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Bison calves stand in Saskatchewan’s Wanuskewin Heritage Park, the first to be
born in the the archaeological site and cultural centre in more than 150 years.
Photo by Wanuskewin Heritage Park
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

 * Travel




HOW CANADIAN BISON HAVE BEEN BROUGHT BACK FROM THE BRINK IN SASKATCHEWAN

In Saskatchewan’s Wanuskewin Heritage Park, bison are a vital piece of the
indigenous cultural history and have been brought back from the brink to help
rewild fragile grasslands.


ByKaren Gardiner
Published June 3, 2023
• 10 min read
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This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

Dr Ernie Walker has heard enough tired takes on Saskatchewan’s flat landscape.
“A lot of people refer to the prairies as big and empty or useless,” he says,
indignant, as he leads me around Wanuskewin Heritage Park, an archaeological
site and cultural centre 15 minutes from the Saskatchewan city of Saskatoon.
“That’s not it. What’s significant about the prairies is that it’s subtle.” 

Standing under a big blue sky, amid dry rolling grassland that stretches
uninterrupted all the way to the horizon, I think I understand the
misconception: lacking mountains and with sparse trees, this isn’t exactly the
type of landscape that wallops you with its dramatic features. But if there’s
anyone who can convincingly argue for the value of this place, it’s Walker. 

The park’s founder and chief archeologist, Walker has spent four decades with
his hands in Wanuskewin’s dirt, turning up artefacts — including stone and bone
tools, amulets and even gaming pieces — that have whispered to him stories of
this land’s significance. Working here as a ranch hand in the early 1980s, he
convinced his boss that the land had great archaeological importance. That
slowly set in motion the park’s establishment, which involved a
rare-for-the-time collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

“When visitors look at the landscape, I’m always interested in what they’re
actually seeing,” Walker continues. “They need to know the story behind this
place.” The story here is of 6,000 years of almost uninterrupted human
occupation. That narrative was drummed into the land by millions of bison hooves
until the animals met a violent end. But now, the bison are back and they’re
writing a new chapter.

An abandoned building stands along the roads of rural Saskatchewan.
Photo by Design Pics Inc, Alamy
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.



A PLACE OF SANCTUARY

In the Nēhiyawēwin (Plains Cree) language, ‘Wanuskewin’ roughly translates as
‘sanctuary’. Lying at the fertile confluence of the South Saskatchewan River and
Opimihaw Creek, it was a gathering place for the people of the Northern Plains —
the Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Nakota and Dakota — who all followed
bison herds and found sustenance and shelter here. Before European settlement,
this land was home to vast numbers of bison (also known as buffalo) and the
multitudes of species they supported, from the insects that thrived in the
bison’s manure and the birds that fed on those insects to the humans that were
dependent on the bison’s meat and skin.  

But then came catastrophe. Bison were deliberately slaughtered to near
extinction, a tactic used by settlers to starve Indigenous people into
submission. “Around 400 years ago, there were 26 to 30 million bison on the
Great Plains in North America,” Walker says. “By the 1890s, there were just
1,200.” 

With the bison and their way of life gone, Plains people were left with little
choice but to sign Treaty Six, an 1876 agreement with the British Crown that
opened up the land for European settlement and promised one square mile of land
to every Indigenous family of five. They were then corralled onto reserves.

“What if I were to come to all of your houses, empty your fridges and say you
guys have to move to the s****y part of town?” Wearing a fringed buckskin
waistcoat adorned with beaded flowers, Jordan Daniels, a member of the
Mistawasis Nêhiyawak (Cree) Nation, raises his voice above the prairie wind to
ensure we understand the depth of his ancestors’ loss. I’ve left Walker for now
and joined a small group along Wanuskewin’s bison viewing trail where we’ll see
and learn about Wanuskewin’s reestablished herd. 

“The bison were a central part of our existence,” Daniels explains. “We made our
teepees out of them. They were a main food source. Everything we needed for
sustenance came from these animals.” There was also an emotional connection.
Many Indigenous people consider bison kin, and the animal is ubiquitous in
Indigenous stories and art. “They played a central role in our beliefs and in
our way of seeing the world around us,” explains Daniels.



