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niori_1709After graduating high school, I had to take a year off to recover from surgery. For a very long time before that, I was determined to get out of my small hometown as soon as I could. The year off only made me want it even more, and also made me want to get as far away as I could. I didn’t take it that far, but after that year was up, I did relocate to Alberta, clear across the country.
There were a lot of things that make Southern Alberta different, from the landscape to the weather. One of the biggest differences, for this history geek anyway, was the way the two provinces developed. It’s in obvious ways- no one is expecting shipbuilding to take off in the prairies- but also in what the general focus gets shined on. One of those things is First Nations history (which is a shade on Maritimes educational history classes, not Maritimes First Nations people. The fact that the groups here get barely any mention sucks) and the fact it’s one of the highlights. It was great and believe me, I took advantage of this spotlight to learn as much as I could. One of the best places for that education was Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park.
Writing-on-Stone is a natural archeological preserve in Southern Alberta, down in the coolies and rolling hills that make up that section of the prairie provinces. The Milk River, which flows all the way down into the Mississippi basin, carves its way through the grassland, with sandstone outcrops/cliffs that were created by the melt water after the last ice age. The land here was reserved for a park in 1935 and then established in 1957. It was in 2019 that it became a UNESCO world heritage site. That is not where this place begins. This is an ancient place, and a striking one at that. The minute you pull up to the area, that’s easy to see. When you learn about the history here, about the ways this place was important to the indigenous people, it all sinks into place.
The First Nations people who have called this area of Alberta home for thousands of years are the Niitsitapi, who can be broken down into the Blood, Piegan, and Northern Blackfoot. The people had traveled the Milk River on their seasonal rounds for a long time -the earliest archeological evidence is from 1,750 years ago and it continues into the recent past- and Writing-on Stone, called Áísínai'pi in the Blackfoot language, was an important area for them, spiritually and as a historical record. This was where the Blackfoot commemorated the lives and journeys of their people, carving them into the rock walls they would have walked beside. Writing-on-Stone has the greatest collection of petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings) in all of the North American Great Plains.
According to Blackfoot belief (and to be clear- I am not an expert. I’m not part of the community itself and outside a few Native Americans Studies courses, not even close to well versed. My explanations here are based on some reading, the information the Blackfoot guide gave us, and some review of the official website), Writing-on-Stone was created by a being named Náápi (a trickster figure and cultural hero, also called Old Man) when he (along with the help of some aquatic creatures) created the land out of the water. He made this place on the Milk River and the at the foot of the Sweet Grass Hills a special place. It’s a place where ancient stories happened, where powerful spirits are said to be found in rock formations called hoodoos. That makes it the perfect place for recording significant cultural events.
We went during a beautiful late spring afternoon, and there was an area where you can go free hiking to your heart’s content. Given it’s a semi-arid environment, that means watching for rattle snakes as you do. I’m sure the hiking is great, but that wasn’t what we were there for. I was there for the history and culture, and for that we needed to take the guided tour through the restricted archeological area. To visit here, you do need to go on a tour- no wandering. This makes sense, since this is a fragile site that can be easily damaged by careless people who have no idea about preservation (the most severe toll on the petroglyphs and pictographs is from graffiti and vandalism). Secondly, it just makes more sense to have a guide explain what you’re seeing, since it’s someone who is from the community that created it in the first place. The tour is worth it, I’m happy to say, and it was worth the drive there. The pictures were fascinating by themselves, but with the Blackfoot guide explaining the significance and story behind them? Excellent and eye opening.
Though before heading out on the 1.5-hour tour, you need to stop off at the interpretation centre to meet up with the guide. I suggest getting there early so you can take a look at the mini museum inside. It’s small but gives a good introduction to the information you’re about to learn and has some really neat displays. Once you get on the trail, you walk on a path beside the outcrops until you reach the archeological reserve. Just as you get to the start of the trail, you see the first of the pictographs. It’s hard to see, quite washed away after centuries. The pictographs were drawn with red ochre, and they’re not very clear anymore. If you didn’t have it pointed out to you, you might walk past the painting without realizing it. When you know where to look, you can still make out the vague shapes in smudged red. There are circles, faded as they were, with some lines sticking out here and there. There are three of them and they were once clear representations of shield-bearing warriors.
