Description
Buffalo Song is a new picture book from prolific Abenaki storyteller and author Joseph Bruchac. This fictionalized account of the initial rescue of the American bison or buffalo is told through the eyes of the people first involved. The story opens in the year 1873 as two Nez Perce riders come across the bodies of slaughtered buffalo on the floor of a protected canyon. Hunters had taken only the tongues and left the animals where they fell. Only a weakened calf survived and the boy and his father take the dying calf to a man known as Sam Walking Coyote. There the family nurses the calf to full recovery. The Salish family understands the importance of the buffalo to Indigenous People. Walking Coyote's mission was to save the buffalo one animal at a time and he succeeds in herding these orphans over the mountains to two ranchers, Michel Pablo and Charles Allard. These men were also responsible for the recovery of the buffalo. This compelling story ends with an afterword by Joseph Bruchac who explains the near extinction and recovery of the buffalo herds. The people, organizations and governments involved were successful in saving the buffalo of North America from extinction. The subdued colours from nature in the illustrations paint pictures of the historic landscape where the buffalo and people once thrived. An important book that offers an historical account of the buffalo and the people involved in their rescue. Bruchac draws on his excellent storytelling skills to create a memorable picture book that incorporates the spiritual meaning of the buffalo as a gift from the Creator. DRA: 40; Guided Reading: Level R; Intervention: 26