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Learning from Iinnii
Learning from Iinnii
Iinnii Sacred Space Matters: Holding Space for the Buffalo
Iinnii Sacred Space Matters: Holding Space for the Buffalo
Iinnii is a Part of our Indigenous Journey through the Blackfoot Odyssey
Iinnii is a Part of our Indigenous Journey through the Blackfoot Odyssey
Blackfoot (Kainai) Elder Calvin Williams (Mahtsaohhtaan) has encouraged me to learn more about the buffalo (iinnii) and its significance in Blackfoot culture. Specifically, he wanted me to find ways to bring iinnii into my teaching. He gave me the Summer 2024 issue of Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education. On its cover is a herd of buffalo which corresponds to the issue’s theme written underneath the cover image: “Resilience.” I follow the guidance of my elders, and so I seriously thought of ways to bring iinnii into my classroom.
Over the years, and through my personal experiences working amongst the Blackfoot people, I have come to recognize that the buffalo as being more than just a main food source for the Plains Indigenous Peoples. The buffalo holds spiritual significance and is viewed by Indigenous peoples as their relative and one of their original teachers. Having had the good fortune to be witness to and involved in Blackfoot ceremony, I have seen and experienced the prominent place the buffalo holds.
Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education, Summer 2024 Issue
I asked Blackfoot (Kainai) Elder and ceremonialist Joe Eagle Tail Feathers (Iitsooahp’potah) why the buffalo is present for so many Blackfoot ceremonies and why he sits on a buffalo robe for various ceremonies he runs. He answered, “to ensure the buffalo is represented.” When I was living and working in Lethbridge, Alberta, Joe gifted me with a buffalo skull, which is now in my MRU office.
Regarding this course as a sacred Indigenous literary lodge, I also want to ensure the buffalo is represented in my classroom. I want to share my own journey and process that led the buffalo into our learning space. It is important for me to articulate to the students why I am bringing in the buffalo. Especially for this course, I would like to explain why I want iinnii to be a part of our Indigenous journey through our learning unit called “Blackfoot Odyssey” that I created with Joe Eagle Tail Feathers and MRU's eLearning developer Khethwen Woo. If we are to learn from a Blackfoot Odyssey, then the buffalo must be a part of it.
Buffalo Treaty & Tsinikssini – Being Involved in a Happening
Buffalo Treaty & Tsinikssini – Being Involved in a Happening
I know that I am not alone in my present-day efforts to find a meaningful way to bring back the buffalo. Established in 2014 and described as “A Treaty of Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration,” the Buffalo Treaty is an excellent example of a contemporary initiative. To mark the 10th anniversary of the Buffalo Treaty, senior administrators from MRU travelled on Sept. 25, 2024, to Kainai First Nation to sign it. Signing the treaty shows an understanding on the signatories’ part of the importance of the buffalo. Signing also indicates a commitment to do one’s part to ensure that the articles and principles outlined on the Buffalo Treaty are honoured.
The Buffalo Treaty details the significance of the buffalo and what the treaty sets out to accomplish. Including the buffalo in the classroom is my way of respecting the spirit and intent of the Buffalo Treaty. It is my hope the students can bear witness to what a person can do if they were to ‘sign on’ - or commit - to the Buffalo Treaty as I have.
Buffalo Treaty © 2014, used with permission from buffalotreaty.com. Click on treaty for a larger view.
The Buffalo Treaty is at the heart of Tasha Hubbard’s 2024 film, Singing Back the Buffalo. In the film, Hubbard (Cree) features the work of Leroy Little Bear and Amethyst First Rider as part of Indigenous efforts across North America to bring back the buffalo. The film illustrates what having a buffalo consciousness looks like and the role stories can play in helping one acquire such a mindset. It is for this reason that the film connects to our Indigenous literatures course and why I want the buffalo to be a part of our Indigenous journey through the Blackfoot Odyssey.
For the purpose of connecting the film both to the Blackfoot Odyssey and to the buffalo spirit, there are two parts worth referencing: the opening and the closing. Both parts involve the teachings of Little Bear. The film opens with Little Bear talking about the Blackfoot term ‘tsinikssini’ meaning story. He explains there is much more to the term than just meaning ‘story.’ He explains that ‘tsinikssini’ addresses a person’s involvement when hearing a story. Little Bear shares:
Singing Back the Buffalo Film Poster © 2024, used with permission from Hubbard.
In Blackfoot, if you were to say the word, ‘tsinikssini,’ if you ask another Blackfoot speaker to translate that to English, they would say, “tsinikssini means story.” But if you really look at the deep meaning of tsinikssini, it really means ‘your involvement in a happening.’ So, the thing is when we’re talking about tsinikssini, we’re talking about our involvement in all those happenings – happenings with the buffalo. Our elders were concerned that we still have the songs, we tell the stories, we have the ceremonies, but there’s no buffalo to be seen out there. They almost went extinct. Well, we need to bring that buffalo back so that our youth will make that connection – so that when they hear the songs, they’ll know what they’re singing about.
