PRAIRIE THUNDER

Bison reintroduced to Wanuskewin Heritage Park site

Craig Thoms, left, bison manager at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, and Ernie Walker, the park’s founder, unload six plains bison at the park just north of Saskatoon. The bison were brought from Grasslands National Park, returning to the area after more than a century. The park hopes to achieve World Heritage Site designation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

SASKATOON The landscape has changed since bison roamed the prairies around Saskatoon.

At Wanuskewin Heritage Park, just north of the city, giant steel bins jut into the sky from a distant grain elevator. The sound of cars on the nearby highway is audible on a quiet day.

But for a moment in December, that all fell away for Darlene Brander.

Brander joined a few dozen people to welcome plains bison back to the site, more than a century after the animals last walked there. Rows of chairs, set up in front of the park’s new bison paddock, went largely unused as the group huddled close to the fence.

The trailer carrying the animals was driven into the paddock. As its doors opened, Brander felt a sense of awe swell in her chest.

A drum circle performed bison songs that carried through the stillness, welcoming the animals home. For a moment the bison didn’t move. Then six dark shapes exploded out of the trailer onto the snow-covered grass and disappeared from sight.

After they’d gone, people were overcome — some cried, while others cheered and hollered.

“The bison are a powerful creature that elicit powerful emotions,” said Brander, the CEO of Wanuskewin Heritage Park who hails from Red Earth Cree Nation. “People can see the bison and it elevates something within people on a spiritual level.”

The site of Wanuskewin Heritage

Park has been a gathering place for Indigenous people for more than 6,000 years. Historically, many ended up there because they followed the bison, which once numbered in the millions in North America.

Wanuskewin has been working to revitalize the park through its $40-million Thundering Ahead Campaign, in the hopes of achieving a World Heritage Site designation from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). As part of that bid, Wanuskewin announced in 2016 that it would bring a herd of plains bison back to the land.

That vision became a reality late last year. Six calves from Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan were brought to Wanuskewin in early December; five animals from a ranch in South Dakota — a bull and four pregnant cows — joined them later that month.

The herd was unveiled to the public Friday morning after the bison had been given time to adjust to their new surroundings. Over time, the herd is expected to grow to about 50 animals.

Plains bison were critical to the way of life of Indigenous people on the North American plains, but the species faced extinction by the late 1800s following the arrival of European settlers. Nearly losing them to overhunting post-contact had a devastating effect.

Conservation efforts have since allowed the animals to make a comeback and several plains bison herds now exist across the continent, including conservation herds in a handful of Canada’s national parks.

Tara Janzen, the development manager at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, said the park wants to be part of sharing that history.

“The story that we’re aiming to tell with the world heritage process is some level of restoration of that balance,” Janzen said. “The gathering place that is Wanuskewin helps restore those human connections. The return of the bison is that tangible symbol of that: a reminder of strength and resilience and something that was nearly lost that’s back.”

Cy Standing, an elder from the Wahpeton Dakota Nation, is part of an elder advisory group for Wanuskewin and has long been an advocate for bringing bison back to Wanuskewin.

For the Dakota nation, the animals were family, Standing said. The continuance of the species contributes to the furthering of Dakota culture.

“Our nation, they would call them our relatives because one or the other came first in our creation stories,” Standing said. “The buffalo came with the Dakota for them to support our living, so they provided everything for us.”

The archeological record uncovered over the course of Wanuskewin’s existence has been bison-centric. With a buffalo jump in the park — a cliff formation used by Indigenous people for hunting the animals — it only makes sense to have bison, Standing said.

Park founder Ernie Walker feels the same way. Having bison in the park is the fulfilment of decades of work and centuries of history, he said.

“I talk a lot about the history of the park — how it got going, what happened along the way, the Wanuskewin story. I’m not a religious man, but there have been little miracles along the way,” Walker said. “To me the miraculous part to this is that it didn’t happen anywhere else, it happened here. You actually have plucked up history, moved it over and dropped it in here. How often does that happen?”

