The Gift of the Great Buffalo
by Carole Lindstrom; illus. by Aly McKnight
Primary, Intermediate    Bloomsbury    40 pp.
2/25    9781547606887    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781547606979    $13.29

Rose, her oshiimeyan (younger sister), and their parents gather with other Métis families for the biannual buffalo hunt. This time will be different both because Rose’s pa is one of the hunt’s captains and because “the settlers and their iron horses had eliminated most of the buffalo”; the accompanying illustration shows Rose saying a “prayer of gratitude to the buffalo” while a train churns out black smoke, turning the blue sky gray. When scouts are unable to find buffalo after a week, Rose decides to look for them on her own. Her cleverness and bravery lead to success for the whole community. Lindstrom’s (Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior, rev. 11/23) engaging text is well paired with McKnight’s expansive, atmospheric watercolor and graphite illustrations. Back matter adds useful context; for example, in her appended note, Lindstrom says: “Rose’s story is my version of the Little House series. So readers will know that before there was a little house on the prairie, there was a little tipi on the prairie…on the same land where the Little House stories were set.” Important terms are defined, and a history of the buffalo hunt is provided. This Métis/Ojibwe perspective of life on the prairie by two Native creators is a moving tribute to a culture and people.

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.