Six new baby bison have been added to the Wanuskewin herd. (Submitted photo)

By paNOW staff

Baby bison

‘Baby bison is history being made’ says head of Wanuskewin Park

Jun 23, 2022 | 3:00 PM

The head of the Wanuskewin Heritage Park and member of Red Earth Cree Nation shared the news of six new bison calves born at the park near Saskatoon.

Darlen Brander said that welcoming the new additions to the herd is history in the making.

“The bison have always been central to the Plains Indigenous Cultures. The sacred connection between humans and bison was nearly lost,” she said. “For us, today, to be able to welcome back bison, and then conserve and to grow our herd, it feels as though we are regaining our culture back and forging that special bond. We really are witnessing history being made.”

The herd is now 24 animals strong with steady growth since it first started with six plains bison and six bison genetically from the Yellowstone National Park area in the US.

The offspring of the original 12 animals make them genetically close to the animals that roamed the plains before 1870.

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At that point, the bison in North America had dropped from 30 million to about 1,000 animals and were considered close to extinction.

Wanuskewin is a national heritage site and, in a news release, said the bison are a spiritual and teaching herd.

They plan to grow the herd to 50 animals. The ones born this year were evenly split between male and female.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter:@princealbertnow