Buffalo Is the New Buffalo

About the Author Chelsea Vowel is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne), Alberta, and currently residing in amiskwacîwâskihikan (Edmonton). Mother to six girls, she is a writer and educator, co-host of Indigenous feminist sci-fi podcast Métis in Space, co-founder of the Métis in Space Land Trust, and author of Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada. Product Description Powerful stories of “Métis futurism” that envision a world without violence, capitalism, and colonization.“Education is the new buffalo” is a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival and ability to support themselves, as once Plains nations supported themselves as buffalo peoples. The assumption is that many of the pre-Contact ways of living are forever gone, so adaptation is necessary. But Chelsea Vowel asks, “Instead of accepting that the buffalo, and our ancestral ways, will never come back, what if we simply ensure that they do?”
Inspired by classic and contemporary speculative fiction, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo explores science fiction tropes through a Métis lens: a Two-Spirit rougarou (shapeshifter) in the nineteenth century tries to solve a murder in her community and joins the nêhiyaw-pwat (Iron Confederacy) in order to successfully stop Canadian colonial expansion into the West. A Métis man is gored by a radioactive bison, gaining super strength, but losing the ability to be remembered by anyone not related to him by blood. Nanites babble to babies in Cree, virtual reality teaches transformation, foxes take human form and wreak havoc on hearts, buffalo roam free, and beings grapple with the thorny problem of healing from colonialism.
Indigenous futurisms seek to discover the impact of colonization, remove its psychological baggage, and recover ancestral traditions. These eight short stories of “Métis futurism” explore Indigenous existence and resistance through the specific lens of being Métis. Expansive and eye-opening, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo rewrites our shared history in provocative and exciting ways. Review A gut renovation of the science-fiction genre that liberates dystopian and post-apocalyptic ideas from tired tropes to explore radical possibilities for Indigenous resilience. -Quill and Quire (STARRED REVIEW)Vowel's book melds the past with the future, the known with the unknown. Vowel wants to preserve ancestral ways, protecting them and ensuring their survival for future generations. She extends the future of Metis people, considering what it might be like while taking readers on fantastical journeys. -Edmonton JournalMeticulously researched and thoughtfully created, these stories inform as well as entertain, engage as well as challenge. Rich in place, culture, history, and language, Vowel has offered a series of mamahtawacimowina, miraculous stories, that will undoubtedly endure as we head into the future, just like the powerful characters that live within these pages. -David A. Robertson (Norway House Cree Nation), author of When We Were Alone and On the TraplineBuffalo is the New Buffalo is a deeply important collection of stories that masterfully weaves our history, our language, and our kinship systems with present-day realties while challenging colonial assertions. The work erases the imposition of gender binaries and re-establishes matriarchy in the past as if it was never removed, as if the buffalo were not wiped out. It empoweringly erases the erasure of our people and reminds us we can create a new future. Meticoulously researched, the stories present an alternate reality for Metis people while maintaining and strengthening what we would consider to be the important parts of ourselves, such as our Metis nehiyawak beliefs and knowledge of the world and our place in it. It's a deeply felt work of love for our people and for the babies to come, one that helped me to see things in a new light