What was the purpose of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump?

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site that preserves and interprets over 6,000 years of Plains Buffalo culture.

How long does it take to see Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump?

Allow at least 2 hours for a complete tour of the Interpretive Centre galleries and Cliff Top Viewpoint. Check the local weather before visiting.

What human activity happened at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump?

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump bears witness to a communal hunting technique practiced by native people of the North American plains for nearly 6000 years. They killed buffalo by driving them off the 11 metre high sandstone cliff, close to a natural grazing area of the buffalo.

What region is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump?

southern Alberta
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is located in southern Alberta, Canada, where the foothills of the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains.

What is the earliest date given for archaeological remains at the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump?

5,700 years ago
The oldest evidence of humans in the area are two spear points – believed to be 9,000 years old! Radiocarbon dating of the bones show the site was an active buffalo jump 5,700 years ago. The layers show changes in technology. The uppermost layers at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump have metal arrowheads.

How did the buffalo jump work?

The Kainai, Piikuni, Cree and Tsuu T’ina stampeded the buffalo between two barriers (sometimes made of logs interwoven with brush) that led to a cliff or “jump.” The buffalo plummeted over the cliff and were either killed in the fall or immediately butchered.

How do buffalo jumps work?

Operating Head-Smashed-In The Piikani named this cliff pis’kun, or the Buffalo Jump. Exceptionally skilled hunters, called buffalo runners, disguised themselves as bison and wolves to lure the herd into position. At a given signal, the runners and other hunters stampeded the herd over the cliff.

What is there to do in Fort Macleod Alberta?

The top attractions to visit in Fort Macleod are:

• Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site.
• The Fort (Museum of the North West Mounted Police)
• Stronghold Brewing Co.
• Empress Theatre.
• ​Fort Macleod Golf Club.

What county is Pincher Creek in?

What happened to the buffalo in Alberta?

There are two subspecies of bison, also sometimes called “buffalo”, in Canada: wood bison and plains bison. Plains bison were once prolific, numbering more than 30 million in North America. They all but vanished by the late 1880’s in Canada due to over-exploitation, habitat loss, and disease.

What happened to Canada’s buffalo?

Wood bison were largely over-hunted in the 1800s, and only a few hundred remained in Northern Alberta by the early 20th century. By 1957, wood bison were thought to have been finally extinct in Canada due to hybridization with the plains bison, which took place in Wood Buffalo National Park between 1925 and 1928.

Will Buffalo run off a cliff?

The buffalo jump was used for 5,500 years by the indigenous peoples of the plains to kill buffalo by driving them off the 11 metre (36 foot) high cliff. Then, at full gallop, the buffalo would fall from the weight of the herd pressing behind them, breaking their legs and rendering them immobile.