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Imagining Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains
For millennia, Aboriginal hunters on the North American Plains used their knowledge of the land and of buffalo behaviour to drive their quarry over cliffs. Archaeologist Jack Brink has written a major study of the mass buffalo hunts and the culture they supported before and after European contact. By way of example, he draws on his 25 years excavating at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southwestern Alberta, Canada – a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 10, 2018
I picked this up after visiting the Head-Smashed-In interpretive centre; I rather thought it would be interesting to read about the First Nations people of Canada, considering my parents-in-law live there and I’ve visited a few times, and it’s a definite gap in my knowledge. Brink might not be Blackfoot himself, but he’s worked with Blackfoot people, he’s worked on the site for a long time, and he’s received praise from several First Nations people for this book.
It’s obvious that he respects everything that went into a buffalo jump. He’s careful to note that they didn’t always work, that they weren’t always done for the same purposes, etc, etc, but where he can he discusses the generalities from the seasonal differences in buffalo and the nutrition they offer, and the understanding the people had of their prey. Brink does a great job of showing how specialised their methods were and how refined the whole process was, and respecting the knowledge and skill they put into it and into modifying their landscape to make it work.
Sometimes, the information is a bit too exhaustive — I know more than I’d like about the fat deposits in bison now, honestly. But it makes sense as a thorough examination of the subject, and I think it’s mostly pretty interesting. I especially appreciated the part about the development of the interpretive centre, though; Brink acknowledges where and why that didn’t go as well as it could, and acknowledges mistakes that are on his shoulders. It’s also pretty fascinating to read about the development of a place you’ve actually been to! It’s probably a three-star book in terms of personal interest and enjoyment, but for scholarship it deserves higher.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
It’s obvious that he respects everything that went into a buffalo jump. He’s careful to note that they didn’t always work, that they weren’t always done for the same purposes, etc, etc, but where he can he discusses the generalities from the seasonal differences in buffalo and the nutrition they offer, and the understanding the people had of their prey. Brink does a great job of showing how specialised their methods were and how refined the whole process was, and respecting the knowledge and skill they put into it and into modifying their landscape to make it work.
Sometimes, the information is a bit too exhaustive — I know more than I’d like about the fat deposits in bison now, honestly. But it makes sense as a thorough examination of the subject, and I think it’s mostly pretty interesting. I especially appreciated the part about the development of the interpretive centre, though; Brink acknowledges where and why that didn’t go as well as it could, and acknowledges mistakes that are on his shoulders. It’s also pretty fascinating to read about the development of a place you’ve actually been to! It’s probably a three-star book in terms of personal interest and enjoyment, but for scholarship it deserves higher.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
August 3, 2015
. . . I’ve just finished reading Jack Brink’s beautiful, award-winning biography of six thousand years at that sandstone cliff, Imagining Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains. For so many reasons, Imagining Head-Smashed-In should be a required text in Alberta’s schools, indeed, in schools across Canada. Brink’s book in not only an archaeological study of the technique of communal buffalo hunting. It is a field study in how to – and how not to – do consultation with indigenous peoples. It is a heartfelt gesture of gratitude and respect across cultures and time. And it is a celebration of one of the greatest and most overlooked of human intellectual achievements, an achievement that should be as well known to all Canadians as the building of the Railroad, which did so much to wipe the bison from the Plains.
Imagine Head-Smashed-In:
A group of people gather together on a landscape that has been carefully altered over countless generations. With skills trained over a lifetime, unarmed and on foot – the horse had not yet been brought from Europe – the most skillful approach a herd of the largest land animal in the Americas and persuade that herd to move along a designated path, marked out by uncountable generations of humans and bison before them. As they progress, the herd’s movements become an inevitability. The result is, as Brink describes it, “the most productive food-getting enterprise ever devised by human beings.” (p. 6)
The sheer quantity of biomass harvested in a communal hunt at Head-Smashed-In or any of the other buffalo jumps on the Northern Plains was unrivalled by any other human activity. And that vast quantity of food spurred the invention of something often attributed to Henry Ford: the assembly line. The bison carcasses had to be processed quickly, the food and hides preserved for long term use. Teams would assemble, to skin and gut the animals, to prepare the hides, to cut and dry the meat, to prepare immediate meals for the other workers, to pound the dried meat for pemmican. Head-Smashed-In was an industrial operation during a communal hunt, an industrial operation on a scale as large as anything on earth during much of its six thousand and more year use. . . .
. . . Throughout Imagining Head-Smashed-In, Brink’s primary purpose is to make sure we understand that he is talking about real people, human individuals, who came together in a physical, biological and cultural landscape to perform a magnificently choreographed inter-species dance of death and survival.
