Buffalo Reading List

This reading list gathers together literature focused on buffalo (also known as bison) to support ongoing efforts to restore this iconic species to its keystone cultural and ecological role. The books and articles compiled here are grounded in a wide range of academic disciplines and approaches, representing many distinct ways of thinking about buffalo within the realm of Western sciences. This is not intended to be an exhaustive account of what is known about buffalo, much of which is held in Indigenous knowledge systems and communities. This academic list is designed as a resource for those working towards buffalo restoration, including conservation practitioners, researchers, parks and government officials, and Tribal communities. It is divided into categories according to either discipline or thematic focus, each containing a subset of pertinent literature. Topics include the paleobiology of bison, histories of buffalo loss, relationships between Indigenous Peoples and buffalo, buffalo restoration and reintroduction, buffalo ecology, buffalo and climate change, governance and human dimensions of buffalo, bison and cattle, bison as livestock, and the genetics of bison. This list is intended as a living document to grow with the increasingly rich scholarship on buffalo, and will be updated regularly

Exploring the Saskatchewan Grasslands: An Investigation of Crown Land and Appropriate Use

Canadian crown lands are a collection of landscapes which allow for a diversity of actors to interact with. These areas provide platforms for connections between users based on intra-societal values surrounding preservation and extraction. Understanding how actors use crown lands uncovers society’s value of public spaces; and how society influences and is influenced by socio-ecologic connections. Accompanying this is the intimate knowledge constructed through engagements with spaces and local communities. This thesis examines a Saskatchewan case study that focuses on divested crown land from the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Agency (PFRA) and performs analysis based on interviews surrounding reactions to the divesture. The analysis of citizens and environmental NGO’s (ENGOs) suggests that historic management of PFRA lands was overwhelmingly positive and important on many scales due to their socio-economic and ecologic valuations. Further, this thesis showcases management strategies which could provide similar benefits through administration of crown lands.M.A

Recent protected area–Indigenous Peoples research articles in Canada and the USA: A meta-review

We conducted a meta-review of 66 peer-reviewed articles published between 2008–2020 concerning Indigenous Peoples’ interactions with protected areas in the United States of America and Canada. Our meta-analysis centered on characterizing this literature’s response to the concerns of critical Indigenous studies by examining the topical, geographic, and disciplinary scope of the literature, as well as authors’ backgrounds and the journals where research is published. We additionally considered the presence of Indigenous persons as authors and participants. We found the literature is published widely, across many journals and disciplines. The research is concentrated in a handful of states and provinces. One article explicitly used Indigenous research methods, although Indigenous research participants were common in articles outside of the disciplines of history and law. Yet, those two disciplines dominate the current literature. We conclude that the community of scholars for whom relationships between parks and Indigenous Peoples are the central research question is smaller than those for whom it is one aspect of their research agenda