As you can probably tell when we travel at many of the places we choose to see
we love to learn about the land,…its people…its past…its history.
Sometimes we plan a visit to a place that sounds intriguing..
we even try to plan the place…the time…the day…
other times we happen upon a place we find intriguing along the way.
Which is why when we found ourselves in Fort Macleod
(after the teepee we were supposed to sleep in blew away)
We decided to visit Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump
when we hit the road the next day.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump…
where still some bones of buffaloes remain…
sits where the foothills of the Canadian Rockies…meets up with its Great Plains
A Buffalo Jump (the Blackfoot call it Estipah-skikikini-kots)
is a cliff formation where skilled hunters called buffalo runners
disguised as bison and wolves…silently holding their breath
would lure the herd into position then stampeded them over the cliff
and eventually…to their death
According to legend a young Blackfoot wanted to watch the bison jump
from the shelter of an overhang below
but when the buffalo started falling…there was no place he could go.
With one around to help him…no friends…no kext of kin
at the end of the hunt they found him buried beneath the buffalo
With, you guessed it, his head smashed in.
You may wonder why two vegetarians (because vegetarians can be strong willed)
would want to visit a place where so many buffalo were killed.
It’s because the Blackfoot didn’t kill the buffalo for sport
(as vegetarians, no as humans, we would find that hard to forgive)
No the Blackfoot understood they needed the buffalo to live.
And they would use every part of the buffalo once the buffalo had been subdued
to help build their shelters, for their clothing and of course they needed them for food.
Understanding how important the buffalo was to them
how for their survival they payed the ultimate price…
the Blackfoot would hold a ceremony to honor their sacrifice.
So Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump…became another memory for us to collect
because this is a part of Blackfoot history even a vegetarian can respect
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