While the trail starts with a pictograph, the majority of what you see along are petroglyphs. Between the two types, there are hundreds of examples at Writing-on-Stone. Here are some of the highlights you see along the tour. The fist is a large square-shape that dips at the top into a valley. It also has legs on the bottom, stick ones with feel pointing to the left. It doesn’t look like anything at all, and that’s part of the point. This is a creature meant to be a representation of all animals. It’s a creature larger than life. This is one of the spiritual symbols carved here. It doesn’t have to make sense or look like anything, because it’s a visual example of speaking in metaphor.
It’s not the only example of carvings that deal in the spiritual. Another of those types is clearly an animal, with a long oval body, long neck, four stick legs, and a rounded square head. It’s one you look at and say ‘I think that’s a horse, right? Or maybe a cow? Though it is more horse-like.’ Once the guide explained, I realised I wasn’t wrong when I thought horse-like. The first modern horse wasn’t introduced to North America until the Spanish brought them over during their conquest era (an ancient ancestor of the horse did exist in the great plains but went extinct with the mammoths) in the 1500s. This carving dated before the Spanish hit these shores, before the horse once again became a key part of the Blackfoot culture. This was carved by a medicine man, after he dreamed about this creature. It turned out to be prophetic, didn’t it? It does bear resemblance to a carving of a real horse (found elsewhere), even if it’s a lot more angular. Was this dream a recall, a form passed down about those long extinct horses, having become a legend that he heard? More, maybe? Looking at the inscription -simple, nondescript, and not all that big- makes you wonder.
Another example of the spiritual actually straddled both the spiritual and the physical. That carving is the spirit buffalo. Buffalo are the most important land animal to the people, which isn’t a surprise- they were vital to the survival of plains tribes in general. They provided food and raw materials to use in everyday life. The carving is bigger than that of the pseudo-horse, and much rounder. The legs aren’t sticks anymore, but still too skinny in its 2D shape to hold up that body. You can just see some ears poking out, but the face of the buffalo has been erased, along with a chunk of the wall face. It’s been completely broken off, a stark reminder that this entire area is at the mercy of mother nature.
Along with animals (physical and otherwise), there were also a lot of carvings with people. Lots and lots of people. Unsurprisingly, given this is a place where important events were recorded, a lot of these people were warriors. One of the largest of these petroglyphs is a full battle scene. It’s a big one, with two sides of stick figures facing off. Some are on horses and others holding what are clearly rifles, while bows and arrows seem to be the weapons of choice for a number of them. They’re fighting in the middle with a depiction of a tipi filled village off to one side, with smaller stick figures huddled in circles in the middle of the village. Whether or not this depicts a historical battle, no one is completely sure, but the possibility is there (a battle described by a Blackfoot elder in 1924 could match it. He named it the Retreat Uphill Battle). It was a battle between the Blackfoot and a war party of other peoples, and the Blackfoot won. The battle was supposed to have taken place in 1866, and it’s easy to assume it’s one of the later carvings based on the presence of guns. Whether or not it’s based on a real battle doesn’t matter so much, because the story the petroglyph tells is there regardless. You know what’s happening, and there’s dread there. This battle is taking place near a village, so your stomach churns, thinking about what could happen if those people fighting in front of it were to fall. This one picture tells a story as dramatic as any Hollywood movie. It is faded now and easier to see in certain lights or times of day, so the elaborate details aren’t easy to see on site. There is a depiction of it in the information centre, so for sure make it a priority to check that out before going to the actual area.
