Imagining Head Smashed In : : Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains

At the place known as Head-Smashed-In in southwestern Alberta, Aboriginal people practiced a form of group hunting for nearly 6,000 years before European contact. The large communal bison traps of the Plains were the single greatest food-getting method ever developed in human history. Hunters, worki...

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Year of Publication:2008
Edition:1st ed.
Language:English
Physical Description:1 online resource (361 p.)
Notes:Description based upon print version of record.
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Table of Contents:
  • Cover Page; Contents; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; CHAPTER 1: THE BUFFALO JUMP; Communal Buffalo Hunting; Not Just Any Cliff; The Site; The Cliff; How Long Have Buffalo Jumped?; Blood on the Rocks: The Story of Head Smashed-In; CHAPTER 2: THE BUFFALO; Is it Bison or Buffalo?; In Numbers, Numberless; Tricks of the Trade; The Fats of Life; CHAPTER 3: A YEAR IN THE LIFE; Calves; Mothers; Fathers; The Big Picture; Science and the Historic Record; The Seasonal Round; The Season of Buffalo Jumping; CHAPTER 4: THE KILLING FIELD; Finding Bison; Drive Lanes; Points in Time; Ancient Knowledge
  • Back to the Drive Lanes Deadmen; In Small Things Forgotten; CHAPTER 5: ROUNDING UP; The Spirit Sings; The Nose of the Buffalo; Fire this Time; Luring the Buffalo; Buffalo Runners; Lost Calves; Billy's Stories; The End of the Drive; Of Illusions, Pickup Trucks, and Curves in the Road; CHAPTER 6: THE GREAT KILL; Leap of Faith; Overkill?; Drop of Death; Bones on Fire; Let the Butchering Begin; Bison Hide as Insulator; Back to the Assembly Line; CHAPTER 7: COOKING UP THE SPOILS; The Processing Site; Day Fades to Night; Dried Goods; Grease is the Word; High Plains Cooking; Hazel Gets Slimed
  • Buffalo Chips Hot Rocks; Time for a Roast; Where Are the Skulls?; Packing Up, Among the Bears; CHAPTER 8: GOING HOME; Buffalo Hides; Pemmican; Snow Falling on Cottonwoods; CHAPTER 9: THE END OF THE BUFFALO HUNT; The Skin of the Animal; The Last of the Buffalo Jumps; Rivers of Bones; Final Abandonment of Head-Smashed-In; CHAPTER 10: THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT; Beginnings; A Beer-soaked Bar Napkin; Cranes on the Cliff; A Rubber Cliff; And a Rubber Dig; The Blackfoot Get Involved; Meeting with the Piikani; Joe Crowshoe; A Painted Skull; Where Are the Blood?; Hollywood North
  • Opening and Aftermath Of Time and Tradition; EPILOGUE: JUST A SIMPLE STONE; Last Summer; A Thousand Years Ago; Three Months Later; Three Days Later; Sources to Notes; References Cited; Index;