Ages ago...

in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, near Fort McLeod in Alberta, Canada, the Blackfoot First Nations practised an effective way of hunting large numbers of buffalo at one time.

In short: herds of grazing buffalo were lured and directed into a stampede, using cairns and human decoys, which led the animals to a steep rock formation, the

Buffalo Jump.

After their fall, the legs of the buffalo were broken and they could not move forward anymore, thus enabling the hunters to kill them with their spears. Each and every part of the killed animals was used by the Blackfoot: the hide, the bones, the bone marrow, the organs.

Now this may seem very cruel today, but imagine those people living without any other source of food, imagine the harsh winters in the open plains, the need of warmth and shelter, there were no horses at that time either, just the buffalo, the people and their spears.

And, there were so many buffalo at that time, so history tells, that the green foothills looked completely brown by them.

Buffalo are hardly seen in nature nowadays, but this dramatic decrease only happened after the Europeans crossed the Atlantic and discovered the West of Canada, after they organized many huge hunting parties.

However, during the time of the Buffalo Jump the number of buffalo was kept rather constant

We visited the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump during our recent trip and I was quite impressed.

Close to the rock formation itself, there is a splendid interpretive center, where you can learn and see about those ancient times, the Blackfoot people, their way of life

Year round there are activities in and around the centre, like this Drumming & Dancing

the Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Is it a blanket, a quilt?
I like the bold design and colours

Archeologists must have seen something like this
when they discovered the Buffalo Jump

This trip made me, once again, very much aware of the richdom of our times, the food choices we can make, the luxury of our homes and transport.

In 1981 the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was established as a Unesco World Heritage site.