Smashed Head Buffalo Jump

8 Sept 17

Smashed Head Buffalo Jump, Alberta

We left our boondock spot overlooking the Columbia Icefields yesterday morning about 0900 enroute to Banff/Lake Louise. There is so much smoke in the air, it is like we are driving thru fog. We decided not to stop at Lake Louise as there is too much smoke, so we continued on. It feels like we are in the lower 48 again. Hwy 1 is a great 4 lane road, taking us to Calgary and then south.

We are going to stop at Smashed Head Buffalo Jump and arrived at 445pm, so decided to spend the night in their parking lot, overlooking the plains. But again, there is so much smoke, much of our view is limited. We were told to stay east of the hwy as there are so many fires  which is closing some areas down. So that is what we have done and we are being very watchful.

Got up this morning, watching sat tv getting caught up on the Hurricane Irma. Thoughts and prayers for those folks. We are going visit the Buffalo jump site and then proceed to Sweet Grass, MT, cross the border, and proceed to a FAMCAMP at Malmstrom AFB, MT. It is only about 4 hours away, so tonight we will back in the lower 48 !!!!!

Smashed Head Buffalo Jump
First two impressions of this historic site was 1) they spent way too much $$$ on the building and stuff  2) couldn’t they come up with a better name?

Got there when it opened, and Little Leaf, an Indian elder from the Predime Tribe from reservation 147A was there to greet us. After we paid our $30 to get in, we watched a 20 minute movie of a Buffalo jump reenactment. After the movie we wondered, how can 3 or 4 Indians, chase a herd of buffalo, with a few Indians along the side, and what did they do with all that buffalo. We left the theater thinking this was a typical Hollywood movie.

We talked to Little Leaf about it, and he told us the “suits” are in charge of all the exhibits and this is “their” interpretation. He said never mind, we lost our land, they paid us $35 per year to be happy. Anyways, bottom line, the Indians were pretty smart to  make their “dinner” jump of cliffs.  Just to clarify the “jump” process.

The Indians would coral the buffalo, and then one really fast Indian would dress as a buffalo calve and moo as in distress. All it it takes is one female buffalo to hear that sound and she chases the Indian, and rest follow towards the cliff. The buffalo in the front of pack try to slow down for the cliff, but the sheer amount of buffalo running just pushes the buffalo over the cliff. Once over the cliff, they kill the ones not dead and then they start the process of using every piece of the buffalo for their tribes.

We asked Little Leaf to explain the process after the buffalo have jumped and he told us that they would spend about three days, non stop, dismantling the buffalo and start preserving it.  Wow.

The facility was interesting, the volunteers were fantastic and it is unfortunate that the funds they receive here are not funneled to the native tribes for their betterment.

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