Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Public history and the fragments of place: archaeology, history and heritage site development in southern Alberta

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13642529.2011.564830

1470-1154

James Opp,

Museums and Cultural Heritage

Abstract The recent call for heritage professionals to consider the 'spirit of place' is an attempt to reconcile the overlapping layers of tangible and intangible heritage within significant sites. However, the desire for wholeness can also displace the fragments and fragmented histories of place. This paper examines the history of heritage development in southern Alberta through two sites, namely Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park / Áísínai'pi National Historic Site (UNESCO World Heritage nomination currently being developed). Located only 200 km apart, these two places offer very different perspectives on the 'spirit of place' and present very different histories of the production of 'heritage' through archaeological excavation, preservation practices and Aboriginal consultation. These stories from the Canadian prairies raise questions about the processes of 'place-making', 'place-taking' and how we mobilize and conceptualize the practice of place in public history. Keywords: heritageplacearchaeologyAboriginal consultationpublic historyUNESCOHead-Smashed-In Buffalo JumpÁísínai'pi National Historic Site of CanadaWriting-on-Stone Provincial Park Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Mary-Ann Shantz, Michael A. Klassen, John C. Walsh, Matt Dyce, David Wrobel, Jack Brink and Jim Molnar for their comments, critiques and assistance in preparing this paper. Research was conducted with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Notes 1. Niitsitapi/Niitsitapiiski, 'Real or True Person/People', is a word that can apply to all Aboriginal peoples (Bastien 2004). It is also sometimes used as a term of reference for Blackfoot-speaking nations, which include the Siksika (Blackfoot), the Kainaa (Blood), the Piikáni (North Peigan or Apatohsipiikani) and the Blackfeet (South Piegan or Amsskaapipiikani) in Montana, especially in public exhibitionary contexts such as the Glenbow Museum's Niitsitapiisini exhibit (glenbow.org/blackfoot and The Blackfoot Gallery Committee 2001). A more cultural sense of the word is as 'a term designating how Blackfoot recognize themselves, through their socio-cultural practices, laws, and relationships with the Creator as distinct from other people who do not share those practices' (Noble 2008). However, adopting Blackfoot words into English raises many contextual issues. There are variations in how the singular and plural forms are used within an English text, and other words with a more geographically specific meaning are also used to denote Blackfoot-speaking nations or people, such as Siksiksaitsitapi (Bastien 2004) or Siksikáítapiiksi (Blood and Chambers 2009). My thanks to Narcisse Blood and Cynthia (2009) Chambers for responding to my enquiries on the usage of these terms. To avoid confusion, I have tended to use either Niitsitapi or Blackfoot, because these are the terms most often used in public exhibition and interpretive contexts. However, any errors or omissions in using Blackfoot terms are entirely my own. 2. The Mookaakin Heritage and Cultural Society was formed in 1998 and is affiliated with the Kainai Nation. Led by members of traditional Kainaa cultural and spiritual societies, it promotes traditional Kainaa observances, language and history, encourages public appreciation for Kainaa culture, and is actively involved in the repatriation of ceremonial objects and artefacts (Klassen 2003b; Conaty 2008; Bell, Statt, and the Mookakin Cultural Society 2008). 3. Rodeos have been hosted at Writing-on-Stone since 1966, but the corrals have been maintained by the local Writing-On-Stone Riding Association since the late-1950s (Hughson 1983). Michael Klassen notes that, during the 1960s and 1970s, when the ceremonial use of Áísínai'pi was at its lowest, many Blackfoot people still visited as part of the annual rodeo (2005, 37). 4. The cairn was removed sometime in the 1980s, and was placed into storage. My thanks to the staff at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park for locating it in order to photograph the inscription for me. 5. In 1915, a palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of Canada, Charles M. Sternberg, photographed some of the sites and forwarded them to Harlan I. Smith (1935), an anthropologist who made sketches from the photographs and published his work in 1923 (Dempsey 1973; Klassen 2003a). 6. Jack Brink and Narcisse Blood (2008) caution that there is no singular Niitsitapi view on the question of preservation. Although some maintain that the weathering of the rock as part of a natural cycle which should not be interfered with (Klassen 2003b, 18; see also Nicholas 2009), there is increasing support among Elders for careful preservation methods when undertaken in close consultation with Aboriginal communities. 7. In order to assuage such concerns, Parks Canada organized a meeting between the Kainaa and the local settler community, who came together for a BBQ and raft trip in 2003, the first formal meeting between the two groups since the park's 1957 official opening (Magne 2006). 8. Napi (Old Man) is a powerful figure in Blackfoot stories, who acted on impulse and caused chaos, but not out of malice. He is a reminder of the negative consequences of doing things the wrong way (Bastien 2004; Blackfoot Gallery Committee 2001). 9. The provincial historic marker programme was initiated as part of the province's 1955 Golden Jubilee, celebrating 50 years as a province (Opp 2007). The buffalo jump was first identified as a significant site in 1955 and, in 1959, 20 concrete cairns with bronze plaques were erected across the province, including both 'Early Man' and Writing-on-Stone (Dempsey 1955; Bryant 1959). 10. By framing this paper around contested histories of place, I realize that I have allowed little room for acknowledging how archaeology itself has been transformed in the twenty-first century by new approaches that are far more responsive to Aboriginal concerns, epistemologies and collaborations (Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson 2008). Nor do I address Aboriginal appropriations of archaeological methods, such as Eldon Yellowhorn's call for an 'internalist archaeology' (Yellowhorn 2006). 11. A similar epistemological struggle is outlined by Narcisse Blood and Cynthia Chambers (2009) in their discussion of Óóhkotok, a Blackfoot sacred place also designated as a provincial historic site, located south of Calgary. Here, the Blackfoot narrative of Napi is displayed in italics, while the regular text offers a geological explanation for how a glacial erratic came to rest on the prairie. The typographic design thus distinguishes 'fictional story from factual text' and functions in a way that signals to the public 'which story is universal and true, and which is particular and cultural, which is to be believed and which is not, which informs and which entertains' (2009, 268). 12. For an in-depth exploration of Piikáni knowledge transfer protocols, see Noble (2008).