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Bringing Brother Buffalo Home

Initiative Overview

Location:

Mistawasis First Nation, Saskatchewan

Duration:

2024-2025

Major Supporters:

Government of Canada’s Indigenous-led Natural Climate Solutions. Environment Climate Change and Canada – Indigenous Guardians program.

Mistawasis Nêhiyawak – Bringing Brother Buffalo Home

The goals of this initiative are to build capacity and complete planning for the reintroduction of buffalo to the Mistawasis Nêhiyawak First Nation community in Saskatchewan (Treaty 6).

Bison are of central importance to the Nation’s culture. At one time bison provided valuable sustenance, as well as tools, clothing, and shelter for the people. Reintroducing Brother Buffalo will bring back a healthy, traditional food source of great cultural and spiritual importance, and help to restore the ecosystem by creating habitat for other relatives – animals, plants, and insects – that have long been absent.

This project also helps to address climate change, as droughts, flooding, changing habitats, and shifting migration paths have all been experienced in the community in recent years.

TRI is honoured to be a partner in this initiative and aims to support the Mistawasis community by:

  • Conducting a climate risk assessment,
  • Co-developing bison and greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring plans,
  • Offering educational and training opportunities, and,
  • Participating in community engagement activities.

Training for participants will cover greenhouse gas sequestration measuring, species inventories, and bison management.

Bringing back Brother Buffalo can simultaneously strengthen the community’s nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) culture, provide culturally relevant and healthy food for citizens, mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon, and help adapt to future climate impacts as the ecosystem heals.

Rocky Mountains

Laura Stewart

Board Member

Laura Stewart is the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator with Forsite Fire, supporting communities across Canada with wildfire risk assessments, mitigation planning, and program delivery. She has more than a decade of experience advancing wildfire resilience at Indigenous, municipal, provincial/territorial, and national levels. Previously, Laura served nearly eleven years as Alberta’s Provincial FireSmart Specialist, leading community, WUI, neighbourhood, and Home Ignition Zone programs, coordinating funding, and partnering with communities and fire services across the province. She has also served as Board Chair with both the Partners in Protection Association (FireSmart Canada) and the Community Wildfire Resilience Association of Alberta.

 

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Sara Walsh, PhD, is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works as a freelance consultant with the United Nations, governments, and humanitarian organizations on recovery, risk governance, and community-based resilience. She teaches at a Canadian university and holds a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Alison Criscitiello, PhD, is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Alison’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Alison has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.