Imagining Head-Smashed-In is a wholly remarkable piece of writing about archaeology and humanity. . . .
Read my whole review at: https://behindthehedge.wordpress.com/...
Imagine Head-Smashed-In:
A group of people gather together on a landscape that has been carefully altered over countless generations. With skills trained over a lifetime, unarmed and on foot – the horse had not yet been brought from Europe – the most skillful approach a herd of the largest land animal in the Americas and persuade that herd to move along a designated path, marked out by uncountable generations of humans and bison before them. As they progress, the herd’s movements become an inevitability. The result is, as Brink describes it, “the most productive food-getting enterprise ever devised by human beings.” (p. 6)
The sheer quantity of biomass harvested in a communal hunt at Head-Smashed-In or any of the other buffalo jumps on the Northern Plains was unrivalled by any other human activity. And that vast quantity of food spurred the invention of something often attributed to Henry Ford: the assembly line. The bison carcasses had to be processed quickly, the food and hides preserved for long term use. Teams would assemble, to skin and gut the animals, to prepare the hides, to cut and dry the meat, to prepare immediate meals for the other workers, to pound the dried meat for pemmican. Head-Smashed-In was an industrial operation during a communal hunt, an industrial operation on a scale as large as anything on earth during much of its six thousand and more year use. . . .
. . . Throughout Imagining Head-Smashed-In, Brink’s primary purpose is to make sure we understand that he is talking about real people, human individuals, who came together in a physical, biological and cultural landscape to perform a magnificently choreographed inter-species dance of death and survival.
Imagining Head-Smashed-In is a wholly remarkable piece of writing about archaeology and humanity. . . .
Read my whole review at: https://behindthehedge.wordpress.com/...
January 27, 2014
You can tell the author is incredibly passionate about buffalo, buffalo jumps, and Native American people. He is also one of the primary archaeologist in Head Smashed In site and one of the primary architects of constructing the UNESCO World Heritage site at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. If anyone is an expert on buffalo jumps, he would certainly qualify!
I learned more things about the biology, and behaviour of buffalo, the skill and enticing the buffalo to their deaths at the jump site, building the drive routes, and how the carcasses were butchered and processed than possible.
I love "practical" archaeology where they actually try and replicate certain things in the field that are not readily explainable. I loved their attempt to boil broken bones in an earthen pit using hot rocks to heat the water and then collecting the fat from the bones.
Since I live only a few hours from Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, it makes me appreciate more the efforts of government, Native Americans, and certain individuals to showcase the wonderful history that we have. Highly recommended for those who want to know more about buffalo jumps.
I learned more things about the biology, and behaviour of buffalo, the skill and enticing the buffalo to their deaths at the jump site, building the drive routes, and how the carcasses were butchered and processed than possible.
I love "practical" archaeology where they actually try and replicate certain things in the field that are not readily explainable. I loved their attempt to boil broken bones in an earthen pit using hot rocks to heat the water and then collecting the fat from the bones.
Since I live only a few hours from Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, it makes me appreciate more the efforts of government, Native Americans, and certain individuals to showcase the wonderful history that we have. Highly recommended for those who want to know more about buffalo jumps.
January 18, 2015
For anybody wanting to know more about any aspect of the bison as hunted in North America, be it knowledge of bison behaviour, anatomy and ecology, to First Nations ideas surrounding bison in Southern Alberta, to knowledge gained from archaeological studies of the Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Brink has an engaging writing style backed up with extensive archaeological knowledge, knowledge gained from conversing with Blackfoot people, and extensive historical research into primary documents.
Because the fine folks at Athabasca University Press believe in the free dissemination of knowledge, you can also download a free PDF ebook of this work for free on the publisher's website: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books... You now have no excuse not to read it!
Because the fine folks at Athabasca University Press believe in the free dissemination of knowledge, you can also download a free PDF ebook of this work for free on the publisher's website: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books... You now have no excuse not to read it!
June 14, 2021
I'm going to excavate at Head Smashed In soon and this is one of the books our class will be reading before excavations start. It has given me such a deep appreciation for the site and made me all the more excited for the excavation to come! Such an amazing novel and goes into great depth.
July 3, 2017
Not as entertaining as some of the other recipients of the SAA public audience award. I did not make it through the whole book before losing interest.
December 14, 2009
Really a great narrative history that examines the technique and technology of one of North America's great historical food gathering events. Fascinating.
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April 19, 2011Awesome book. Read it!
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October 1, 2012Recommended on Skeptically Speaking show #90 on December 17, 2010. http://skepticallyspeaking.ca/episode...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews