Imagining Head-Smashed-In
Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains
Description
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.
Awards
- Winner, City of Edmonton Book Prize 2009
- Winner, Best Archaeology Book, Popular Writing Category, Society for American Archaeology 2009
- Winner, Public Communications Award, Canadian Archaeological Association 2009
- Winner, Best Adult Non-Fiction, Calgary Public Library Foundation Literary Awards 2009
Reviews
Brink takes readers on an exploration of the site, telling its story in an irresistible personal voice into which he pours his heart and soul. What comes through is the author's deep respect for his subject.
- Ken Tingley
A writer committed to a subject that most of the world considers marginal, yet approaches it with I-will-be-heard confidence, can win the heart of even the most recalcitrant reader. Jack W. Brink, a curator at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, has that ability. He's spent 25 years studying the way Prairie natives kept themselves alive for millennia by hunting buffalo, a subject that in his hands becomes absorbing, dramatic and almost urgent.
- Robert Fulford
Pick up this book and add it to your collection; it is a must read for anyone interested in the past, anyone studying history of the plains, and everyone just looking for some fresh, new and upbeat reading material. Imagining Head-Smashed-In is a tale about courage, ingenuity and the struggle for survival.
- John Copley
Imagining Head Smashed-In brings alive the past as well as the archaeological process, in an engaging description of how archaeology really happens, which complements Brink's impressive command of the data.
- Citation from the Society for American Archaeology Public Audience Book Award