Buffalo Skull Ceremony Recognizes Support for Indigenous Students – News & Events

On a balmy day in late March, Indigenous students and staff gathered for a special ceremony to donate a TMU bison skull to the University of Toronto (U of T).

The ceremony, which took place at the University of Toronto’s St. George campus teaching building, began by offering sage to the spirit and skull of the bison in thanks for its sustenance and in recognition of the education it will provide to students, faculty and staff.

“Students haven’t had access to ceremonies in an institutional setting,” said Michael White, director of Indigenous student services at the University of Toronto’s First Nations House. “It’s very meaningful that we are together in a teaching lodge, in a forest, in the middle of downtown Toronto and we can do these things. It is such an honor that we can wear this bison skull for the students, for the First Nations House and for the University of Toronto.

This 2024 event came at an opportune time as the University of Toronto’s First Nations House and the Gdoo-maawnjidimi Mompii of Indigenous Student Services and Indigenous Initiatives in the Office of the Vice-President of Equity and Community Inclusion (OVPECI) are celebrating their 30th anniversary of support. Indigenous students in their respective establishments.

“When I was a student at TMU, there were no support services for Indigenous students,” said Monica Mckay, director of Indigenous initiatives at OVPECI. “It’s been a long journey, but it fills my heart to come together in ceremony in places that have worked very hard to keep us apart.”

The tradition of buffalo skull gifts began when Jesse Thistle, a Métis-Cree from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and a York University alumnus, had the vision of bringing buffalo skulls to people and institutions for help them fulfill a prophecy.

The prophecy is that education is the new bull for the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island – it is the means by which indigenous peoples will rebuild healthy families, reclaim their culture and languages, and help build vibrant indigenous communities. Education will provide for the needs of indigenous people, just as the buffalo once did.

Thistle’s vision is to install bison skulls in Ontario universities. In 2015, he donated a bison skull to York University’s Indigenous Student Services Center with a promise that he would donate it to another educational institution. They did so by making a gift to TMU in 2016. In accepting the skull, TMU’s Indigenous Education Council (IEC) in the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academics, and Gdoo-maawnjidimi Mompii OVPECI Indigenous Student Services made a pledge to find and donate a buffalo skull to another university, etc.