Wednesday 26th April – Head-smashed-in Buffalo Jump

Yes, there is a place with this name, believe it or not!

We were cold overnight and woke to a grey and miserable start to the day by Little Bow Lake so we really didn’t make the most of our stay in the park.  We started driving and Simon was back on his best ‘spotter’ form for deer and birds of prey galore on our way.  

We admitted to each other that we are feeling a little directionless having spent so long focusing on what we were going to see with the Baileys.  Thank goodness for some good recommendations from our Calgary hosts. The World heritage site of Head-smashed-in Buffalo Jump (let’s call it HSIBJ for short from now on!) was one such recommendation.   

When we arrived and grabbed lunch the skies lightened and the clouds broke to reveal some patches of blue so it was a great time to go for a walk.  When Yvette first mentioned this tourist attraction I was a little unsure – why would we want to see somewhere celebrating Buffalo getting their heads smashed in?!  But I quickly learned that it was more about educating us on the heritage of the Plains people, known as the Blackfoot, who used to live here and their methods of hunting the buffalo that they were so reliant upon. This site was used by the prairie people as a Buffalo jump for about 5700 years, making it one of the oldest and best preserved in existence.  You have to admire the ingenuity of this hunting method they used.  In a 15 minute introductory video we learnt how the prairie hunters used the buffalo’s habits against themselves as part of their strategy.  They went to great lengths to prepare boundaries made of brush and stone called cairns leading to the cliff edge in order to ‘funnel’ the buffalo towards their doom.  Then, when conditions were just right, a chosen few hunters donned wolf hides to gradually move the buffalo into the right area before a young male dressed as a buffalo calf and feigning distress, drew their attention towards the ledge.  When the time was right and the herd was within the cairns, the rest of the community who were hidden alongside the cairns would jump up and cause a stampede towards the cliff. By the time the buffalo at the front realised it was a trap they were forced over the edge by the momentum of their own kind behind them.  A very effective way to kill many buffalo in one go. The community relied on an effective hunt to provide food and shelter for their tribes over the harsh winters. The specific conditions required to make the hunt a success meant that the buffalo jumps were not an annual event and buffalo were so numerous back then that their population was unaffected.

Legend has it that the name HSIBJ came from an incident in the 1800s when a young brave wanted to watch the plunge of the buffalo over the cliff.  Standing under the shelter of a ledge, he watched the beasts fall past him.  But the hunt was unusually good that day and as the bodies mounted he became trapped between the animals and the cliff. When his people came to butcher the buffalo, they found the brave with his skull crushed under the weight of the carcasses.  Hence, they called the place ‘Head-smashed-in’.  So, you see, it wasn’t about the buffalo having their heads smashed in at all!  It’s a good thing that we aren’t so literal back home in Essex – I know numerous locations where people have had their head smashed in…. it would just get confusing.

The ledge of the buffalo jump with the prairie stretching beneath - natural erosion has reduced the height of the drop from the 20 metres it used to be to roughly 10 metres

Anyway, as well as the video and a walkway to the cliff edge itself, the museum was filled with exhibits on six levels down the hill-side.  It was all set out in a very effective manner. The location was placed on the World Heritage list as a site of outstanding universal value forming part of the cultural heritage of mankind in 1981.

Simon helpfully pointing out the buffalo

Yellow-bellied marmot

Having left the museum we then walked the trail to get a view of the jump from below.  I enjoyed seeing the surrounding wildlife as ever – yellow-bellied marmots were confidently roaming the cliff edge and Northern Harriers circled overhead.

This is a better image than any I attempted to get myself!

 

 

 

 

We spent a couple of hours exploring the site before heading towards our next National Park – Waterton Lakes, about one hour and 15 minutes away.  

 

A rare complete rainbow

Having left the Rockies behind on Saturday, it was a pleasure when more ice-capped mountains came into view as we neared the Park. The location we are camping in at the Townsite is mere miles away from the US border and Montana, as shown on this map:

As we entered the park the scenery got even better and we started seeing those red chairs all over the place!  This is the view from the red chairs on the edge of our campsite:

View across Waterton Lake

Our site for two days

We have decided to stay for two nights with our fingers firmly crossed for bright weather tomorrow so that we can enjoy the stunning wilderness on our doorstep. As I sit here typing, herds of deer and long-horned sheep graze all around us in the campsite.