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Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

By Gordon Reid

Fifth House

39 pages (sc)

$12.95

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta is one of the oldest, largest and most well-documented buffalo jumps in North America.

For more than 10,000 years it was a 'world center' for Paleolithic hunters, nomadic Plains tribes and members of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

In a redesigned and updated version of the book Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, author Gordon Reid takes us on an insider's tour of the sites, excavations and resources at the Head-Smashed-In Interpretive Centre.

Reid's book is divided into three well-illustrated sections. The first, the Buffalo And The Native Peoples, drives home the fact that the great buffalo hunts were large-scale, well-organized family affairs demanding total commitment and expertise from every member of the tribe.

Insight into the biology, herd mentality and mating rituals of the millions of bison that once roamed the North American Plains go hand-in-hand with creation myths, storytelling and ancient hunting tactics explained by Elders Joseph Medicine Crow, Black Elk and Percy Bullchild.

We learn, to our amusement, that the winner of a long-raging battle between two dominant bulls does not always win the hand of the lady bison, who, bored with the whole affair, may simply leave with another fellow.

On a darker note, Reid documents the dual extinction of the bison herds and the great hunting culture through disease, starvation and displacement by settlers, professional buffalo hunters and politicians.

The Blackfoot, explains the author, blamed the spirit of the sun for opening up a hole in the earth and driving the bison away out of anger with the Natives for having traded with the white men.

The second section, Unearthing the Past, introduces the reader to the current state-of-the-art archeology, excavation and hands-on interpretive science that has given Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump a world-class reputation among tourists, students and scientists.

Following the evolution of lithic fracture technology (stone tools and weapons), Reid points out that the complex and sophisticated social organization needed to utilize the buffalo jump had been in place for a thousand years before the pyramids were built in Egypt.

Head-Smashed-In

Today, the third section, takes the reader on tour of the seven-tiered interpretive centre that includes a dramatic recreation of a group of bison about to hurl themselves off the cliff.

Portraits of the ancestors, drawings of pottery shards, stone points, and vision quest sites, bone marrow and hide tanning recipes and excellent photographs of indigenous plants and animals round out this study of the Great Plains bison hunting culture.

The newly revised edition of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is a small book that packs a lot of punch.

Review by Pamela Sexsmith