A musician friend suggested "Dawn of the Buffalo" as a name for the band, which was misheard as "Donna the Buffalo" and, over thirty years later, the band is still called "Donna the Buffalo". The followers of the group are called The Herd, a self-organized "tribe" of people who found each other at the group's live events.

Donna the Buffalo is one of the founding and host bands of the annual Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, and of the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival.

The band has performed and recorded with a variety of musicians, including such prominent folk/roots performers as Jim Lauderdale, the father and son zydeco musicians Preston and Keith Frank, Bela Fleck of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, the Malian musician Mamadou Diabate, Claire Lynch, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, The Duhks and Amy Helm. In 2009, Tara Nevins toured with the former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann and his band, BK3.