Wild Buffalo Recovery and Ecological Restoration of the Grasslands

Published on June 27, 2019 in Centre of International Governance Innovation, under the series Environmental Challenges on Indigenous land by James (Sa’Ke’J) YoungBlood Henderson. Here is the beginning of the article.
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“The environment has always been a concern for Aboriginal confederacies and nations in North America. It remains the source for knowledge systems, laws and sciences; this holds true for the nations on the prairies. For endless generations, and through many ecological crises, the dynamic webs of the ecosystem have been core to their ceremonies and sensibilities. The nations' experiences with biotic and abiotic forces shaped their knowledge system and served as their education system. Further, their movement-centred languages are expressed in symbolic and mystical terms, and reveal a patient, open-minded comprehension of the ecosystem. In order to gradually learn the complex ways of achieving a dynamic balance with the ecosystem — and to anticipate changes — nations on the prairies observed, pondered and shared their insight on and relationships with the environment.  

These relationships are reflected in creation stories, songs and ceremonies, and are central to legal systems. Often, the nations viewed animals as lawgivers, lawmakers or epistemic authority. As Linda Hogan wrote in her 1995 book, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World, the nations understood their spirituality as an inseparable part of the deeper communion with the ecosystem…“