The skull of a bison sits on display with the Piikani Nation flag hung on the wall behind it.
Some of the men responsible for the skull’s presence are sharing their experience of returning to their ancestral hunting grounds for the first time in 145 years.
It’s been nearly four months since Joshua Crow Shoe, Rylan Weasel Bear, Owen Stump and Kieven Weasel Bear hiked through a remote area of Banff National Park to look for bison, but what they felt on the day of their ultimate success still feels close.
“We all had to calm ourselves down because you know, there’s bison, it’s the Inni right there!” Joshua Crow Shoe said.
Inni is the Blackfoot word for bison.
The Piikani Nation hunters had four days in mid-October to locate and harvest a bison as part of a pilot ceremonial hunt through a collaboration between Parks Canada and the Indigenous Advisory Circle of Banff National Park.
Bison were reintroduced to the park in 2017.
As part of the park’s bison management program, groups representing the Treaty 7 nations and Metis each had a chance on staggered days to harvest one bull.
Waylon Yellowhorn was the Piikani Nation’s hunt coordinator.
“We were back in our ancestral territory after a long absence due to a lot of reasons, mainly government policy, even the National Parks Act, and then [we met] the Inni, the Buffalo again, in its natural environment, to reaffirm that connection that we used to have with them, that spiritual connection,” Yellowhorn said.
No motorized vehicles were allowed in the territory — in fact no wheels whatsoever were allowed. It meant the men had to drag sleds for dozens of kilometres every day, pushing them to their limits, said Rylan Weasel Bear.
“There were times where the body wants to give out, where it’s total exhaustion, where all you can focus on is oxygen, is your breath. [You] don’t have any thoughts you’re just remembering, breathe, that’s all I can do at this point in time.”
One hundred yards into their first day on the trail, Weasel Bear said they saw grizzly bear tracks.
“It was a reminder for myself to pray, to give an offering of tobacco and ask for that guidance and that protection,” Weasel Bear said.
On the third morning, the weather turned from sunny to cold and rainy. It worked in their favour. The hunters caught the moment on camera.
“So what we were hoping and what happened was that the weather pushed the animals out into the open and so you know we’re all in line walking along the trail and then like the video saw, we just came up there just in the clearing to the right,” Crow Shoe recalled.
They took their shot and it was successful. They harvested and dragged around 1300 pounds of meat from a four year old bison out on their sleds.
Piikani Nation Councillor Wes Crow Shoe said the hunters brought back every piece of the animal. A majority of it was donated to the Nation’s food bank. There was also enough to make a community feast of bison stew for 400 people.
“The hooves are used for rattles, you know, the intestines for carrying water, the sinew to thread our bows, the horns for ornaments, bone marrow for soup — we use every aspect of the animal. It’s life to us,” said coun. Crow Shoe.
Piikani Nation Elder Herman Many Guns spent time at the cabin of the Outpost at Warden Rock during the hunt, praying and holding ceremonies for the men. He explains on this day that the hunters were following the physical and ceremonial tracks of their ancestors.
“The meaningful consultation of everything came together … and now having it here, it’s telling a story where other people can see the understanding of the concept of this buffalo hunt,” Many Guns said.
The Piikani men who were on the trail for three days are still digesting the experience.
“Just the loss of words. Sometimes when I think about that initial sight of the buffalo, it was almost like the ancestral feeling like we were being protected and guided through this, through this journey,” Rylan Weasel Bear said.
Joshua Crow Shoe also has lasting feelings about the day.
“We weren’t there to hunt a buffalo, we were there to receive a buffalo.”