Buffalo jump to host open house

Local tourist attraction the Vore Buffalo Jump has announced that its open house to kick off the summer season will offer free entry to the public.

The event will take place on June 1 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the archaeological site just west of Beulah. It will include tours of the site and the chance to watch work in action as the jump's caretakers continue to preserve its historical secrets.

From 10 a.m. until noon, archaeologists will be performing maintenance on the bone bed, organized by Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation advisory board member Jena Rizzi.

Archaeologists will be available to answer questions from visitors and will also demonstrate knapping, a technique used to shape stone such as flint, quartzite or obsidian into tools or projectile points.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to indulge in the fun activities that are enjoyed by the approximately 800 regional students who visit each spring and fall for educational field trips.

These include digging for souvenir arrow points for younger attendees and throwing the ancient hunting tool called an atlatl at a stationary target for more mature guests.

A recently refurbished bison hide tipi will also be on display. This was constructed in a historically accurate manner in 2014, using brain-tanned hides sewn together with sinew, by students from Chief Dull Knife College on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

The instructor, Larry Belitz, "re-brained" the tipi this winter to keep the hide in good condition.

The Vore Buffalo Jump is a bison trap that is believed to have been in active use from around 1550 until the late 1700s, when horses and guns rendered the on-foot hunts obsolete.

The site was discovered in the early 1970s, when the route for I-90 was intended to cross over the top of it. During tests to determine the stability of the site, the drill brought up quantities of buffalo bone and the route was moved south of the sinkhole.

In 2001, the property was transferred to the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation, a small but committed non-profit that has continued to make improvements to the site every year.

Since that time, excavations have revealed multiple layers of bones that each record a single hunt. Bones and other artifacts preserved in the sinkhole floor provide insights into the hunting and butchering processes.

At this time, it is estimated that only about 10% of the jump has been excavated and the potential remains for decades of research in archaeology, tribal ethnohistory, zoology, geology and paleoclimatic studies.