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Drumheller |
Head Smashed
Inn Buffalo Jump |
Ksan Historic
Village | Inuit
Heritage Centre
The ancient inhabitants of south western
Alberta faced a tough life which relied substantially on
the Buffalo. They needed the Buffalo for food, shelter,
clothing , and used it to create weapons, utensils,
tools and other day to day implements.
This however was a time before the horse.
Horses were only brought to North America when the
Spanish arrived in Mexico and some escaped and slowly
bred, migrated and occupied the vast expanses of North
America. Head
Smashed in Buffalo Jump is a cliff on the prairies where
the ground begins to roll as it approaches the Rocky
Mountains. The natives determined that one of the most
effect ways to hunt the large Buffalo was to use gravity
as their weapon and would manipulate, direct, chase and
hope that they could get the Buffalo to stampede along a
route which would take them right over the cliff's edge
and plunge to their death on the sharp rocks - in some
cases 100 feet below. Any Buffalo that were badly
injured and not killed would then be pounced upon by the
additional natives waiting below, and butchered with the
weapons they had.
They were dependant upon this system of
hunting until the horse and rifles changed the
complexion of the society and hunt forever. The Museum
climbs up the cliff as it tells the story of the hunt,
and offers a spectacular view from the top where the
where many buffalo grabbed their last glimpse of the
world before they went over the edge.
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