That the park was able to secure animals from two different herds is significant. The bison from Grasslands can trace their ancestors back to animals that once lived in Elk Island National Park in Alberta.

The bull comes from a wild herd in Yellowstone National Park that is difficult to access, making the Wanuskewin herd the first in Canada to include animals from two populations that haven’t interacted since they were wild.

Right now, the two groups are separated. The park is expecting the pregnant South Dakota cows to give birth in the spring and all the animals will be allowed to intermingle in 2021.

Brander said she hopes the presence of the animals at Wanuskewin connects people, brings them together and revitalizes their connections to the land and each other.

“It’s the opportunity to share with the world the deep kinship connection Indigenous cultures have with the bison” Brander said.

“They’re a great catalyst to building a better humanity.”

For a moment the animals were silent and still.

Then, an explosion of activity as the six bison lurched out of the open trailer.

They stayed close together and swiftly disappeared behind a snowcapped ridge of Wanuskewin Heritage Park, becoming the first bison to walk those lands in over a century.

The herd of plains bison was reintroduced to the park on Dec. 7 as part of Wanuskewin Heritage Park’s Thundering Ahead Campaign, which aims to renovate and expand the centre in the hopes of becoming Saskatchewan’s first United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage site.

The first bison to arrive, all six-month-old calves, travelled to Saskatoon from Grasslands National Park.

A second group, made up of a bull from Yellowstone National Park and four pregnant cows, made the trip from a ranch in South Dakota to the park on Dec. 17. With the mixing of the two herds, the Wanuskewin bison are set to be the most genetically diverse conservation herd in North America.

With capacity for about 50 animals, the herd at Wanuskewin will never grow to the hundreds-strong numbers of conservation herds in Canada’s national parks. But the significance of the reintroduction for the park is enormous.

Bison play an important role not only for Saskatchewan’s grasslands ecosystems, but as part of a holistic rejuvenation of the land as well.

The Saskatoon Starphoenix visited the Grasslands bison herd before some of the animals made their journey north and was present when the animals were released in their new home.

LIAM RICHARDS

PHOTOS: LIAM RICHARDS A bison at Grasslands National Park. Six bison calves from Grasslands National Park were brought to Wanuskewin Heritage Park in December 2019. The animals were officially welcomed to the park on Friday.

A plains bison, transported from a private herd in South Dakota to Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

Plains bison, transported from Grasslands National Park, at Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

LIAM RICHARDS The first bison to arrive at Wanuskewin Heritage Park head off to explore their new home. Wanuskewin has served as a gathering place for Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. According to the park’s rich archeological record, virtually every cultural group of the northern plains visited the area at some point — all because they were following plains bison.

Grasslands National Park is home to a robust conservation herd of about 400 animals. The herd grew from 60 calves and 11 yearlings sent from Elk Island National Park.

Plains bison calves from Grasslands National Park in their new home at Wanuskewin. Two calves from Grasslands are the offspring of a bull with dark, nearly black coloration that’s rare in the species.

Ryan Hayes, the bison operations co-ordinator with Parks Canada, feeds the plains bison of Grasslands National Park on a chilly day in November 2019. The Grasslands herd was introduced to the park in 2005. Within eight years, it had grown to 450 animals, the carrying capacity of the park’s 178-square-kilometre paddock. Every two years, numbers are brought down to about 400 by sending animals to other conservation herds, cultural herds belonging to First Nations and private auction.

“They’re a pretty neat animal to be around. They have a really wild nature to them that they’ve held onto through 150 years of a lot of hardship. As long as we respect them, they respect us. We can work with the animals and hopefully make their future strong.” — Hayes, pictured here with the Grasslands herd.

Craig Thoms, the bison manager for Wanuskewin Heritage Park, walks through the park following the release of the plains bison from Grasslands National Park. Thoms was heavily involved in bringing in additional animals from a South Dakota rancher who had bulls from the herd in Yellowstone National Park.