Outside the battle scene, there are lots of individual people carvings to see. One is a tall V-necked bowman, holding an arrow and a bow that is the size of him. He had his arms thrown up, bent at the elbow, looking like he’s in the middle of a shrug. He’s one of the symbols used to represent the park on the sign into it. Others are warriors with round shields covering their bodies, where only legs and heads poked out. The design of the shield tells a lot, like the fact that the pattern on one carving tells us it was made over 500 years ago. The fact that another has their shield scratched out in the middle (deeply at that) tells us that he lost, and someone wasn’t pleased with that. There’s a petroglyph of the life cycle of a warrior, from the moment he first received a shield, from when he uses it in battle and while counting coup (a way for a warrior to win prestige through bravery, where they rushed in, touched the enemy someway without killing them, and then retreated while the other drowned in their shame). This is a subject that shows up in many carvings, which has one warrior poking another with a long stick, which has many tassels hanging down, showing how many other times he’s succeeded. It’s a pretty cool way to show you’re a BAMF. The lifecycle carving ends when the warrior falls, shield gone and body dead. It’s depicted in a circle, like every textbook of the circle of life ever made. It shows that some motifs really are universal. There’s another carving of a single man, shield less and weaponless. He has fringe handing off his arms, like one of those stereotypical western coats you see in horse girl movies. Those fringes are meant to be weasels, which proves that this is a person who had some prestige, and they were specifically from the Blood group. Just proof that fashion statements have always been around to be recorded for pride.
There are a few other petroglyphs that really stuck out to me, and they have nothing to do with people or animals. Not even close. The first is geographical, with two points sticking up on a rounded hiss, with a line below the bump. Look at it and then turn around to look at the horizon. Take it in and then look back to the rocks. You’ll see that this is a map of the very place you’re standing. That’s the Sweet Grass Hills in the background with the Milk River along the bottom. It’s not an exact match (the actual hills look rounder), but you still know exactly where it is. It’s a perfect representation of the area and charming in its simplicity.
The last of the carvings I’m going to talk about is the one that just blew my mind the most. In the 1730s, the pictures here began to change along with the culture and ways of life. You begin to see hunters on horses and warriors without body shields, but those are things you might not pick up on if it wasn’t pointed out to you. There are other times where the obvious modernity is right in your face. That’s where my favourite petroglyph comes in. The guide pointed it out and gave us a moment to study it without saying anything. It’s just enough time for a double take. Because it’s worthy of a double take, this carving of what is clearly a car. It’s clunky and rectangular sure, but that is clearly a cab, hood, body, and wheels. There’s more than one to study. In fact, there’s a whole line of them. At first, I assumed it was graffiti, because how did it make sense? How could a fleet of cars make it into this place? But no- this is one of the last petroglyphs made here, and those are in fact cars. It’s not just any car, but the Model-T Ford. You know, what is generally considered the first affordable car that revolutionized car travel. The story behind this is that one of the Blackfoot elders carved this after a group of people driving these cars traveled through the area. They parked and spent the day, and the elder was there to see the new technology appearing in the land. What a change that must have been, and it makes me wonder how he must have felt, carving that into the cliff. He understood the importance of it, clearly (this was a place to record important events after all), but did he look at them and realize just how much these cars would change everything, for better or for worse? Maybe it’s a historical hindsight or novelty thing, but this was the picture that I remember the most, that I recall very clearly how I felt when I saw it. It was my favourite, as difficult as it was to pick favourites, and the one that has really stuck with me.
There are a few other things to see along the tour that aren’t images carved into rock. One of them is completely man made. Far out in the distance, on the grassy plains below you, you can see two buildings close together. They’re nothing special to look at- just your plain looking wooden buildings. Since the trail doesn’t take you close to them, you’d probably just glance right over them. If you only took that glance, then you’d be missing out on seeing an old Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP- the original RCMP) outpost. It’s not the original, which dated back to the 1800s (and was mysteriously burnt down in 1918), but a replica reconstructed for the RCMP’s (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) centennial celebration. Why rebuild this one, in the middle of nowhere? I’m not entirely sure, but I find it fairly funny, since by all accounts the place was boring when it was the real thing. It was set up in that location to stop whiskey smuggling over the boarder, as well to stop horse raids, but it never saw much action. Maybe those smugglers and horse raiders were smart enough to avoid them or maybe this just wasn’t the spot where those activities went down. Regardless, the outpost was closed for lack of need, and it adds a sprinkle of variety to the tour, a small glance at another part of history that played such a big part in shaping the place we now call Alberta.
