User:Mauramerck/sandbox

=History of Bison Conservation in Canada=

Plains bison
The lucrative robe trade accelerated overhunting of the plains bison by indigenous groups and white settlers. Westward migration of people and domesticated animals destroyed grazing grounds, and drought and new diseases exacerbated the decline. This decline was largely seen as the superiority of man over nature until the early 1900s, when governments began to fund preservation efforts. Historian Andrew Isenberg argues that the rise of capitalist ideology drove indigenous and white hunters alike to compete for every last animal.

Proposed Outline

 * Historical decline of the North American bison population
 * Plains bison – importance and symbolism
 * Wood bison – importance and symbolism
 * Social ecology - importance to indigenous people
 * Evolution of hunting practices
 * Implications for preservation efforts


 * Origins of wildlife preservation in Canada
 * Ideological development of the wildlife conservation movement
 * Contradictions


 * The evolution of federal government wildlife policy in Canada
 * Trajectory: preservation → utilitarian conservation → rational, scientific, bureaucratic management that promoted domestication of wildlife and Native people
 * Goals: preservation of wilderness and wildlife; recreational, commercialization, 	assertion of state authority and control over wildlife and Native people
 * Contradictions in policies
 * Social, cultural, and political forces
 * Internal colonialism – disdain for Native hunting cultures, assertion of state authority, influence of scientific knowledge, modernization agenda for Canada’s north
 * Significance and legacies over the long term – historical and cultural implications


 * National Parks
 * Buffalo National Park in Wainwright, Alberta
 * Wood Bison National Park in northeastern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories
 * 1925-28: Transfer of plains bison from the overpopulated range in Buffalo National Park to the supposedly understocked range in Wood Buffalo National Park resulted in hybridization between the species and the infection of the northern herds with tuberculosis and brucellosis (Sandlos, 2002, 95).


 * Interactions between Aboriginal peoples, preservationists, and government officials
 * Cultural and ecological interactions between Native Americans and Euroamericans in the Great Plains
 * Historical conflict between Native hunters and conservationists over bison
 * Assertion of state authority over the traditional hunting cultures of the Cree, Dene, and Inuit peoples
 * Social, cultural, political, and economic implications for Aboriginals
 * Ecological implications for bison populations


 * Contemporary bison conservation
 * Significance and legacies
 * Current conservation efforts – plans to reintroduce bison to Banff National Park