Honouring the Buffalo : A Plains Cree Legend

Travel Guide

Saskatchewan – Wanuskewin Heritage Park

“Through the Creator, the buffalo gave themselves as a gift for the sustenance and survival of the Plains Cree people. The largest land animal in North America once thundered across the Great Plains in numbers of 30 to 50 million. They provided shelter, food, clothing, tools, hunting gear, ceremonial objects and many other necessities if for those who lived on the Plains.

But by 1889, just over a thousand buffalo remained,and the lives of the Plains Cree people changed. The buffalo is honoured to this day, a reminder of life in harmony with nature as it was once lived. This is the story of how the buffalo came to share themselves so freely.