The last few notable things to see are geographical in nature, but parts of the landscape itself, not added to it. The first you see is Table Rock. It’s a massive stone sitting on the edge of a cliff away from the trail, oddly shaped and fairly vertical. The centre is punched out, leaving it looking like, you guessed it, a table. There are thick ‘legs’ and then flat on top. It’s not smooth or even perfectly cut, like some sort of stone monument you’d find in a place like Stonehenge. The form aside, it looks like a natural rock. It’s bumpy, uneven, and chunks of rock stick out everywhere. Besides the odd shape of the rock, you’ll notice it’s on the edge of a really steep cliff. The ground at the top rounds out, hits a few rock faces, and then drops straight down to the land below. If you know anything at all about buffalo jumps, you’ll look at this place and think ‘this is totally a buffalo jump’. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a rundown. Back before the buffalo were nearly wiped out with the western expansion, plains tribes (including the Blackfoot) used cliffs just like this to hunt them. At some point in the future, I’ll be writing a travel guide about an actual buffalo jump museum, so I’ll leave the details for there, but a quick explanation is that hunters herded the buffalo and then forced them off the cliff. The buffalo would either die in the fall or be put out of their misery in the canyon below, and then their entire body would be used. It’s not a fate I envied the buffalo, to be honest, but by using and altering the geography around then, the Blackfoot were able to thrive. This buffalo jump is more proof of that. It’s admirable at that.
Speaking of buffalo, let’s hit the last stop on the tour. It’s back on the trail and we were once again looking at the rock walls. Instead of looking at the face, you look up. It’s how the rocks up top form that is important here. You see the shapes in the rocks quickly, especially the buffalo. A part of the rock juts out, and in it you can see a buffalo’s profile. The part that sticks out is rounded, with a circle hollowed out to be an eye, while a part below it rounds out into a nose with a nostril. Finally, just above the jutting ‘chin’, horizontal rocks make up the lips. There’s no trying to figure it out here because it looks like a buffalo’s head. There are two more important formations here, though they do take a bit more time to see. The first is the point of another section, rounded out with a point below that and a flat overhang at the top. This is the head of an eagle, and eagles are the most important sky animal to the Blackfoot people. Close by, little more than a long bump with a slightly smaller bumps behind it, with a little curving in front, is the most important water animal to the Blackfoot- the beaver. The three of them stare down from the top of the rocks, watchers in the same vein as gargoyles on Catholic cathedrals. According to our guide, that’s just it, and what makes Writing-on-Stone so special- it’s a sign that the spirits of those animals were there. It’s as important a sign as any you hear about why churches or other places of worship are established where they are. This place was chosen for a reason and that’s powerful, even to an outsider like me.
This is where the tour ends. From here, you head back to the information centre and left to think about what you’ve learned and maybe buy a postcard or two. This is also the part where I’d normally sign off with a cheery comment about getting to Writing-on-Stone if you ever find yourself in southern Alberta. Which is still true, but I don’t want to sound pithy this time, for a few reasons. The first is that, sadly, much like coral reefs and arctic glaciers, this is a site that won’t last forever. It’s a place that erodes because of water, weather, and the sudden collapse of rocks. Yes, it is well preserved, but nature is taking its course. You can already see that happening with some of the pictures fading away. Yes, science is looking into ways to conserve these important cultural sites, but even there there might be hiccups. This is a site that is tied to the Blackfoot and the management of this place can only be decided with their agreement (as it should be). To many of them, the pictures disappearing is just a part of the natural cycle- these pictographs and petroglyphs were never meant to last forever. When they’re gone, the spirits will make sure new ones will be made to replace them. The history nerd in me balks at that, at the thought of such an amazing place being lost. It is awful, but I acknowledge it’s not my place to say what’s right or wrong. I hope conservationists can do everything they can to protect Writing-on-Stone, but I’m not the one who can make that call.
Which brings me to the second part. When I write these travel guides, it’s essentially as a tourist. While I do think it’s an important perspective (it is called tourism after all), it’s not the one who should have a final say. I can explain the history I’ve learned and my emotions about what I’ve seen, but I’ll never understand the nuance and perspectives that only comes with growing up in a culture. Those are the voices who are the most important, from the Blackfoot at Writing-on-Stone to the Koreans in the Korean locations I’ve covered. These travel guides are meant to spark interest or inspire someone to add these places to their to-see list (and I hope they do!), not as a be all end all. If you go to these places, put everything I’ve said to the back of your mind and listen to the people who belong to those places. Seek out the guided tours from locals, read the books written by authors from that culture, and most of all, listen. Listen to the voices who are tied to these places, whose lives are part of the long running story. Never take my word for it, not when the people who belong to the communities you’re exploring are ready and willing to share these stories themselves.
