During the historic period, that is the period when written
records of peoples first appeared in Southern Alberta, there
were numerous Indian groups competing for control of
Southern Alberta.

Early identifiable Indian groups consisted of the Shoshoni,
Blackfeet (Peigan, Blood, North Blackfoot), Kutenai,
Pendent d' Oreille. In later historic times Cree and
Assiniboine peoples were in the southern areas of Alberta.

Some of the first ethnic recognized peoples were the
Shoshoni, who at one time prior to 1750 were throughout
Southern Alberta. Eventually they were displaced to the
south by the stronger Blackfeet. Their present homeland
is in the Great Basin region of the United States.

The Kutenai Indians, who now reside in the Rocky
Mountain Trench area, were in part a plains-adapted
people. They consistently hunted in the southern
Alberta area throughout the historic period. This range
probably included the good hunting grounds of the Milk
River Ridge. As a result of mid-1700's Blackfoot
dominance, the Kutenai frequented the Plains less
often, and when they did, it was always in great
numbers for protection.

The Blackfoot Confederacy became the most powerful
and dominant ethnic group by 1800. Their control of
the hunting grounds ranged from Central Alberta,
Southern Alberta into Nortern Montana. Historical
records indicate that the Blackfeet, especially the
Peigan, camped extensively and hunted along the Milk
River Ridge. Some of these camps are represented
by seasonal utilization. The Ridge area, for example
Woman's Point, and areas north of the Milk River, were
fall hunting grounds. The animals exploited were the
bison and the fat prairie antelope. The Ridge area was
an integral part of the south Peigans' annual 500 mile
round.

The Twin Rivers Bison Jump

The Twin Rivers Bison Jump is on the west side of the
South Fork of the Milk River. The site was recorded by L.
Halmrast and A. Bair. No professional excavations have
been completed. In talking with some local people, much
of the site has slumped and eroded into the Milk River.

In an archaeological sense, bison jumps are unique to
North America, and in fact are common to Southern
Alberta. Most bison jumps were used by native people
in the fall, as a secure and grand way of acquiring future
protein for the long prairie winters. Generally, jump areas
had a gathering basin in which animals were gathered.
Once the animals were gathered, they were funneled to
an area with a steep enough drop to either kill or maim
all the unfortunate beasts that fell.

The Twin Rivers Jump probably fits into this mold. The
gathering basin would have been back from the present
day farm house. Bison were then herded to the precipice
in a controlled manner, and forced to jump. In addition to
this jump area, I suspect a large butchering camp ought to
be near by.

The Twin Rivers Jump gives us an example of some of the
first abattoirs used in North America.

Stone Circle Site

Stone circles, or what are commonly known as Tipi rings
represent the ancient remains of skin lodge structures.
Stones were placed in a circle as lodge cover weights
for securing circular tipis. Some of these circles were
also ceremonial and not used as functional lodge cover
weights.

It is commonly believed that small circles represent
pre-horse lodge structures, that is, dog days. With the
introduction of the horse to North America, the Indian
people could transport larger lodge poles, etcetera.
Their material wealth increased and this wealth
increase is also represented by larger lodges, thus
larger circles.

The stone circles that I have seen while flying the Del
Bonita area, are distributed in different locations than
others east of Milk River. It appears as though many of
the circles are a distance from the river. The hundreds
of circles in the Del Bonita area certainly do indicate a
heavy use of the ridge area.

It is with some feelings of nostalgia that we search the
plains for evidences of another race. Our sketchy
histories do not satisfy our needs to know about the
"silent people" who walked before us.

The tipi circles we see on the banks of the Milk River,
and other rivers, and in the valleys, could be the sites of
any of the bands who roamed this area and camped there.
In our mind's eye we can see the tipis scattered along
the sheltered areas with always a few sentinels at the
tops of the hills.

We see the women and children setting up the camps,
busily gathering wood and kindling fires, setting up
tripods and hanging kettles. The hunters have gone
for game and will soon be back.

Other braves are unrolling and setting up tipis. Some of
the tipis are elaborately decorated. Each one has been
painted with the special pictographic characters
developed and adopted by a family. Their histories
are written here. Stories are recorded on the sides of
the buffalo hide walls of their homes.

