Onondaga Nation- In 1978, the Onondaga Nation began their dege·yá’gih (bison) herd with 11 bison from a neighbor, Brad Tiffany. Tiffany and the Onondaga leaders began a dialogue of the possibility of the return of the dege·yá’gih to the land of the Onondaga. After much negotiation, a treaty was agreed upon and 10 bison headed to Onondaga. Interesting enough, Brad Tiffany’s son Lars Tiffany recounted how an extra buffalo jumped onto the truck that was headed to Onondaga.
“I remember my father insisting that there should be an acre for grazing for each animal. The Onondaga had planned fenced their area for 10,” said Tiffany. “So we planned to provide 10. Then when we loaded up the truck, there was this eleventh bison. It would have been too difficult to get one animal off the truck, so it was kinda like a baker’s dozen- of bison.”
These eleven bison would be the foundation of Onondaga farming the bison and allowed Onondaga to provide food for the community as well as community events.
On Thursday, April 22, a similar event occurred. This time it was the Onondaga sharing their herd with the Seneca farm Gakwi:yoh.
The Onondaga farm led by Angela Ferguson first began a relationship with Gakwi:yoh over three years ago.
“They were just starting their farm and reached out to us for help,” said Ferguson. “We were able to provide the seeds they needed and headed to their farm to help them hand plant their first garden. And a few years later, they were able to return the same amount of seeds back to us.”
Like Onondaga, Gakwi:yoh started a small herd in Allegany. But when they tried to expand the herd by purchasing more bison, many of those bison passed away.
“After they lost those bison,” said Ferguson. “They reached out to us to see if they could get some of our Buffalo because they knew how healthy our herd is.”
Thursday morning saw a surprising spring snow as large metal gates were set up to lead the herd to the waiting truck.
“We first tried to move the bison to the gates by using our tractors & pick-up trucks,” said Ferguson. “But we didn’t want to add stress to them before they made the trip west. So, we did it the old-fashioned way. We got out of the trucks and began to move them by foot towards the gates.”
With the shouts of “Hoñyoh! Hoñyoh!”, the herd moved towards the gate, but not without the dege·yá’gih breaking some of the 10-foot wooden poles first.
“Being around the herd is amazing,” said Ferguson. “They are so majestic and powerful.”
Before our brothers made the journey, the veterinarian was able to check out all of the herd and all were given a healthy checkup. There were even a few cows who will be giving birth once they get used to their new home in Cattaraugus.
By the end of the day, Gakwi:yoh called and reported that all 20 had survived the journey.
When asked about the day, Ferguson stated it simply, “It was a Good day.”