A bison calf nursed (right foreground) on a sunny October afternoon at Minneopa State Park.
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By JANE TURPIN MOORE Guest Contributor & Photographer
This sign greets visitors to the Minneopa State Park bison range.
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ison are beautiful. At least that’s how those who guide their preservation within the state see it. “I love ‘em,” said Todd Dailey, assistant park supervisor at Minneopa State Park. “They’re fun to watch, and they’re fun to manage, even though they’re pretty much self-sufficient.” Anyone can test Dailey’s perspective; a visit to view the hearty herd of American plains bison at Minneopa State Park, located just a few miles west of Mankato off Highway 68, is readily accessible. It’s also an invitation to imagine a portion of the Minnesota River Valley as it may have appeared nearly 200 years ago, when the Dakota and other indigenous people coexisted in a beneficial symbiotic manner with the majestic animals the early white settlers came to call “buffalo” (biologists prefer the term “American plains bison” for this species). Over-hunting in subsequent decades nearly drove them to extinction. “The Dakota roots are very deep,” said Gwen Wester-
man in a cultural and historical commentary available to park guests on the 1610 AM radio frequency. “It is fulfilling for me as a Dakota person to know these creatures are again living in a place they used to live freely.” Westerman, an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate who is a Minnesota State University Mankato professor and Minnesota’s Poet Laureate, references letters exchanged around 1840 between Dakota persons and agents that discussed buffalo hunting in the area. “To see it in writing from Dakota people that long ago…[confirms] they were here, right here where we live, and that they were part of [my ancestors’] everyday lives,” Westerman said.
Minneopa makes a way Dailey came on board at Minneopa State Park in 2013, when talks about reintroducing the bison to the 331-acre prairie tract along the Minnesota River were first underway. “When I learned the purpose and goals for it—conservation of the species, and conserving the genetic purity of the American plains bison, along with prairie conservation, management and education—it made complete sense,” said Dailey, who joins with park supervisor Ashley Steevens
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