Their leather dresses and shirts are uniquely designed
by individuals whose tastes vary slightly, from family to
family, but always retain the tribal characteristics.
Their festive outfits are hung carefully in the tipis,
ready for the next feast and dance, of which there
are many.

Indians love to dance and almost every evening the
tom toms signal the setting of the Great Sun and the
"silent people" dress for the dance.

The children are noisy as they play the games they are
taught. They are adult activities in miniature. The girls
have small clay pots, and frames for weaving. The
boys are warriors with small bows and arrows and
hunting knives.

The women prepare the evening meal with scarcely a
word spoken. This is the way of the prairie people.
There is no need for chatter. They have spent a life
time disciplining their emotions. Feelings are kept hidden.
Their eyes and bodies relay messages, sometimes
emphasized with a touch.

The camps are small and include only one or two families,
but neighboring camps of friends are close by, and
soon braves and maidens gather around the campfire
for the Pow Wow. Men and women dance opposite each
other without touching. Their bodies swing and sway like
the graceful willow in the wind, as their feet thump the
rhythm on the prairie sod.

The fire light glistens on the braves' bronze shoulders and
backs, the smooth muscles ripple. The black braided hair
swings to the rhythm of the dance, and the joyful eyes
shine in the smooth brown faces. The braves wear sweat
bands of various bright colors, around their foreheads.
Some have a few rare eagles' feathers attached to the
bands. Each feather signifies a young warrior's "coups"
or achievements. To qualify for marriage a brave must
earn many feathers to prove himself worthy of a maiden's
love.

Romance and love blossom as the beautiful Indian maiden
watches and admires the intricate dance steps her brave
is making. Some of the older relatives and friends are
watching with much interest; others are dancing.

The Indian Brave, with his proposal of marriage, must wait
outside of the maiden's lodge until her father invites him
in. He stands respectfully beside the doorway while all
senior adults leave. A young man never passes through
a lodge opening before an older man.

If his marriage proposal is accepted, the father of the bride
exacts a price for her; the brave brings the dowry of the
number of robes or horses or "wampum" agreed upon.
The bride's family must then give a feast and gifts are
given to everyone. A tipi, erected beside her father's
lodge, is provided for the young couple. The couple
enter into a trial marriage and must spend a few days in
the smoke filled lodge to see how well they can relate
to each other under adverse conditions. After this time
they receive the blessing of the Medicine man and
relatives. An old and respected, wise relative gives them
advice for the success of their marriage. The brave must
then serve the father of his bride for at least one year
before he is allowed to accumulate wealth of his own.

When a child is born the father must not sleep with the
mother until the child is weaned. A child is nursed until it
is three or four years old. This was the way of the Plains
Indian in the early days-1700's.

During the summer months the tribe moved freely within
the Blackfoot territory. The boundaries extended from the
Rocky Mountains in the west, North Saskatchewan River
to the north, Missouri River to the south, and to the
Cypress Hills to the east. The three tribes Blackfoot,
Bloods, and Peigans have always been friendly, held
Pow Wows together, made treaties, inter-married, and
defended each other against their enemies the fierce
Crees and Assiniboines to the north and the warring
Sioux to the south. Sometimes the Gros Ventures from
the southeast made a raid on a small camp or the Crows
invaded their territory.

The band in the Blackfoot nation believe they have
always been here. An unwritten law established their
boundaries. Just as the grizzly bear establishes his
territory, the enemy knows where the boundaries are.

The tribes have always followed the buffalo herds which
meant life to them. An incredible number of articles were
made from the buffalo, believed to be sacred-a gift
from the Great Spirit-numbering some 50 million at one
time.

The Indians totally consumed and used the animal. Even
the contents of the stomach and intestines, full of partly
digested vegetable matter and vitamins, were slightly
roasted over the- fire and eaten. Meat was smoked
and cured for winter. Fat and marrow was made into a
paste and pounded with berries to make pemmican. A
handful of highly nutritious pemmican provided a day's
nourishment. The hides made tipis, robes, beds, blankets,
caps, moccasins, jackets, shirts, skirts, pants, saddle
pads, boats, lassoes, hackamores, thongs and parfleches
(luggage). Sinews were used for thread, stomach for
cooking pots, bladder for water bags, horns for head
dresses, spoons and cups. Skulls were painted for the
centre of the Sun Dance altar. Ribs became sleds. Bones
made hoes, shovels, needles, scrapers, and knives.
The brain was made into paste for tanning. Hooves
were boiled for glue. Dried dung, buffalo chips,
provided fuel for fire.

