First Peoples Buffalo Jump

The gift of our First Peoples Summer, while much enjoyed, sadly came to a close. It's cold today, the sun hides behind layers of dark grey clouds. From my perch, I see a bank of low darker clouds a few miles south showering the Missouri River. No rain here, though, only a cold biting wind keeping everyone except the horses inside.

I let the horses out to graze on the north pasture adding an extra dimension to my kitchen window view. Each time I glance out I see five very contented animals, heads down, backs to the wind, moving slowly gathering the last green bites. Beyond the horses, our north gate opens onto 1,481 acres of sacred land once used as a kill site by nomadic hunters and gatherers for well over two thousand years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Now called, First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park, this area punctuated by a mile-long sandstone cliff once formed a pivotal arc on the Plain's circle of life. The sacred buffalo provided almost everything needed for survival, but also presented a challenge to a people without horses and who hunted with bows and arrows. Eventually they learned how to successfully capture the enormous animal by stampeding the herds over the edge of the cliff. Long before horses arrived on the continent, scouts were sent out on foot to locate a herd. Then, over a period of time, sometimes weeks, the People would slowly "push" the herd closer toward the plateau that would mark the beginning of the drive. Before the hunt began, they created a drive lane consisting of two rock lines, five to ten yards apart and from 100 yards to a mile in length. Only a foot or so in height, these lines established the boundaries of the path the buffalo would follow to the precipice. The buffalo were stampeded across the Plains toward the plateaus and into these drive lanes by hunters who ran behind them shouting and waving hides. They were often accompanied by their dogs barking and chasing the frightened animals. As the panicked buffalo closed in together, the momentum of the herd would push those in front over the edge of the sandstone cliff. Many animals died in the fall, and those that survived were quickly killed by hunters who had been staged at the base of the cliff.

Carcasses were butchered and feasts were held. Most of the flesh was dried and stored as jerky for the winter months. To the nomadic Plains People buffalo meant survival. Besides meat, the buffalo provided hides for clothing and lodge coverings, bones for implements and utensils, and sinew for bowstrings and for sewing. Wolves, coyotes, eagles and other wildlife cleaned up what was not taken by the People.

It is estimate that for thousands of years as many as 13 million buffalo once lived in what is now Montana, found everywhere east of the Continental Divide. When the white fur traders and buffalo hunters arrived in the late nineteenth century their numbers were much less but still impressive at well over 60,000. Within a few short years, the hunters with their horses and guns nearly brought the buffalo to extinction; and with it the Plains People's way of life changed forever.

Today, First Peoples Buffalo Jump is one of the largest jumps ever found. Now a state park, it is administered by the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. A visitor center and interpretive trails tell the story of this prehistoric site. The top of the jump offers panoramic views of the Rocky Mountain Front, the Missouri River valley, as well as the buttes and grasslands that characterize this High Plains setting we call home.



I often wonder as I peer out the kitchen window if I share a space separated by time with the wives and children who watched and waited from their tipi's as the great hunt and harvest unfolded a short distance away. While the activity on the Jump has changed, the view remains the same. I can only imagine the awe inspiring sight and sound of hundreds of buffalo toppling over the cliff now framed by my kitchen window.

Recently, archaeologists from Montana State University researched and excavated the site and determined that it is indeed the largest jump in the world. They also found buffalo remains at depths of 13 feet dating back to at least 500 AD.

The buffalo formed one of the practical and spiritual foundations of life for the First People; a tradition that continues today. The meat, hides, horns, and bones of these great animals sustained the hunters and their families for thousands of years. To the People, buffalo were, and are still, part of the voice of the land. And so it is.