One’s “involvement in a happening” captures so well why the buffalo is an essential part of the students’ Indigenous journey through the Blackfoot Odyssey. Instead of seeing themselves as passive participants, students ought to view themselves as being actively involved in a happening, such as the Blackfoot Odyssey, one that is designed to connect them to the culture about which they are learning through stories. The film concludes with Little Bear offering a teaching that it will be the young people who are “going to be playing an important role in [their] communities and young people, unborn now, will be coming to [them] and asking [them] questions, What’s this all about? What’s this story about the buffalo? It becomes a responsibility that [they] have to carry forward.” This teaching has to do with tsiniksinni – a person’s involvement in a happening, as a result of hearing a story.
Dr. Christopher Grignard with Amethyst First Rider and Leroy Little Bear at the 2024 Calgary International Film Festival premiere of Iniskim: Return of the Buffalo
My Classroom Iinnii-tiative Coming to Fruition
My Classroom Iinnii-tiative Coming to Fruition
In 2024, I applied for a grant to purchase a buffalo robe for my classroom, but I was unsuccessful securing funds. Nevertheless, the search continued. The following year in my Indigenous literatures class, I shared with my students my desire to have a buffalo robe in my classroom. I spoke about how I was disheartened that my plan to attain one in 2024 did not work out as I had hoped. I showed the area in our classroom where the buffalo robe would be placed if I had one. It was soon after I had shared these words that an Indigenous student spoke up and offered an idea on how they could help me attain one! Thus, I am honoured that in Winter 2025, the buffalo spirit, as represented in the buffalo robe, will be a part of the Indigenous literary lodge. What a story this buffalo will always have! Iinnii presented itself in the same semester the Blackfoot Odyssey course was first launched. Iinnii is a part of our Indigenous journey.
Buffalo Robe as seen in the classroom of ENGL 3353
Education is the New Buffalo – A Renewed Way of Viewing a Traditional Image
Education is the New Buffalo – A Renewed Way of Viewing a Traditional Image
When future students look at the buffalo in my classroom (whether it is the physical or the virtual space), what I hope is that they will see more than just a symbol of Plains Indigenous peoples and more than just a marker of a time some may view as being of a bygone era. I have always been fond of the statement, ‘Education is the New Buffalo.’ It is a metaphorical declaration in that it shows similarities in dissimilar things. It ascribes the qualities of one thing (the buffalo) to another (education). In doing so, one can view the comparison with added meaning and a renewed understanding. Just as the buffalo did in the past, education can now help so many Indigenous peoples succeed, survive, and thrive with their traditions intact as they work within a colonial reality.
In addition to this analogy, I hope students will see what the buffalo ultimately embodies: courage, bravery, strength, Indigenous pride, and resilience. Indigenous ways of life are real and very much alive in the present day. As presented on the Buffalo Treaty, the buffalo has much to offer – now more than ever. Many people have lost touch with the teachings of the buffalo. That disconnection is because of the damages of colonization. For someone to learn about Indigenous cultures, especially through story, is to be, as Little Bear notes, involved in a happening; students are bearing witness to the stories. When one hears the stories and learns about the culture, as students will be experiencing in the Blackfoot Odyssey, one ought to be reminded of those principles addressed in the Buffalo Treaty: Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration. Thus, one must do their part not only to implement the treaty’s principles but also to cooperate to renew and restore Indigenous ways of knowing. Looking through the lens of ‘buffalo consciousness’ is about seeing things differently as a result of knowledge gained. Knowledge is gained through storytelling – by listening and being involved in a happening – what is at the heart of the Blackfoot Odyssey.
For my classroom, the buffalo serves as a reminder that sacred space matters, that Indigenous literatures and stories matter. Our Indigenous literary lodge is a sacred space. Considering how revered the buffalo is, it is only fitting to hold space for the buffalo in education, as Mahtsaohhtaan wanted me to do when he gave me that journal with the herd of buffalo on it and when Iitsooahp’potah gifted me the buffalo skull. It is my hope and prayer that the buffalo will help strengthen the purpose of the Blackfoot Odyssey as well as the work I strive to do at MRU regarding my desire to Indigenize.
In the Spring of 2025, I sponsored a pipe ceremony on the Blood Reserve (Kainai First Nation) that was run by Blackfoot (Kainai) Elder and ceremonialist Joe Eagle Tail Feathers to recognize this buffalo robe that has come into my life and to bless it for its presence for future Indigenous literary lodges to come at MRU.
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