First Peoples Buffalo Jump artifacts come to the Billings Curation Center

Story by David K. Wade, Museum Curator, Montana/Dakotas State Office 

Another major collection of archaeological artifacts representing life on the Northern Plains is now housed at the Billings Curation Center. 

First People’s Buffalo Jump, also known as Ulm Pishkun Bison Jump and Taft Hill Buffalo Jump, is one of North America’s largest bison processing and procurement sites. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2015. 

Located at Ulm, Montana, just west of Great Falls in Cascade County, First People’s Buffalo Jump/Ulm Pishkun (“deep blood kettle” in the Blackfoot language) is a grand example of animal slaughter on a mass scale.  

Bison/buffalo jump sites can be found at natural cliff formations. By driving entire herds over a precipice, indigenous people of the plains could procure vast amounts of animal resources. Injuries from the fall would render the animals easy pickings for those waiting beneath the cliff. These ‘drives’ were communal events practiced for thousands of years and leave behind a considerable amount of artifactual evidence. 

First People’s Buffalo Jump Site experienced disturbance at the hands of commercial bone mining in the 1940s for use in the production of fertilizer. Such activity shone a spotlight on the area and drew attention from an endless parade of looters, pothunters, and private collectors. But centuries of evidence remained hidden deep beneath the surface, and formal excavations in the early 1990s conducted by professionals from Montana State University demonstrated the sheer size, scale, and scope of this amazing archaeological site. The First People’s cliff face is nearly one mile wide and 30 to 50 feet high. 

Recovered collections include, as you would imagine, everything from finely made projectile points to fire-cracked rocks as an entire communities would be living on-site while processing the carnage. Nearest the base of the cliff the most prevalent artifacts found were projectile points used for killing the wounded animals.  

As archaeological investigations moved away from the cliff, recovered artifacts tended to be the types used for processing the animals, such as mauls for breaking open larger bones to extract marrow, blades and scraping tools. Even further out were archaeological features depicting camping, cooking, and hide processing. To date, the Billings Curation Center has cataloged more than 15,000 items from this one site into the permanent collections.   

By analyzing recovered diagnostic artifacts such as projectile points, along with radiocarbon dates, it was determined that First People’s Buffalo Jump was in use as early as 4,000 BCE and as late as 1,700 years ago.  

Additionally, beyond the cliff itself and the recovered artifacts, the First People’s Buffalo Jump site yields an amazing variety of other evidence of activity and occupation. Features such as middens (refuse heaps), processing areas, stone alignments or drivelines, rock cairns, stacked stone walls and an abundance of rock art remain as proof of well-planned temporary community with a goal of feeding an entire populations as efficiently as current technology would permit.   

Located at the Montana/Dakotas State Office in Billings, the Billings Curation Center is the repository for cultural material originating from BLM lands in Montana and the Dakotas. The BCC currently houses over 800,000 items from 12 different agencies, ranging in time from the era of Clovis culture (14,000 BCE) to 20th Century homesteaders.  Collections at the BCC are available for study, by appointment, to researchers, students, and the generally curious.