Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Site or Sight”
UNESCO Heritage Site: Some Imagination Required.
When you follow Highway 3 East or West across Southern Alberta, you will reach the town of Fort Macleod. This town was significant in the history of Canada because of its association with the Northwest Mounted Police.
If you have time, visit the Fort Museum of the NWMP and First Nations Interpretive Center. Unfortunately, on the several occasions I have visited Fort MacLeod, I have not made the time to visit this important Canadian historical site.
In May of 2023, we passed through the area and instead visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
As you can see from this photograph, the sight is rather underwhelming. Just another cliff above a valley on the Canadian Prairie.
The site, however, represents so much more. The site enshrines how the Blackfoot tribes managed and exploited the Buffalo or North American Bison. Imagine the tribes gathered below these cliffs with a camp established. Imagine a path created on the plain above the cliffs to guide the Buffalo herd towards these cliffs. Imagine the natives stampeding the herd along that path and over these cliffs to their deaths. The tribe’s people participating in this hunt would butcher and preserve their kill, providing meat for the rest of the year.
The world is a beautiful place. Share the beauty. Leave only footsteps.
