September 7, 2007 – Buffalo Jump and USA

Today we went to Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. For those of you who don’t know, a buffalo jump is a place where the Native Americans diverted the buffalo off a cliff. There are a number of buffalo jumps throughout Canada and the US. The Native Indians would follow the herds and prepare for the buffalo. We learned about their ceremonies, their respect for the buffalo, and their uses of different parts of the buffalo.

This site is one of deepest, oldest, and best preserved site of all the other sites. Archeologists have been able to find many artifacts in this area that tell us how the Native Americans lived throughout the various ages – all the way back to 9000 years ago.

The Interpretive Centre is run by the Blackfoot peoples and gives insight into their history, lifestyle, legends and religions.

This is the view from the top:
The view from the bottom:

The view of the area – this is a replica of a village and where they would be living during the preparations of the jump before and after:
It was a really incredible place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone traveling this way. There are a lot of happenings during the summer and we are sorry we missed them.

After our visit, we decided to travel further south and we crossed the border to Montana. Although we thoroughly enjoyed Canada, it is good to be back in the lower 48.

We are camped in Glacier National Park at St. Mary’s Campground. A view near us:

Yes, that is fresh snow on the mountains. They are calling for snow and rain tonight. We are now having LOTS of rain and thunder.

Miles Traveled: 75
Routes Traveled:
Alberta: AL-785; AL-2
Montana: MT-89