Bison welcomed to Banff in day of celebration
Pipe ceremony, treaty signing held Thursday along Lake Minnewanka
We’re not really blessing this place. We’re asking for blessings from this place — this is a sacred place.
As the sun peeked over the Rockies, Banff National Park officials and First Nations members gathered for a pipe ceremony to welcome bison back to the park and start off a day of historic celebrations.
Early Thursday, the signatories of the historic Northern Tribes Buffalo Treaty hosted the ceremony along Lake Minnewanka.
“We’re not really blessing this place,” explained Wilton Good Striker, an elder with the Blood reserve or Kainai First Nation in southern Alberta.
“We’re asking for blessings from this place — this is a sacred place.
“We’re bringing the bison back to their homeland.”
They held an hour-long pipe ceremony, offering prayers and singing songs. Dave McDonough, superintendent of Banff National Park, called it an incredibly significant day for the park.
“The reintroduction of bison is not only ecologically important, but it has a great spiritual meaning for indigenous people,” he said after the ceremony.
“To have the opportunity to participate in and observe a blessing ceremony is very significant for us.
“It provides a first step of reintroducing bison but also bringing back that connection indigenous people have with bison and with Banff park.” The ceremony at Lake Minnewanka kicked off a full day of special celebrations in Banff related to bison — historically known as buffalo by First Nations.
There was a second pipe ceremony later Thursday in a teepee set up at the Whyte Museum, where two more signatories were added to the Buffalo Treaty. The treaty aims to bring buffalo back both physically and as a symbol of First Nations culture.
Since the treaty was signed with four Canadian and four American tribes in 2014, the three Stoney Nakoda nations, Samson Cree Nation and 10 Saskatchewan First Nations have also joined it.
The 20-plus signatories to the treaty also passed several resolutions — including one that asks the province of Alberta to recognize bison as wildlife rather than livestock.
They also want to see the name of Tunnel Mountain in Banff changed to Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain as part of the reintroduction of bison to Banff National Park.
Karsten Heuer, project manager for the bison reintroduction in Banff National Park, said the park is on schedule to bring them back in early 2017.
“We have some hurdles yet to clear,” he said at the Banff ceremony.
“The detailed (environmental) impact assessment, which we’ve been working hard on for the last year, is about to go out to the public for review for a month.”
Following the public review, he said they will finalize plans to reintroduce 16 bison from Elk Island National Park into a fenced area in the backcountry on the eastern edge of the park for the first 16 months, before letting them roam free.
It’s a five-year pilot project to determine how it works before expanding the herd.
Heuer, dubbed by one of the elders as ‘Banff’s buffalo man,’ said it’s an exciting project for the park and for First Nations.
“It’s a small example of the broader bison conservation that all of these First Nations and tribes that are gathered here today to organize themselves in trying to achieve that over the longer term,” he said.
“We’re working with them directly on our project.
“For me, being here today is a reminder that what Parks Canada is doing is hugely important and it helps affirm us as conservation leaders, but it actually is a small part of a much greater momentum that’s a lot bigger than any of us.”
The signatories of the Buffalo Treaty also met with Banff’s superintendent this week to form an advisory council on the bison reintroduction and other relevant park management issues.