Key Number:	HS 24310
Site Name:	Old Women's Buffalo Jump Archaeological Site
Other Names:	Old Women's Buffalo Jump
Site Type:	1910 - Archaeological Site

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			17	29	4

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Town:
Near Town:	Cayley

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

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Exterior:	N/A
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Environment:	Contain 8.16 acres. Borden designation EcP1-1 Located in Squaw Coulee, about 10 miles north of High River. It is located on the west edge of the Plains near the north end of the Porcupine Hills. Site consists of a sandstone cliff below and east of which lies a bone deposit and campsite while a gathering basin is west.
Condition:	Excavated coulee slope. No marker at this site.
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Usage:	Usage Date:
N/A
Owner:	Owner Date:
J.A. Sloane (High River) Province of Alberta, Culture and Multiculturalism	1966/04/21

Architect:	N/A
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Craftsman:	N/A
History:	In 1952 a flash flood eroded the lip of Squaw Coulee exposing a previously unknown Bison Kill. The Glenbow Alberta Institute carried out investigations in 1958-59. They found continuos cultural deposits over 20' deep. It was determined that the site was used consistently from the time of Christ onward for 1500 years. Upper deposits contained Besant type points while lower levels bore projectile points and probably used on dart or spear shafts. Age: From time of Christ until 1500 AD. Extremely well stratified site. Unexploited and undisturbed during war. Ideal conditions insured its continuos use for the 1500 years of its existence. The site figures in Blackfoot legend. * * * 'The Old Woman's Buffalo Jump is a superb representative of a type of site which is widespread throughout the western part of the Northern Plains. Happily it escaped destruction by the 'bone pickers' who sold their product on a commercial basis. Excavations in the undisturbed deposits revealed that the site was used continually and intensively for a period of over 1,500 years...'p. 70. The site is important in Blackfoot Mythology. 'According to one version of a Blackfoot tale it was at the Old Woman's Buffalo Jump' that the first marriage ceremony took place. In a later view John Cotton and Teddy Bull Shields, both of the Bloods, it was mentioned that the jump is though to be one of the oldest used by the Blackfeet as the origin of its name is told in the Mythology of the tribe. It concerns a mythical character named Napit or Old Man, who was a trickster and the creator of many of natures' wonders. In the early days of the world, women and men lived separately. Napi instated the union of the two sexes; however in the first mating Napi was the only one without a wife. In anger he went to the buffalo jump and turned himself into a lone pine tree. The site was discovered in 1952. The site was excavated by a field party from Glenbow Foundation in 1958. * * * The Old Women's Buffalo Jump, Alberta By Richard G. Forbis Discovery and Location During the summer of 1952, great torrents of water ripped their way, in a flash flood, down the slopes of Squaw Coulee between the outcrops of Paskapoo sandstone which formed the cliffs over which buffalo had once been driven to their death. The water tore out a gully some 12 feet wide and in some places as deep, exposing many buried bone and soil beds and leaving a white sheet of bones in the meadow below. This sheet of bones almost immediately attracted the attention of Webb Sloane, who farms the land. News of the discovery was soon widely circulated around the locality. Fortunately, the jump came to light only after the time when many similar deposits were ransacked for commercial reasons. The bone had proved economically useful in sugar refining and as fertilizer. As a result, most buffalo kills in the area are badly disturbed, if not destroyed, and consequently their scientific value is regarded as scant. The Old Women's Buffalo Jump (EcPl-1 in the Uniform Site Designation Scheme for Canada), or Cayley Kill, is located on the south bank of Squaw Coulee, about 2 miles northwest of the town of Cayley and some fifty miles south of Calgary, Alberta. It consists of low cliffs deposit of bone on a slope that faces north and slightly east. The bone deposit, marked off from less fertile soil by a lush growth of tall rye grass is more than 100 feet wide and extends downhill about 200 feet from the base the cliffs to the bottom of the fan. It must have been progressively greater in earlier times, before the deposition of bone and soil layers. It is approximately 80 feet from the top of the cliffs to the bottom of the fan, in the meadow. Although the Women's Jump is not particularly large, it was clearly one of intensive use. Aboriginal bison drive in use for 1500 years

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Federally Designated Provincial Historic Resource	1960/01/01 1979/10/15

Register:

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0079