Bringing back the bison to Wanuskewin was always the park’s founders’ dream. In
2019, the animals finally came home. Six calves from Saskatchewan’s Grasslands
National Park established the herd, followed by an additional five animals from
the United States with ancestral ties to Yellowstone National Park. The herd,
which has grown to 12, is now helping to restore native grasses. North America’s
grasslands are one of the most endangered biomes in the world and bison, a
keystone species, can help restore balance between animals, land and humans.

While grazing, Daniels explains, bison’s hooves aerate soil and help to disperse
seeds, and by wallowing (rolling around), they create depressions that fill with
rainwater and stimulate plant growth and provide habitat for microorganisms,
amphibians and insects. “They’re ecologically unmatched,” he says. “But, I feel,
nothing outweighs the cultural factor of having bison back here.”

Daniels’ connection is intensely personal. He explains that his seven-times
great grandfather was Chief Mistawasis, the first chief in Saskatchewan to sign
on to Treaty Six. Before signing, Daniels says, Mistawasis “had spent his life
living how our people have done since time immemorial, out on the plains hunting
bison. And today, I’m able to look at animals that are genetically close to the
ones that he’d have interacted with. It’s a very impactful and powerful thing.”

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Left: Tianna McCabe, a Navajo, Arapaho and Cree powwow dancer, explains the
significance of her ornate regalia.
Right: Dezaray Wapass, a Fancy Shawl dancer, performs in Wanuskewin National
Park.
Photo by Concepts/kareedavidsonphotography.com



HAPPY TO BE HOME

Wanuskewin is about protecting the future as much as preserving the past. I meet
with young Indigenous people who demonstrate aspects of their cultures, once
suppressed, now thriving. Tianna McCabe, a Navajo, Arapaho and Cree powwow
dancer, explains the significance of every fabric and colour of her ornate
regalia before hopping her way through an Old Style Fancy Shawl dance, her feet
landing with each staccato beat of a drum.

As the day eases into night, I follow a group to the top of a bluff to meet
Métis chef Jenni Lessard, who’s prepared our Han Wi (‘moon dinner’ in Dakota
language). As well as bison tenderloin, sourced from a nearby farm and seasoned
with yarrow and sage, we eat pickled spruce tips and bannock bread with
chokecherry syrup. Sipping wild mint and fireweed tea, we gather around a fire,
rejoined by Dr Ernie Walker to hear “a miraculous story”.

In August 2020, Walker was visiting the bison herd when he noticed a boulder
protruding from a patch of vegetation the animals had worn away. Seeing a groove
cut across the top of it and, brushing away the dirt, he spotted more cuts and
realised what he was seeing was a petroglyph. The boulder turned out to be a
‘ribstone’, so-called because its engraved motifs represent bison ribs. Three
more petroglyphs were later unearthed, as well as the stone knife used to carve
them.

What the bison did when they uncovered those petroglyphs was to complete the
story of Wanuskewin. “We’d always lamented that, here in the park, we’ve got
[archeological sites like] buffalo jumps, teepee rings and North America’s most
northerly medicine wheel, but we didn’t have any rock art,” explains Walker.

Wanuskewin is on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage designation. The
discovery of the petroglyphs, Walker believes, has boosted its chances. He tells
me: “The stones complete everything you’d expect to find on the Northern Plains,
but you don’t usually find those things within walking distance of each other.”



Dressed in a white Stetson, blue jeans and cowboy boots, Walker retains the
appearance of a young ranch hand but, after 40 years of arguing for this place,
I sense he’s content to rest a little. “I’ve told this story many times before,”
he says. Now, the bison have picked up Wanuskewin’s epic story and it’s time to
let them tell it once again.

How to do it
Air Canada flies from Heathrow to Saskatoon (connecting in Toronto). Around 20
minutes south of Saskatoon, Dakota Dunes Resort is located on traditional
Whitecap Dakota unceded territory with rooms from C$167 (£100) per night, room
only. tourismsaskatchewan.com
This story was created with support from Destination Canada, Indigenous Tourism
Association of Canada and Tourism Saskatchewan.

Published in the June 2023 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).

To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here.
(Available in select countries only).


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