So You Want to Build a Meat Processing Plant?
Building the Workforce for the Buffalo Economy
By Chris White Eagle, CEO, Wambli Ska Society
So You Want to Build a Meat Processing Plant? is an ongoing series about building the workforce for the buffalo economy and preparing Native communities for a stronger, more local economy.
Q: Why does this matter beyond one meat processing plant?
A: Because I believe we are watching an economy change.
For decades, much of America built systems around bigger, farther away and more centralized.
Food travels enormous distances. Animals can leave a region to be processed and products travel back again. Communities export resources and then import finished goods.
But there is another possibility.
Local animals. Local processing. Local workers. Local businesses. Local food. Local ownership.
For Tribal Nations, buffalo can sit at the center of something even larger.
Not because buffalo is a new economic opportunity.
Because buffalo has always been connected to our economies, relationships and ways of life.
What is new are the tools available to us.
We can combine traditional knowledge with modern processing. Apprenticeship with entrepreneurship. Food sovereignty with workforce development. Local retail with e-commerce. Harvesting with technology. Cultural knowledge with modern manufacturing.
That is why I call this the buffalo economy.
Q: What happens when the original business plan changes?
A: You don't stop building. You find another path forward.
A good business doesn't only have Plan A.
It develops B, C, D, E, F and G.
But those don't have to be emergency plans. They can be opportunity plans.
If institutional purchasing changes, can we strengthen direct-to-consumer sales? If wholesale slows, can we expand retail? If customers want different products, can we develop them? If processing capacity exists in one community, can it serve neighboring communities? If we learn how to build a successful operation, can we teach another Tribal Nation what we learned?
Every pivot can create another skill. Every new skill can create another job. Every new job can create another mentor. And every mentor can prepare someone else to carry the work forward.
What Would a Buffalo Economy Look Like?
I think this is the question we should be asking across Indian Country.
What happens when we stop measuring success only by how many jobs we create and start measuring how much knowledge, ownership and economic activity stays within our communities?
Imagine the chain:
Buffalo → Harvest → Processing → Packaging → Distribution → Retail → Food → Value-Added Products → Entrepreneurship → Training → Mentorship → Leadership → Ownership
And then something important happens.
It circles back.
The experienced worker trains the apprentice. The apprentice becomes the mentor. The employee becomes the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur creates another business. That business employs another young person. The money circulates again.
That is an economy.
And it isn't only a buffalo economy.
It is a local economy built around relationships.
The Question I Would Ask Before Building a Plant
If someone came to Sacred Storm Buffalo tomorrow and said:
“We want to build a meat processing plant. What should we do first?”
I wouldn't start by showing them the equipment.
I'd introduce them to the people.
Then I'd ask:
Who are you preparing to do this work twenty years from now?
Because buildings eventually need repairs. Equipment eventually needs replacing. Markets will change. Business plans will change.
But when you invest in people, something different happens.
Knowledge accumulates. Skills multiply. Leadership develops. Businesses emerge. Communities become less dependent upon systems thousands of miles away.
And the next generation doesn't have to start where we started.
They get to start where we finished.
That, to me, is the real opportunity in rebuilding the buffalo economy.
It's more than a job. It's a way of life.
Chris White Eagle
CEO, Wambli Ska Society
Sacred Storm Buffalo
SERIES: So You Want to Build a Meat Processing Plant? · Wambli Ska · Sacred Storm Buffalo