KEY FIRST NATION, Sask. — The Key First Nation bison herd is about food security, culture and economic development, officials say.
The herd numbers close to 180, with an average of 30 new calves each year. The herd has grown from its original 60 in the winter of 2022.
Twenty of the herd were acquired from the Old Man On His Back conservation area in southern Saskatchewan. Another 20 were acquired from near Swift Current and the rest from Elk Island.
Former Chief Clinton Key, who was instrumental in bringing the buffalo to The Key, estimates that roughly 15 buffalo could be harvested each year without hurting the herd as a whole.
In May, the nation harvested four buffalo and gave out more than 1,500 pounds of hamburger for band members to enjoy.
“It’s a very lean meat, and it’s tasty,” Key said.
The buffalo graze on the pastures but should also eat about five bales of hay per year.
“They’re very conservative eaters,” Key said. “They’ll eat in this corner one day, next day they’ll be way up that other corner. They’re not like cattle, where cattle just eat anything and everything.
“They’re foragers; they dig down for their food. They’re very self-sustaining animals.
“It’s been a 35-year dream for me to repatriate the bison,” said Key. “My cousin actually talked about this when we were just kids, having a teepee village down on our river flats … I never forgot his dream of bringing back the buffalo. What it could do for our people.”
The project has “always been about food security, culture, and economic development”, noted Key, saying he believes “bringing the bison back had that cultural and spiritual impact on our people.”
While in Canadian English buffalo and bison are used interchangeably, as in this article, taxidermically speaking all such animals in North America are bison. Buffalo are a distinct species native to South Asia and Africa.