There were a lot of things that make Southern Alberta different, from the landscape to the weather. One of the biggest differences, for this history geek anyway, was the way the two provinces developed. It’s in obvious ways- no one is expecting shipbuilding to take off in the prairies- but also in what the general focus gets shined on. One of those things is First Nations history (which is a shade on Maritimes educational history classes, not Maritimes First Nations people. The fact that the groups here get barely any mention sucks) and the fact it’s one of the highlights. It was great and believe me, I took advantage of this spotlight to learn as much as I could. One of the best places for that education was Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park.
Writing-on-Stone is a natural archeological preserve in Southern Alberta, down in the coolies and rolling hills that make up that section of the prairie provinces. The Milk River, which flows all the way down into the Mississippi basin, carves its way through the grassland, with sandstone outcrops/cliffs that were created by the melt water after the last ice age. The land here was reserved for a park in 1935 and then established in 1957. It was in 2019 that it became a UNESCO world heritage site. That is not where this place begins. This is an ancient place, and a striking one at that. The minute you pull up to the area, that’s easy to see. When you learn about the history here, about the ways this place was important to the indigenous people, it all sinks into place.
The First Nations people who have called this area of Alberta home for thousands of years are the Niitsitapi, who can be broken down into the Blood, Piegan, and Northern Blackfoot. The people had traveled the Milk River on their seasonal rounds for a long time -the earliest archeological evidence is from 1,750 years ago and it continues into the recent past- and Writing-on Stone, called Áísínai'pi in the Blackfoot language, was an important area for them, spiritually and as a historical record. This was where the Blackfoot commemorated the lives and journeys of their people, carving them into the rock walls they would have walked beside. Writing-on-Stone has the greatest collection of petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings) in all of the North American Great Plains.
According to Blackfoot belief (and to be clear- I am not an expert. I’m not part of the community itself and outside a few Native Americans Studies courses, not even close to well versed. My explanations here are based on some reading, the information the Blackfoot guide gave us, and some review of the official website), Writing-on-Stone was created by a being named Náápi (a trickster figure and cultural hero, also called Old Man) when he (along with the help of some aquatic creatures) created the land out of the water. He made this place on the Milk River and the at the foot of the Sweet Grass Hills a special place. It’s a place where ancient stories happened, where powerful spirits are said to be found in rock formations called hoodoos. That makes it the perfect place for recording significant cultural events.
We went during a beautiful late spring afternoon, and there was an area where you can go free hiking to your heart’s content. Given it’s a semi-arid environment, that means watching for rattle snakes as you do. I’m sure the hiking is great, but that wasn’t what we were there for. I was there for the history and culture, and for that we needed to take the guided tour through the restricted archeological area. To visit here, you do need to go on a tour- no wandering. This makes sense, since this is a fragile site that can be easily damaged by careless people who have no idea about preservation (the most severe toll on the petroglyphs and pictographs is from graffiti and vandalism). Secondly, it just makes more sense to have a guide explain what you’re seeing, since it’s someone who is from the community that created it in the first place. The tour is worth it, I’m happy to say, and it was worth the drive there. The pictures were fascinating by themselves, but with the Blackfoot guide explaining the significance and story behind them? Excellent and eye opening.
Though before heading out on the 1.5-hour tour, you need to stop off at the interpretation centre to meet up with the guide. I suggest getting there early so you can take a look at the mini museum inside. It’s small but gives a good introduction to the information you’re about to learn and has some really neat displays. Once you get on the trail, you walk on a path beside the outcrops until you reach the archeological reserve. Just as you get to the start of the trail, you see the first of the pictographs. It’s hard to see, quite washed away after centuries. The pictographs were drawn with red ochre, and they’re not very clear anymore. If you didn’t have it pointed out to you, you might walk past the painting without realizing it. When you know where to look, you can still make out the vague shapes in smudged red. There are circles, faded as they were, with some lines sticking out here and there. There are three of them and they were once clear representations of shield-bearing warriors.
