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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.

Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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.”

Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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.”

Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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?”

Photo by Liam Richards / Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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.