* Buffalo Is the New Buffalo is a short story collection by Métis writer and Indigenous studies educator Chelsea Vowel that subverts and rewrites the history of North American colonialism. In a genre she calls "Métis futurism," the stories are rooted in speculative fiction traditions and motifs, set in periods from the 19th century to the 21st. * The title of the book refers to the phrase "Education is the new buffalo," a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival and ability to support themselves. "Buffalo is the New Buffalo" asserts that Indigenous peoples can move forward by restoring their reciprocal obligations to human and non-human kin: instead of accepting that the buffalo, and ancestral ways, will never come back, what if Indigenous peoples simply ensure that they do? * In this way, Chelsea's stories take ownership of traditional mythologies as well as the destructive colonial history of North America. Each story is accompanied by an essay also written by Chelsea providing a historical and contemporary context that illuminates our readings, especially from colonial perspectives.* In the title story, the deliberate genocide of the buffalo destroyed self-sufficiency among Plains nations and utterly transformed Indigenous physical and spiritual spaces; drawing on the concept of multi-verses, this choose-your-own-adventure style story explore the impact of the return, en masse, of buffalo to the land. "Buffalo Bird" is set in the mid to late 19th century, in which Angelique Loyer, a Two-Spirit rougarou (shapeshifter), she tries to solve a murder in her community, and later joins the resistance against Canada expanding westward into the plains. "Michif Man," set in the 20th century, is about about a Métis superhero named Franky Callihoo, who is gored by a radioactive bison and granted super strength; years later, in the 21st century, Indigenous scholars push back against the notion that Michif Man was simply a folk myth, and present evidence that Franky Callihoo actually existed and served his community in a variety of ways.

* These stories have a lot in common with Love after the End , the anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer speculative fiction edited by Joshua Whitehead that won a 2021 Lambda Literary Award. At the same time, while there are Two-Spirit characters here, it's not an LGBTQ+-specific collection. * There is growing interest in speculative fiction written from non-traditional perspectives, especially BIPOC. The genre allows Chelsea to explore aspects of colonialism and Indigenous experience in ways that would not work in other genres. In Chelsea's own words: "I wanted to create short stories that challenge our understandings of the past, present, and future, with a focus on Métis Peoplehood. In particular I want to interrogate the ways in which colonialism have obstructed that Peoplehood, and explore in what ways we can think otherwise in order to create a better world. I want to make space for Indigenous stories within a variety of genres outside of those that Indigenous people have traditionally been constrained to, which is mainly memoir.".