wyoming and other states through conservation and purchasing bison from other tribes, Baldes said.

But it’s been met with resistance by many in the West’s cattle industry who don’t want free-ranging bison competing with cattle herds. Ranchers also fear the bison can infect their herds with brucellosis, a debilitating disease for cattle. The conflict has led to legislation and lawsuits in Montana, Baldes said.

Still, restoration efforts have brought tribes together like few other issues, and it’s not just about nostalgia, tribal leaders said. The buffalo can provide nutritional and economic sustenance to tribal members, said Monica Terkildsen, a member of the World Wildlife Fund and Oglala Lakota tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

“If we could put buffalo on our reservation, we could feed ourselves, and how empowering would that be?” Terkildsen said. “We could also hire people to build fences around the buffalo and manage the herds. We could bring hope to our tribes.”

Buffalo meat, because it is largely grass-fed, is considered more nutritious than chicken and fish, and a steady diet could help stem the rapid rise of diabetes on reservations, added Cetan Wanbli Williams, a member of the Oglala/Cheyenne/Ojibwe tribes who assisted in the development and management of one of the first recreational cannabis dispensaries in Colorado.

“Restoring the bison to the natural prairie could be a tremendous alternative to traditional agriculture,” Wanbli Williams said. “It could be pivotal to our health and welfare.”

American bison once numbered in the millions. But by the late 1880s, they had been hunted to near extinction throughout North America. Through the efforts of by conservationists, agencies, tribes, state and federal agencies and others, there are about 500,000 plains bison across North America. Of those, about 21,000 are in conservation herds — herds used for display, education and outreach, summit officials said. They highlighted several successful stories of tribes restoring herds by buying them for other tribes and using them for economic and cultural benefits.

The Fort Peck Buffalo Program in Montana has developed online license sales for non-tribal hunters as well as partnering with businesses to sell surplus and state-inspected bison meat for affordable sales to members of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. “No doubt we can relearn how to use the bison, our brothers, in today’s culture,” Terkildsen said.