Campfire Chats: Buffalo Treaty

Dr. Reg Crowshoe is a member of the Piikani First Nation in Southern Alberta, where he formerly served as chief. Crowshoe is a well-respected and well-known community leader, ceremonial Elder and spiritual advisor. He has a long-standing relationship with the University of Calgary and has generously shared and offered his guidance, ceremonial leadership and traditional knowledge to students, staff, faculty and senior leadership. He received an honorary doctorate degree from the University in 2001 and is also a member of the University Senate. Crowshoe has been instrumental in the development of UCalgary’s Indigenous Strategy, ii’ taa’poh’to’p, where he was a key member of the Steering Committee. He was also the ceremonial leader and provided the traditional design and interpretation of our cultural symbols for ii’ taa’poh’to’p. 

Leroy Little Bear is a member of the Kainai Nation, Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. He is professor emeritus at the University of Lethbridge, still teaching and is the senior advisor to the Office of the President. Little Bear was chair of the first department of native studies in Canada for 21 years. He went on to be the founding director of the Native American Program at Harvard University. He is a recognized leader and advocate for supporting Indigenous worldviews in education, especially through language. “Changing the language and thinking in a new language is the best way to accomplish this notion of renewal,” he says. With expertise and training in law, Little Bear has made significant contributions in areas of First Nations constitutional rights, justice and self-determination. Little Bear was a member of the legal team working to negotiate the Constitution of Canada’s Section 35 from 1981–1987. Little Bear became the first Indigenous person cited in the Supreme Court of Canada. He is also co-instigator of the Buffalo Treaty uniting Nations and Tribes with partners and supporters in North America and a founding member of the International Buffalo Relations Institute. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including Officer of the Order of Canada, and the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Dr. Tasha Hubbard is an award-winning filmmaker and an associate professor in the Faculty of Native Studies/Department of English and Film at the University of Alberta. She is from Peepeekisis First Nation and is the mother of a 15-year-old son. She researches and champions Indigenous efforts to restore the buffalo, has been a supporter of the Buffalo Treaty since 2015, and is a founding board member of the International Buffalo Relations Institute. Her feature documentary, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, was the first Indigenous film to open the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival and won the top Canadian film prize there. The film also won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary. On the strength of her last two films, Tasha was awarded the Directors Guild of Canada’s Discovery Award in 2019. She is now working on a new feature documentary on the rematriation of the buffalo.

Marie-Eve Marchand is a system entrepreneur who dedicates her life to bring culture, conservation sciences, communications and policy together for a better relationship between people and nature. She has successfully co-ordinated the Bison Belong Initiative to bring back bison to Banff National Park and is actively supporting the Buffalo: A Treaty of Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration as the director of the Indigenous-led International Buffalo Relations Institute. She is also a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas and of the Species Commission under the Bison Specialist Group, and she has worked with multiple conservation NGOs in North America. She received the national Golden Leaf Award for her work on protecting the last undammed river in Southern Quebec and played a key role in the Quebec government’s commitment to protect at least half of Northern Quebec. Marchand also chaired the IUCN Green List Expert Assessment Group in Quebec, the first in Canada, and calls Banff National Park home.