Interesting. Thanks.
What was your assessment at the time?
Actually I had mixed feelings at the time. The Heider farm was about a mile or less outside of town. The Heiders were not charging any admission fees, but that turned out to be a technicality. There was a large contingent of Lakota doing crowd control/security. They (Lakota) directed me on where to park - in someone’s front yard . . . which cost $10.
NO cameras were allowed. If you wanted photos to remember the visit you had to buy their photo packet . . . another $20.
I also remember a few Lakota wandering through the crowd seeking donations to keep the event going.
Visitors were restricted to one viewing area where you could see one side of a hill in the pasture. If you happened to be there at the right time a worker would put out some grain in a feed trough and then some of the buffalo would come over the hill into view.
What was impressive was the number of prayer cloths and dream catchers that were tied to the fence. And how the Lakota there were acting, kinda like how we would act while touring St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.