With the arrival of the horse in the 1700's, through
trading with tribes from Mexico, a new life opened for
the nomadic Plains Indian. The native hunter
became an excellent horseman and formidable foe
as he maneuvered his fleet-footed mount into battle
or thundered across the Plains in pursuit of man or
beast.

Hunting the buffalo became a great sport. A group of
warriors would surround the shaggy beasts and drive
them over rocky cliffs where a circle of Indians would
fall upon the terrified, crippled beasts and kill them.
Several buffalo jumps can be seen in this area-
Writing on Stone in Rocky Coulee on the Milk River,
and Twin River Grazing also on the Milk River.

The Indian warriors were always anxious for action
and challenged each other to dangerous deeds. They
rode into stampeding buffalo herds and killed huge
bulls at close range, or stole horses or wives from an
enemy camp, and sometimes collected a few scalps.
Young scouts were challenged to race through enemy
'fire' to touch an enemy lodge. These feats of bravery,
called 'coups', were counted at the feasts and dances
where the whole tribe celebrated and honoured the
young warriors' daring raids.

Very seldom did the lndians meet in total combat between
tribes. Small skirmishes involving six or eight warriors
made raids on enemy camps. They would take all of the
horses and possessions, and leave a family destitute
and on foot, or massacre everyone to the smallest child.
Sometimes children were taken and raised as their own.
Many squaws were taken.

A warrior could have as many wives as he could care for;
more wives and horses meant more wealth, but it also
meant more food and lodging for families. Consequently,
these were sometimes traded away.

Indians were great gamblers and often feats of physical
superiority were used to win bargains.

Indians lived in relative peace until the coming of the white
man. Their favorite wintering areas were along the Old
Man River for the Bloods and Peigans, and along the Bow
River at Blackfoot crossing and the Red Deer River for
the Blackfeet. In the spring or early summer the tribes
would gather for the Sun Dance, held in the Standoff
area. At this feast and dance families would pay tribute
to dead ancestors and witness the display of the young
warriors' bravery in their efforts toward becoming men.
Skewers would be pushed through the muscles of the
chest or back and tied to ropes attached to a tall pole in
the centre of the camp. The young braves would then
fling themselves in a wild frenzy to tear out the skewers.
Sometimes buffalo heads were tied to their waists to give
the body more weight. Today the young natives dance
around the pole chanting and counting their achievements
as they strike the pole.

After the Sun Dance all of the tribes would move out over
the prairie to the feeding grounds of the buffalo. A favorite
area was Writing on Stone, where the Nez Perce Indians
camped and carved their hieroglyphics many centuries ago.

Writing on Stone and the Sweet Grass Hills were sacred
areas to the tribes. Feed, water and buffalo were always
plentiful there. Animals loved the sweet grass legume
growing around the sloughs. Indians used it for tea and
burned it for incense. Sweet grass became the natural
name for the area-a place of peace and plenty.

The coming of the white traders, bootleggers, buffalo hunters,
and homesteaders brought many changes to the Indian's
nomadic way of life. Civilization was beginning to press in
on him and was demanding transition and conformation.
The Indian was not prepared to transform, and his
resistance to the change caused many massacres
and ambushes between the whites and the red men.
The Riel Rebellion, organized by a French Indian, was
organized to drive the white man out of the west, but
the Crees (where it all started) could not get the support
of the Blackfoot nation, and it ended in failure.

Although distrustful of the white trader, the Indian
recognized the convenience of his goods. The guns,
knives, axes, metal scrapers, buckets, and kettles
were all pleasant improvements. Traders made huge
profits in the exchange of buffalo hides and leather
articles for baubles and beads, weapons, tools, and
whiskey.

