Brokenhead Ojibway Nation is seeing a brand new generation of buffalo born for the first time in more than two decades.
“It’s a big part of our culture as a people. It brings the community together. A lot of people come out and drive out here, like to look at them, talk about them,” said Brokenhead Buffalo Ranch manager Jeremy Robert Chartrand-Kaysea.
The reserve’s lands, 75 kilometres north of Winnipeg along the Brokenhead River, fall within traditional buffalo territory. The new herd was brought to Brokenhead in late December from Sakimay First Nation in Saskatchewan.
Before that, Chartrand-Kaysea and his team worked tirelessly to prepare the old buffalo pasture. Brokenhead had a herd in the 1990s that was disbanded in the early 2000s.