Website Review: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, http://www.head-smashed-in.com/. Created and maintained by the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, Fort Macleod, Alberta. Reviewed September 27-30, 2007.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is an UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Southern Alberta that has been continuously used by Aboriginal peoples for over five thousand years. It is also an ongoing archaeological site and home to the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre. The website as a whole includes information on Blackfoot heritage, archaeology of the site, and the ways people can participate in history through the Interpretive Centre, tipi camping, and educational programs.

The website is well organised with a broad range of engaging topics centred on Aboriginal history and archaeology. An interesting part of the site is the “Blackfoot History” page, which provides broad definitions of the history of the area and its peoples. This part of the site is useful and covers many aspects of Blackfoot life; however, it could be further developed as the information is brief and quite simplistic. The website also provides an interesting look into the archaeological work and research done around the site. The link to “Archaeological Facts” introduces the reader to the purposes and aims of archaeology and the story it has revealed about Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, its surrounding area, and the people who used to live there. Through the link “Buffalo Tracks,” a fifteen-page archaeological booklet in PDF provides a more in-depth look into the history and ethnography of the buffalo culture. There is also a link to a permanent exhibition at the Centre called “Lost Identities,” which is an ongoing project to name the people and places of thousands of Aboriginal photographs from the Provincial Archives of Alberta. While this is an important reflection of the role of the Centre as a museum and interactive historic site, an online exhibit of the project would have enabled more people to benefit from the findings.

The links are easy to navigate and remain on the left-hand side of the page no matter which page you follow, making it easy to change direction and go to different parts of the site. The “Links” page has an excellent collection of websites broken down by subject that leads to further information about everything from Alberta Tourism, to Native history, to its associated supporters. The connections are clearly labelled and all of the linked websites are active and well-maintained. At the bottom of the homepage, unfortunately, is another copy of the set of links to other historic sites around Southern Alberta. Only one of the links, the “Remington Carriage Museum,” leads to its own site; of the others, two lead to Head-Smashed-In’s own homepage, while the remainder do not link to their own websites.

The style of the website is appealing as the graphics are simple and not too busy, with a uniform background that makes the pages clear and comprehensive. The website uses popular programs, like PDF and Java, which are user-friendly and which most computers are able to run. The resources are largely textual, so while the pages are informative, and the visitor can learn all about Head-Smashed-In and its history, there is not a lot of interactivity on the website itself, but rather it advertises what activities there are available to do on the actual site.

The audience focus is quite broad, as the aim is to attract people to Alberta by getting them interested in both Aboriginal and regional history. The use of simple links, programs, and language makes it intelligible to a wide-range of people. It is not focused towards academia, but it does have many educational aspects. The link to “Educational Programs” opens a PDF document that describes the interactive activities they have available for students from kindergarten to grade twelve, which are designed to follow the latest Alberta Education Social Studies Curriculum. There is also information about the “Sunday Learning Series,” which anyone can participate in. While the page may have limited scholarly interest, it is an excellent source to get the general public and education system interested, engaged, and participating in history.