Like many teens, the students at Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota are big fans of tacos, lasagna and pizza for school lunch. Unlike most, though, these teens prepare their lunch with buffalo meat. Leaner and healthier than its flabby counterpart, commercial beef, buffalo (also known as bison) not only feeds the stomachs of the students and their elders, it feeds their souls.

The youths, members of the Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe, have teamed up with students from South Dakota State University to learn how to raise, cook and market the bison in an effort to revive demand for the native American food.

Flandreau Indian School students Deshae Greeley, left, and Kevin Lahi, center, make bison burgers with South Dakota State U. food science student Joseph Stillions. (Photo by ERIC LANWHER, S.D.S.U./Associated Press)