Treat Them as Buffalo

An electrifying anti-Western from an exciting new Indigenous writer. As teenage boys begin to disappear from a great plains Métis community, a young man attempts to uncover the evil force lurking out of sight.

"Treat Them as Buffalo is a harrowing adrenalin rush, a wild river of a story...The book is billed as an anti-Western, sidestepping well-worn tropes and caricatures. The author succeeds on all fronts--Blair Palmer Yoxall is a force!" -- Mona Susan Power, author of A Council of Dolls

In 1885, Nikosis "Niko" Eriksen spends his days playing buffalo hunter, even though it's been many years since a member of his tribe has actually seen one of the once-ubiquitous animals. But when beloved Cousin goes missing, things start to fall apart. With law enforcement failing--indeed refusing--to investigate the disappearance, the community members take matters into their own hands, rallying around the leadership of a sawn-off shotgun-slinging rancher named Kate McCannon.

The resultant women-led coalition of freedom fighters strikes back against the Mounted Police as they investigate the boys' disappearance and take their futures into their own hands. But violence continues to haunt Niko, and boys continue to disappear. As he leaves his boyhood behind and draws closer to finding Cousin, Niko's investigation points to a harrowing revelation about his own heritage, which heels closer to violence that any boy would wish to know.

Written with the pace and punch of Outlawed and the inventiveness of The Only Good Indians, Treat Them as Buffalo delivers a gripping portrait of a young man coming of age before his time.

Blair Palmer Yoxall (he/him/his) is an award-winning writer and poet. Blair is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and is of Métis and settler parentage. He enjoys fly-fishing in the Alberta Rockies. Treat Them as Buffalo is his debut novel. Follow him on Instagram @atayookee.