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Buffalo jump
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A buffalo jump is a cliff formation which North American Indians historically used to kill plains bison by herding the bison and driving them over the cliff. It is also known as a "pishkun" by the Blackfeet Indian Tribe which can be loosely translated as "deep blood kettle"
Once the buffalo were herded over the cliff members of the tribe waiting below close in with spears and bows to finish the hunt.
Buffalo jump sites are often identified by rock cairns, which signified markers designating "drive lanes", by which bison would be funneled over the cliff, breaking their legs, rendering them immobile.
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Encyclopedia
A buffalo jump is a cliff formation which North American Indians historically used to kill plains bison by herding the bison and driving them over the cliff. It is also known as a "pishkun" by the Blackfeet Indian Tribe which can be loosely translated as "deep blood kettle"
Once the buffalo were herded over the cliff members of the tribe waiting below close in with spears and bows to finish the hunt.
Buffalo jump sites are often identified by rock cairns, which signified markers designating "drive lanes", by which bison would be funneled over the cliff, breaking their legs, rendering them immobile. Often these drive lanes would stretch for miles on end. This type of hunting was a communal event, which lasted until at least 1500 A.D.
Buffalo jump sites yield significant archaeological evidence because processing sites and camps were always nearby. These sites yield information as to how the Native Americans used the sites to obtain bison for food, clothing and shelter. Every part of the bison was used by the tribes who hunted them; Plains Indians counted on buffalo for their very survival.
Sites of interest include Head-Smashed-In, Ulm Pishkun, Madison Buffalo Jump, Dry Island, Glenrock, Big Goose Creek, Vore, and Olsen Chubbock.
Meriwether Lewis describes how a buffalo jump was practiced in one of his journals during the Lewis and Clark Expedition:
"one of the most active and fleet young men is selected and disguised in a robe of buffalo skin... he places himself at a distance between a herd of buffalo and a precipice proper for the purpose; the other Indians now surround the herd on the back and flanks and at a signal agreed on all show themselves at the same time moving forward towards the buffalo; the disguised Indian or decoy has taken care to place himself sufficiently near the buffalo to be noticed by them when they take to flight and running before them they follow him in full speed to the precipice; the Indian (decoy) in the meant time has taken care to secure himself in some cranny in the cliff... the part of the decoy I am informed is extremely dangerous."
Ulm Pishkun Buffalo Jump
This buffalo jump is most likely the largest in the world. It was used by the Native Americans in the area between 900 and 1500 A.D. The cliffs themselves stretch for more than a mile and the site below has compacted bison bones nearly 13 feet deep.
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