This special episode of Artifactuality features conversations with Blackfoot Elders about the decolonization of archaeology and how the Blackfoot think about history, time and territory. It starts with a tour of the area around Wally's Beach in southwestern Alberta — home to the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani Nations of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Moving to Head-Smashed-in Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Canadian Museum of History’s Curator of Western Archaeology, Gabriel Yanicki, listens to Blackfoot stories. The stories reflect peoples who have always inhabited this area, as evidenced in bones and other stone tools found scattered across the surface at Wally’s Beach. These objects tell a remarkable story of continuity that predates Blackfoot contact with Europeans a few short centuries ago. Butchered horse and camel bones more than 13,300 years old prove — as evidenced in Blackfoot stories, songs and ceremonies — that they have always been here. The episode features Piikani Elders Velma Crowshoe, Jerry Potts, and Jacob Potts; Piikani ceremonialist and Siksika traditional knowledge expert, Kent Ayoungman; Stan Knowlton, Head of Cultural Interpretation at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump; and Dr. Leroy Little Bear, Vice-Provost at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.

LINKS

Transcript

https://www.historymuseum.ca/dod/podcasts/transcripts/s01e03

Canadian Museum of History Blog: We Have Always Been Here

 https://www.historymuseum.ca/blog/artifactuality-we-have-always-been-here/

CBC article: “Indigenous archaeologist argues humans may have arrived here 130,000 years ago”

 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/indigenous-archaeologist-argues-humans-may-have-arrived-here-130-000-years-ago-1.6313892

CBC article: “Students learn to conduct archaeology in respectful way on Siksika reserve”

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/siksika-first-nation-archaeology-university-of-calgary-1.6478455

Article on the Blackfoot Confederacy in The Canadian Encyclopedia 

 https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/blackfoot-nation

Blackfeet Nation website

https://blackfeetnation.com 

PBS News Hour article on Wally Beach finds: “Prehistoric hunt suggests humans arrived in North America earlier than previously thought”

 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/prehistoric-hunt-suggests-humans-arrived-north-america-earlier-previously-thought

Profile of Dr. Leroy Little Bear 

 https://www.ulethbridge.ca/unews/article/university-lethbridge-appoints-dr-leroy-little-bear-vice-provost-iniskim-indigenous#.Y6Mr4-zMI-R

Foreign Countries podcast featuring Gabriel Yanicki

 https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-foreign-countries-conversa-106982981/episode/41-latest-research-on-the-peopling-107138494/ 

RETROactive: Exploring Alberta’s Past website: “Changing Animals: Alberta’s Ice Age Megafauna and Wally’s Beach”

 https://albertashistoricplaces.com/2016/07/13/changing-animals-albertas-ice-age-megafauna-and-wallys-beach/

Canadian History Hall: Traditional Stories and Creation Stories

 https://www.historymuseum.ca/history-hall/traditional-and-creation-stories/ 

Canadian History Hall: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

 https://www.historymuseum.ca/history-hall/head-smashed-in-buffalo-jump/