While the trail starts with a pictograph, the majority of what you see along are petroglyphs. Between the two types, there are hundreds of examples at Writing-on-Stone. Here are some of the highlights you see along the tour. The fist is a large square-shape that dips at the top into a valley. It also has legs on the bottom, stick ones with feel pointing to the left. It doesn’t look like anything at all, and that’s part of the point. This is a creature meant to be a representation of all animals. It’s a creature larger than life. This is one of the spiritual symbols carved here. It doesn’t have to make sense or look like anything, because it’s a visual example of speaking in metaphor.
It’s not the only example of carvings that deal in the spiritual. Another of those types is clearly an animal, with a long oval body, long neck, four stick legs, and a rounded square head. It’s one you look at and say ‘I think that’s a horse, right? Or maybe a cow? Though it is more horse-like.’ Once the guide explained, I realised I wasn’t wrong when I thought horse-like. The first modern horse wasn’t introduced to North America until the Spanish brought them over during their conquest era (an ancient ancestor of the horse did exist in the great plains but went extinct with the mammoths) in the 1500s. This carving dated before the Spanish hit these shores, before the horse once again became a key part of the Blackfoot culture. This was carved by a medicine man, after he dreamed about this creature. It turned out to be prophetic, didn’t it? It does bear resemblance to a carving of a real horse (found elsewhere), even if it’s a lot more angular. Was this dream a recall, a form passed down about those long extinct horses, having become a legend that he heard? More, maybe? Looking at the inscription -simple, nondescript, and not all that big- makes you wonder.
Another example of the spiritual actually straddled both the spiritual and the physical. That carving is the spirit buffalo. Buffalo are the most important land animal to the people, which isn’t a surprise- they were vital to the survival of plains tribes in general. They provided food and raw materials to use in everyday life. The carving is bigger than that of the pseudo-horse, and much rounder. The legs aren’t sticks anymore, but still too skinny in its 2D shape to hold up that body. You can just see some ears poking out, but the face of the buffalo has been erased, along with a chunk of the wall face. It’s been completely broken off, a stark reminder that this entire area is at the mercy of mother nature.
Along with animals (physical and otherwise), there were also a lot of carvings with people. Lots and lots of people. Unsurprisingly, given this is a place where important events were recorded, a lot of these people were warriors. One of the largest of these petroglyphs is a full battle scene. It’s a big one, with two sides of stick figures facing off. Some are on horses and others holding what are clearly rifles, while bows and arrows seem to be the weapons of choice for a number of them. They’re fighting in the middle with a depiction of a tipi filled village off to one side, with smaller stick figures huddled in circles in the middle of the village. Whether or not this depicts a historical battle, no one is completely sure, but the possibility is there (a battle described by a Blackfoot elder in 1924 could match it. He named it the Retreat Uphill Battle). It was a battle between the Blackfoot and a war party of other peoples, and the Blackfoot won. The battle was supposed to have taken place in 1866, and it’s easy to assume it’s one of the later carvings based on the presence of guns. Whether or not it’s based on a real battle doesn’t matter so much, because the story the petroglyph tells is there regardless. You know what’s happening, and there’s dread there. This battle is taking place near a village, so your stomach churns, thinking about what could happen if those people fighting in front of it were to fall. This one picture tells a story as dramatic as any Hollywood movie. It is faded now and easier to see in certain lights or times of day, so the elaborate details aren’t easy to see on site. There is a depiction of it in the information centre, so for sure make it a priority to check that out before going to the actual area.
Outside the battle scene, there are lots of individual people carvings to see. One is a tall V-necked bowman, holding an arrow and a bow that is the size of him. He had his arms thrown up, bent at the elbow, looking like he’s in the middle of a shrug. He’s one of the symbols used to represent the park on the sign into it. Others are warriors with round shields covering their bodies, where only legs and heads poked out. The design of the shield tells a lot, like the fact that the pattern on one carving tells us it was made over 500 years ago. The fact that another has their shield scratched out in the middle (deeply at that) tells us that he lost, and someone wasn’t pleased with that. There’s a petroglyph of the life cycle of a warrior, from the moment he first received a shield, from when he uses it in battle and while counting coup (a way for a warrior to win prestige through bravery, where they rushed in, touched the enemy someway without killing them, and then retreated while the other drowned in their shame). This is a subject that shows up in many carvings, which has one warrior poking another with a long stick, which has many tassels hanging down, showing how many other times he’s succeeded. It’s a pretty cool way to show you’re a BAMF. The lifecycle carving ends when the warrior falls, shield gone and body dead. It’s depicted in a circle, like every textbook of the circle of life ever made. It shows that some motifs really are universal. There’s another carving of a single man, shield less and weaponless. He has fringe handing off his arms, like one of those stereotypical western coats you see in horse girl movies. Those fringes are meant to be weasels, which proves that this is a person who had some prestige, and they were specifically from the Blood group. Just proof that fashion statements have always been around to be recorded for pride.
