A year and a half ago, the 605 Unity Team created a special event for the Wagner area to help bring our community closer together and to focus more on cooperation and caring about each other. The event was created to use what we all like as the way to take the first step. This step involved using art, culture, food, dance and music as the center of the idea. We wanted to take what we already knew about our community and use that to help focus upon the importance of cultural appreciation, understanding, acceptance and cooperation as it will help determine what our communities future will look like.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe Business and Claims Committee and the Wagner Chamber of Commerce each welcomed us to introduce the idea to help explain that we need to work together more than we have in the past if we expect to grow and prosper as a community on into the future. The Unity Team created the “605 Unity Jam” as a result of those discussions. We explained that the event would bring us all to the table, but the message of the day would only last for a short time before it would begin to fade. To make it more effective and lasting we needed something that would remain as a reminder of why we took this step together. Both groups were asked to take the next step with us and begin by becoming financial partners to create what we called the “Buffalo Community Art Project”. From this concept came the development of the “Imagine Student Art Contest” for students in the 5th grade who were asked to use their artistic ability to design a buffalo picture as you would an art canvas. As we all know, the buffalo is an important symbol for our state. Out of many designs turned in, four student designs were selected and then two professional artists then created the beautiful community art pieces that many were seen displayed this past year at Labor Day. The original vision involved having 5th grade students repeating the steps over a few years and having a total of five community art pieces created over time and they would all be displayed on the north hillside of Wagner Lake. This could then become a reason to stop for travelers as they will hear about the community art. This will also heighten the enjoyment of the walk around the lake and eventually spill over into other parts of the community as it has in other well known communities who use art as a travelers reason to visit a community.

The step began by asking the two groups to imagine a family traveling through our community and finding out we have buffalo art at the lake. Imagine they choose to take a walk around the lake, as we do, just to get a closer look. Imagine what their conversations would be about and what they might say about our community. Imagine their conversations when they see the partnership that had been created because of this project and that they will say about our students. Imagine what they think, who they might tell when they return home and who might visit us because of those comments. Imagine what this does for the feelings we all have about our community and our image around the state. It is often said, “ If you build it, they will come!” Imagine who that might be and where they might come from. How has this already helped us? Just imagine how these “Unity Buffalo” can affect us. Just imagine! Now you might wonder, like many people do, “Where are the Unity Buffalo and why are they there?”