Buffalo hunting

Prior to the westward expansion of the country, buffalo hunting was central to the way of life for many Métis and Plains First Nations. The animal’s meat, which was used to make pemmican, a Plains diet staple, and its fur were bargaining chips at many trading posts. This way of life largely collapsed in the 1870s with the disappearance of the buffalo. The depletion of the northern buffalo herd was hastened by American hunters in the Montana Territory who slaughtered tens of thousands of animals for their hides. Proposals for the protection of the buffalo were adopted, but it was too little too late. Determined to follow the tradition of the buffalo hunt and to preserve the culture on which it was based, groups of Indigenous people took refuge in the Cypress Hills, one of the last major buffalo ranges in British North America. Some moved as far away as Montana, where they hunted the last of the buffalo; after the herd was destroyed, they returned to Canada in 1881. The federal government believed that it could take advantage of the people’s starvation to force acceptance of treaties as written and prevent the creation of an Indigenous territory. Starvation thus compelled the people to adhere to these treaties, which meant giving up their nomadic way of life and settling on reservations. Between 1907 and 1909 the minister of the interior imported the last significant herd of plains bison from Montana to Elk (Elk Island) Park in Alberta.