There are a few other petroglyphs that really stuck out to me, and they have nothing to do with people or animals. Not even close. The first is geographical, with two points sticking up on a rounded hiss, with a line below the bump. Look at it and then turn around to look at the horizon. Take it in and then look back to the rocks. You’ll see that this is a map of the very place you’re standing. That’s the Sweet Grass Hills in the background with the Milk River along the bottom. It’s not an exact match (the actual hills look rounder), but you still know exactly where it is. It’s a perfect representation of the area and charming in its simplicity.
The last of the carvings I’m going to talk about is the one that just blew my mind the most. In the 1730s, the pictures here began to change along with the culture and ways of life. You begin to see hunters on horses and warriors without body shields, but those are things you might not pick up on if it wasn’t pointed out to you. There are other times where the obvious modernity is right in your face. That’s where my favourite petroglyph comes in. The guide pointed it out and gave us a moment to study it without saying anything. It’s just enough time for a double take. Because it’s worthy of a double take, this carving of what is clearly a car. It’s clunky and rectangular sure, but that is clearly a cab, hood, body, and wheels. There’s more than one to study. In fact, there’s a whole line of them. At first, I assumed it was graffiti, because how did it make sense? How could a fleet of cars make it into this place? But no- this is one of the last petroglyphs made here, and those are in fact cars. It’s not just any car, but the Model-T Ford. You know, what is generally considered the first affordable car that revolutionized car travel. The story behind this is that one of the Blackfoot elders carved this after a group of people driving these cars traveled through the area. They parked and spent the day, and the elder was there to see the new technology appearing in the land. What a change that must have been, and it makes me wonder how he must have felt, carving that into the cliff. He understood the importance of it, clearly (this was a place to record important events after all), but did he look at them and realize just how much these cars would change everything, for better or for worse? Maybe it’s a historical hindsight or novelty thing, but this was the picture that I remember the most, that I recall very clearly how I felt when I saw it. It was my favourite, as difficult as it was to pick favourites, and the one that has really stuck with me.
There are a few other things to see along the tour that aren’t images carved into rock. One of them is completely man made. Far out in the distance, on the grassy plains below you, you can see two buildings close together. They’re nothing special to look at- just your plain looking wooden buildings. Since the trail doesn’t take you close to them, you’d probably just glance right over them. If you only took that glance, then you’d be missing out on seeing an old Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP- the original RCMP) outpost. It’s not the original, which dated back to the 1800s (and was mysteriously burnt down in 1918), but a replica reconstructed for the RCMP’s (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) centennial celebration. Why rebuild this one, in the middle of nowhere? I’m not entirely sure, but I find it fairly funny, since by all accounts the place was boring when it was the real thing. It was set up in that location to stop whiskey smuggling over the boarder, as well to stop horse raids, but it never saw much action. Maybe those smugglers and horse raiders were smart enough to avoid them or maybe this just wasn’t the spot where those activities went down. Regardless, the outpost was closed for lack of need, and it adds a sprinkle of variety to the tour, a small glance at another part of history that played such a big part in shaping the place we now call Alberta.