With prohibition in the United States, unprincipled white
traders moved into Canada, and set up trading posts as
near to the Indian encampments as they dared. Trading
posts dotted the Blackfoot territory. One of the first forts,
in the south, was built near the present city of Lethbridge.
Fort Whoop-up. Others followed; Standoff; Slideout, Elbow
River, Farewells Post, Robbers Roost, and Milk River Ridge.

Liquor, brought by whiskey traders, rolled across the border,
through several unpatrolled gaps. The "free traders" sold
their evil product, often laced with wood alcohol and other
poisonous additives, taking the Indians' horses and buffalo
robes in trade. A quart of whiskey worth five cents a glass,
was traded for a horse. Whiskey left its devastation on all
the tribes. Conflicts and quarrels caused murders and
beatings. Women and children were often the objects of wild
whiskey induced emotions. Often, when the tribe was
celebrating, women and children would hide in the trees until
the braves sobered up.

The coming of the white man brought diseases to which the
Indians had no immunity. Measles, whooping cough, and
mumps took a terrible toll and thousands died as smallpox,
tuberculosis, and diphtheria swept through the tribes. In
1837 smallpox wiped out two thirds of the Blackfoot nation.

It became necessary to establish the North West Mounted
Police in the west, to try to bring justice and prevent more
lawlessness and bloodshed. Many forts were established as
outposts from the main Police Fort, under Colonel John
Macleod, at Fort Macleod. He was a man of great integrity,
generosity, and kindness and was the "great chief" of all
the posts. A fort was established at Police Coulee and young
recruits would head for the bars at Gold Butte on a day off,
and since it took a day to ride there, they were A.W.O.L.
before they arrived! Therefore they would decide a day or
two more would make no difference in court! Colonel
Macleod would ride to Fort Benton to round up the deserters
and take them back.

The Milk River detachment, established at the fork of the
Milk River and South Fork, was an all tent fort.

A great Chief was almost the only hope of the Blackfoot
nation. A young Blood, raised as a Blackfoot warrior,
endowed with many honours and achievements, had
advanced through a series of names and earned the
name of Crowfoot after a deceased great chief. Always
generous, sincere, and capable as an orator and
peacemaker, Chief Crowfoot became the adviser and
director of the Blackfoot nation. He expected to be
heard and obeyed and commanded great respect from
both Indian and white. A man of foresight and intuition,
he forecasted the defeat of the Indians long before it
happened. He perceived that Indian uprisings would
only bring more battles as the whites had recruits
without number. He was a great influence in the enemy
tribes of the Sioux, with Chief Sitting Bull; and the Crees,
with Chief Poundmaker who was Crowfoot's adopted son.
He persuaded Chief Red Crow of the Bloods, Eagle Tail
of the Peigans, and the many minor chiefs to sign Treaty 7.
He was not satisfied with the treaty but he felt that the
Indian had no choice. The Indians could not conceive
of land areas and five persons to a square mile meant
nothing to them. Five dollars treaty money per person
seemed like a lot of money, and since they had gone
through a time of starvation after the buflalo were
destroyed, rations and clothing offers were welcome.

Chief Crowfoot was impressed with the honesty and
sincerity of Colonel Macleod and a trust and respect
grew between them. It was this friendship that was to
command the decision of Chief Crowfoot to stay out of
conflicts with the whites, and was to sustain him
through difficult situations with many evil white men
some in positions of administration.

Colonel Macleod invited all of the chiefs to a council
and promised them that the Queen's Law would be
enforced, that there would be equal justice for Indian
and white man, and Chief Crowfoot believed him.

The transition to reservations has not been successful.
Filled with self-pity, many Indians look backward to a
life style that could not have existed in this ever
changing world.

One concept of the Indians still symbolizes the nomadic
plains pattern, the scanty leather costume, the horses,
the tipis, the swift rides across the Plains; and some
Indians wish they could resume this life style. It is not
possible. The encumbrance of population and variation
of life style restricts our dreams of living freely in a
beautiful valley with no neighbors. To resume a daily
life in a log cabin with a packed earth floor, and wood
burning fireplace, spinning the yarn for clothing, eking
out a living from the sod, living in fear of being attacked,
is something most of us could only endure for a weekend.
Our links with our ancestors must be carried proudly with
us, only in a nostalgic reverie.

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