Archaeologist inspired by Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

The large communal bison traps of the Blackfoot Plains Indians, developed nearly 6,000 years ago, are thought to be the single greatest food-gathering feats in human history.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, located northwest of Fort McLeod in the rolling foothills, offers a vivid look at this hunting technique and history of the Plains Indians, including a well-preserved bone quarry.

“I love the story that lies behind the jump — the events and planning that went into making the whole event work. I continue to learn more about the complex interaction between people, bison and the environment, and I continue to be impressed with how the ancient hunters pulled off these astonishing kills,” said renowned Alberta archaeologist and author John W. Brink.

Brink was on site in March  taking part in the centre’s annual Stones and Bones event, which attracted 120 people. He said he remains inspired each time he lectures the public on the ancient hunting and gathering society of Southern Alberta.

Brink, author of the best selling history book “Imagining Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains,” and curator at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, said it is difficult to know exactly how the Native hunters were so successful for so long. But there is an abundance of well-preserved evidence which allows scientists to piece the history together. This includes the physical archaeological evidence left at sites, scientific analysis of bison biology and behaviour, traditional knowledge of Aboriginal peoples, and surviving historical records from non-Aboriginal observers.

“This information must then be filtered through a process of imagining the why and how of buffalo jumps to understand their place in the lives of those people who used them generation after generation,” said Brink.

Brink showed visitors first hand how information and expertise is put to use when he presented his own version of the Antique Road Show.

“A number of people brought in their own artifact finds and learned about them,” said Education Officer and Acting Site Manager James Martin. “(There was a) man who discovered he was holding a rare complete obsidian spear point that was likely 11,000 to 12,000 years old, found in a crack in the rocks on a horse packing trail up near Alaska.”

People left the centre knowing the stories of what they had brought in. Said Martin, “Everyone finds it fascinating to stand around and listen to (Brink) tell the story of the artifact. Some are surprised to learn that what they thought was an artifact is not, but instead a geological oddity, like a mineralized concretion.”

The center includes an 80-seat theatre, cultural displays, gift shop and cafeteria as well as 2 km of outdoor interpretive trails leading to the sites where thousands of buffalo were forced off cliffs.

 The $10 million, 1,270-acre Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1981.