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The image of Indians trailing a lone buffalo with bow and arrow may be Hollywood's idea of how aboriginal peoples foraged for food, but the truth, while less romantic, was often far more effective and spectacular. Over a period of more than 6000-10,000 years, Blackfoot hunters perfected a technique of luring buffalo herds into a shallow basin and stampeding them to their deaths over a broad cliff, where they were then butchered for meat (dried to make pemmican, a cake of pounded meat, berries and lard), bone (for tools) and hide (for clothes and shelter). Such "jumps" existed all over North America, but the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump , in the Porcupine Hills 18km northwest of Fort Macleod on Hwy 785, is the best preserved (daily: mid-May to early Sept 9am-6pm; early Sept to mid-May 10am-5pm; tel 553-2731). Its name, which alone should be enough to whet your appetite, is a literal description of how a nineteenth-century Blackfoot met his end after deciding the best spot to watch the jump was at the base of the cliff, apparently unaware he was about to be visited by some five hundred plummeting buffalo. The modern interpretive centre , a seven-storeyed architectural tour de force, is built into the ten-metre-high and 305-metre-wide cliff near the original jump. Below it, a ten-metre-deep bed of ash and bones accumulated over millennia is protected by the threat of a $50,000 fine for anyone foolish enough to rummage for souvenirs. All manner of artefacts and objects have been discovered amidst the debris, among them knives, scrapers and sharpened stones used to skin the bison. Metal arrowheads in the topmost layers, traded with white settlers, suggest the jump was used until comparatively recently. Nothing can have changed much here over millennia bar the skilfully integrated centre and some modest excavations. The multilevel facility delves deep into the history of the jump and native culture in general, its highlight being a film, In Search of the Buffalo , which attempts to re-create the thunderous death plunge using a herd of buffalo, which were slaughtered, frozen and then somehow made to look like live animals hurtling to their deaths (shown half-hourly on Level Four). Around the centre the jump is surrounded by a couple of kilometres of trails , the starting point for tours conducted by Blackfoot native guides. No public transport serves the site; taxis from Fort Macleod cost about $20.
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