Fort MacLeod and Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump

We stopped in Fort MacLeod Alberta at a recreated fort to get a look at the early history of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. As one may expect it was a very harsh and lonely life for the early Mounties but they did make the best of it, but like so many other museums we have been in the protective glass makes it difficult do get good pictures. Although horses are not used very much today we were able to get a glimpse of what it may have been back then. The riders came to attention on the parade ground and awaited inspection. From there they advanced to the arena and gave a demonstration on the riding skill that may have been required.

Being from Delaware and having been around the name DuPont all my life I am sometimes reminded of how the company started. Picture below is a powder can from DuPont which was dated to have been made in the late 1880’s.

From the fort we only had to go a few miles to park for the night and once we were all set up we travelled to Head Smashed-in Buffalo Jump which is also located near Fort MacLeod. I know that I have already posted something about the buffalo jumps but this place was so much more. The museum and the story told was so detailed and the exhibits explained it so much more. The museum presented a movie depicting an actual hunt the ended with the jump, which I still think should be called a push, and then a traditional dance. The presenters made the hunt so interesting and although it was not the most humane way to harvest the buffalo it was the most efficient. Not being wasteful the natives were very selective of the size of the heard that the would run off the cliff and made sure there were no survivors. Their thinking was that if a buffalo escaped it may remember making it more difficult next time.

One very interesting bit of information concerned the individual that were selected to become the runner who actually got between the herd and the cliff to lead the herd close enough to be chased over the cliff’s edge. Since this required a lot of skill and endurance the young men who actually got in front of the herd risking their lives were marked as special people in their tribes. In a ritual each of them were branded on the outside of each thigh with the embers from the ceremonial pipe that was smoked at the time of their ordination. Being a runner was so life threatening that these men were not allowed to take wives or have a family until after getting injured or too old. One fact that was not very clear from the first jump we toured was how the runner actually evaded trampled to death or falling to their own demise. It appears that in the actual hunt women and elders of the tribe would be lying in wait until the last moment then rise up holding hides and blankets forming a wall where at the last moment the runner would duck between two of them thus avoiding being trampled. The natives were so thankful for the buffalo that after each successful hunt the would actually set fire to the plain grass to insure a better crop would grow back for the next year. Legend has it that because their moccasins were always darkened by walking through the ashes these people became know as the Black Foot Nation. The natives in the states call them The Black Feet Nation and the two use that to differentiate from one area to the other.

The next stop to report about will be the Calgary Stampede Rodeo.