In one of the most exhilarating and purest works of theater in memory, the herd of forty buffaloes lumbered their way through the narrow streets of the city, snorting, twitching, swinging their massive heads, and patiently pausing at some of the most historically resonant sites in New York for a wide and arresting range of non-puppet performances.

 Lenape elders and Native Pride Dancers welcomed them at Bowling Green in front of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and actor Wendell Pierce read from a speech by Frederick Douglass in front of Federal Hall (site of George Washington’s first inauguration), with a musical accompaniment by Davóne Tines & THE TRUTH.

The Resistance Revival Chorus performed at Zuccotti Park (which served as the Occupy Wall Street protest camp in 2011).

The route to City Hall Park and finally Foley Square, featured such performers as Fogo Azul, the all-women Brazilian Samba Reggae drumline marching band, Daphne Rubin-Vega reading the words of Elvira Arellano who took sanctuary in a Chicago church in 2006, the modern dance company Pilobolus, the roots musician and classical artist Rhiannon Giddens, the Sicangu Lakota Elder Tokala Two Elk.

“Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi” might sound like a variety show on the move, but it felt more integrated than that, something visceral as well as intellectual, as if the buffalo were leading New Yorkers on a tour simultaneously of American history, culture, and politics. (And that was just Friday. They moved to Brooklyn on Saturday.)