Fort McCleod Alberta

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site

Actual jump site where archeological dig.

Don't jump it's not worth it.

Encampment below jump site.

Artifact found in the dig part of a head dress.

We spent today at a world heritage site museum. This is the most complete archeological dig site of a buffalo jump in North America. For almost 6,000 years First Nation people stampeded the buffalo over cliffs to kill them with out being killed themselves. This was a regional hunt before winter so the tribes could prepare enough food to get them thru winter. They perfected a procedure of first getting the buffalo to think one brave was a lost buffalo calf and the buffalo would go after to get it for protection, then other braves dressed as wolfs and they started to chase the buffalo which started a stampede running through a network of shrubs and rocks proped up and the buffalo's instinct is to run between them and at the last minute the brave dressed as a buffalo cub runs thru a opening to the side and the momentum of the buffalo runs the herd over the cliff. Then they prepare meat and skins for winter. They celebrate by eating the ribs first, yum. All sites found in the US were dug up during WWI to get the bones to make potash for gunpowder. Another interesting fact is that the buffalo were later smeared by the Americans for the hides, we all know, but did you know the hide was used for machine belts for the American Industrial Revolution. Bill said I always wondered how they got leather big enough for those belts.