It was a jarring sight for more than one reason: plains bison darting from a cattle trailer onto long grass on land owned by the Louis Bull Tribe.
One by one, the 25 young animals sprung forcefully from the open back gate of the trailer and raced up a gentle hill toward the horizon on a cloudless Monday 90 kilometres south of Edmonton almost as though they’d done it before.
Except it was the first time in generations that bison had seen these homelands. It was the culmination of a four-year effort to reintroduce them to Maskwacis by the Louis Bull Tribe and Elk Island National Park.
Among the people watching the display was Louis Bull Tribe Chief Desmond Bull, who described the historic scene as one of mixed emotions.
“Pride, definitely. I felt a little bit of sadness, but honestly, a lot of hope,” Bull said.
The Monday afternoon ceremony featured a speech by Bull and traditional drumming before the reintroduction of the bison to the grasslands.
“Seeing that first (bison) jump out of there was exciting, to see him just take off over the hill. That really made me so happy,” Bull said.
“It’s honouring our ancestors and creating that legacy we need to do right now for our future generations to flourish, but also to create that connection, universal truth and reconciliation and working alongside Canadian citizens alike.”
Dale Kirkland, the superintendent of Elk Island, said the national park located about 50 km east of Edmonton is committed to helping Indigenous communities bring bison back to their homelands.
“Elk Island is uniquely placed to surplus plains bison and wood bison to Indigenous communities, to help support those connections and renew those connections with bison and the land,” said Kirkland, adding Elk Island has supplied more than 300 bison to 13 Indigenous communities over the last six years.
“We have numerous other requests for bison as we approach the winter season. As we continue to manage both populations at the park, we are going to remain committed to transfers to Indigenous communities.”
Bull said the Louis Bull Tribe wants to establish bison as a central part of people’s culture, as it was for their ancestors.
“For me, this is very important, a sense of pride knowing that we have this animal back now. We could actually utilize this animal also as part of our food sovereignty as it is understood as our ancestors did,” Bull said.
“My ancestors, they never lived on cattle, they never lived on pigs or chickens. Their main source of food and their Walmart, I guess so to say — where their clothes came, the hide for their teepees, the bones for tools — everything was utilized, even to incorporate it as part of the pow-wow regalia. We look forward to doing that type of work with our youth and our children, and be a part of our curriculum development.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach and Brandon Lynch