SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, Calif. (AP) – After a life spent on a balmy Pacific island, 98 buffalo are being sent back to an authentic – and frigid – home on the range.

The buffalo began their journey Wednesday from Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, to South Dakota, where they will live on traditional rangelands of the Rosebud Lakota reservation.

The animals, some standing 5 feet at the shoulder and weighing several thousand pounds, are the descendants of an original herd of 14 brought from the prairie to appear in the 1920s silent movie “The Vanishing American.” Once the film was completed, the buffalo were simply left behind on the island.

“The idea was to get these buffalo that were taken from the plains some 80 years ago … back to their homeland,” said Maurice Lyons, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, which is paying to ship the animals.

“To the Native Americans back there, these animals are sacred,” he said.