{"id":74143,"date":"2025-08-11T07:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T07:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/74143\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T07:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T07:36:07","slug":"white-earth-nation-welcomes-first-bison-calf-inforum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/74143\/","title":{"rendered":"White Earth Nation welcomes first bison calf – InForum"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAYTAHWAUSH, Minn. \u2014 The White Earth Nation\u2019s Bison Program welcomed its first calf to its breeding herd near Naytahwaush. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis historic birth marks a new chapter in our ongoing efforts to restore the bison to Anishinaabe lands,\u201d the tribal nation <\/p>\n

stated in a post<\/a><\/p>\n

on Thursday, Aug. 7. <\/p>\n

Jack Heisler, bison foreman of the program, said they weren\u2019t expecting a calf until spring 2026 at the earliest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWildlife doesn\u2019t follow a script. This bison calf being born, it didn\u2019t follow a script either, because the mama is so young,\u201d he said. Bison typically give birth during the springtime.<\/p>\n

Heisler said there were no plans to begin breeding until this summer.<\/p>\n

Bison, or mashkode-bizhiki in the Ojibwe language, once roamed and thrived on Minnesota\u2019s prairies in large numbers. By the 19th century, settlement and overhunting of bison had reduced the population to a small number of captive bison.<\/p>\n

White Earth Nation partners with the InterTribal Buffalo Council \u2014 a partnership of over 80 tribes aiming to restore bison herds to tribal lands for cultural and spiritual enhancement and preservation.<\/p>\n

The tribal nation received bison for its breeding herd about two years ago. Currently, White Earth Nation has 10 total between its breeding herd and harvest operation.<\/p>\n

\"da42db-20250808-bison-calf-feedi.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A bison calf feeds from its mother near Naytahwaush, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Contributed \/ White Earth Nation Agriculture Department<\/p>\n

White Earth Nation Agriculture Manager Wade Jackson said the Bison Program requested more bison and hopes to have a total of 44 by early next year. The program intends to secure more acres of pasture at both herding locations in Mahnomen and near Naytahwaush in the future.<\/p>\n

The calf\u2019s birth is said to be \u201ca sign of resilience, healing and hope for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very resilient, just like Native peoples are,\u201d Heisler said.<\/p>\n

The calf\u2019s name has not been announced.<\/p>\n

Text Example<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on MPRNews.org.<\/p>\n

Text Example<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAYTAHWAUSH, Minn. \u2014 The White Earth Nation\u2019s Bison Program welcomed its first calf to its breeding herd near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-74143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}