The last few notable things to see are geographical in nature, but parts of the landscape itself, not added to it. The first you see is Table Rock. It’s a massive stone sitting on the edge of a cliff away from the trail, oddly shaped and fairly vertical. The centre is punched out, leaving it looking like, you guessed it, a table. There are thick ‘legs’ and then flat on top. It’s not smooth or even perfectly cut, like some sort of stone monument you’d find in a place like Stonehenge. The form aside, it looks like a natural rock. It’s bumpy, uneven, and chunks of rock stick out everywhere. Besides the odd shape of the rock, you’ll notice it’s on the edge of a really steep cliff. The ground at the top rounds out, hits a few rock faces, and then drops straight down to the land below. If you know anything at all about buffalo jumps, you’ll look at this place and think ‘this is totally a buffalo jump’. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a rundown. Back before the buffalo were nearly wiped out with the western expansion, plains tribes (including the Blackfoot) used cliffs just like this to hunt them. At some point in the future, I’ll be writing a travel guide about an actual buffalo jump museum, so I’ll leave the details for there, but a quick explanation is that hunters herded the buffalo and then forced them off the cliff. The buffalo would either die in the fall or be put out of their misery in the canyon below, and then their entire body would be used. It’s not a fate I envied the buffalo, to be honest, but by using and altering the geography around then, the Blackfoot were able to thrive. This buffalo jump is more proof of that. It’s admirable at that.
Speaking of buffalo, let’s hit the last stop on the tour. It’s back on the trail and we were once again looking at the rock walls. Instead of looking at the face, you look up. It’s how the rocks up top form that is important here. You see the shapes in the rocks quickly, especially the buffalo. A part of the rock juts out, and in it you can see a buffalo’s profile. The part that sticks out is rounded, with a circle hollowed out to be an eye, while a part below it rounds out into a nose with a nostril. Finally, just above the jutting ‘chin’, horizontal rocks make up the lips. There’s no trying to figure it out here because it looks like a buffalo’s head. There are two more important formations here, though they do take a bit more time to see. The first is the point of another section, rounded out with a point below that and a flat overhang at the top. This is the head of an eagle, and eagles are the most important sky animal to the Blackfoot people. Close by, little more than a long bump with a slightly smaller bumps behind it, with a little curving in front, is the most important water animal to the Blackfoot- the beaver. The three of them stare down from the top of the rocks, watchers in the same vein as gargoyles on Catholic cathedrals. According to our guide, that’s just it, and what makes Writing-on-Stone so special- it’s a sign that the spirits of those animals were there. It’s as important a sign as any you hear about why churches or other places of worship are established where they are. This place was chosen for a reason and that’s powerful, even to an outsider like me.
This is where the tour ends. From here, you head back to the information centre and left to think about what you’ve learned and maybe buy a postcard or two. This is also the part where I’d normally sign off with a cheery comment about getting to Writing-on-Stone if you ever find yourself in southern Alberta. Which is still true, but I don’t want to sound pithy this time, for a few reasons. The first is that, sadly, much like coral reefs and arctic glaciers, this is a site that won’t last forever. It’s a place that erodes because of water, weather, and the sudden collapse of rocks. Yes, it is well preserved, but nature is taking its course. You can already see that happening with some of the pictures fading away. Yes, science is looking into ways to conserve these important cultural sites, but even there there might be hiccups. This is a site that is tied to the Blackfoot and the management of this place can only be decided with their agreement (as it should be). To many of them, the pictures disappearing is just a part of the natural cycle- these pictographs and petroglyphs were never meant to last forever. When they’re gone, the spirits will make sure new ones will be made to replace them. The history nerd in me balks at that, at the thought of such an amazing place being lost. It is awful, but I acknowledge it’s not my place to say what’s right or wrong. I hope conservationists can do everything they can to protect Writing-on-Stone, but I’m not the one who can make that call.
Which brings me to the second part. When I write these travel guides, it’s essentially as a tourist. While I do think it’s an important perspective (it is called tourism after all), it’s not the one who should have a final say. I can explain the history I’ve learned and my emotions about what I’ve seen, but I’ll never understand the nuance and perspectives that only comes with growing up in a culture. Those are the voices who are the most important, from the Blackfoot at Writing-on-Stone to the Koreans in the Korean locations I’ve covered. These travel guides are meant to spark interest or inspire someone to add these places to their to-see list (and I hope they do!), not as a be all end all. If you go to these places, put everything I’ve said to the back of your mind and listen to the people who belong to those places. Seek out the guided tours from locals, read the books written by authors from that culture, and most of all, listen. Listen to the voices who are tied to these places, whose lives are part of the long running story. Never take my word for it, not when the people who belong to the communities you’re exploring are ready and willing to share these stories themselves.
