Buffalo Jumps
Ancient rock outcroppings
where the Native People Drove
the Buffalo to their deaths
There are two prominently known buffalo jumps or places where the Indigenous people of the state drove buffalo to their deaths. One is the Madison
River Buffalo Jump. Situated on the edge of a broad valley carved along the
Madison River this limestone cliff is said to have been used for 2,000 years
and as recently as 200 years ago. A semicircular cliff runners, young native
men who had speed and endurance, wore buffalo, antelope and wolf skins then lured the buffalo to the cliff. The buffalo was necessary to the live of these plains people, providing them with food, utensils, clothing and the hides for their lodges.
This park includes the geographical jump site and other evidence of the people who came here. Buffalo bones lie buried at the
cliff’s base and archaeologists have located the tipi rings of an extensive village.
At least two thousand years prior to the journey of Lewis and Clark into Montana the Indigenious people used Ulm Pishkun, a
kill site that is a mile long sandstone cliff which was called the Ulm Pishkun State Park and is now called the First Peoples Buffalo
Jump State Park.
Archaeologists describe five features of a pishkun. The first part is the grazing area where the Indians would find the buffalo,
usually upwind from the camp and buffalo jump. The second feature was the "drive lane." It consisted of two rock lines, five to ten
yards apart and from 100 yards to a mile in length. Only a foot or so in height, these lines established the boundaries of the path
the buffalo would follow to the precipice. Hunters hid behind the rock piles and shouted or waved robes to frighten the buffalo on
toward the jump. The third feature, the cliff itself, could be one to two hundred feet above the fourth feature, a rocky slope where
the Indians killed the bison that survived the fall. Long bows, lances, and stone clubs were used to make the final kill. This is also
where the Indians would dress the bison and dry their meat and hides. The process often took several days. The last feature was the
camp where the people lived while they harvested the buffalo. Recently, archaeologists from Montana State University researched
and excavated the Ulm Pishkun site. They
discovered that the park is perhaps the largest buffalo jump in the world, that it was
the site of human activity at least as far back
as 500 AD, and that the site was used
through out the year.
The park has an interpretive trail, picnic
tables and in an effort to pay homage to the
buffalo and the people who honor this
mighty animal, Ulm Pishkun State Park has
a new on-site education center. Of more
than 300 bison kill sites in Montana, Ulm
Pishkun is the first of its kind. The 6,000
square foot center offers visitors buffalo
culture exhibits, a storytelling circle, classroom, gallery and bookstore.
Ulm Pishkun is located southeast of Browning. On Interstate 15 just 10 miles south of
Great Falls take the Ulm exit then proceed 4
miles northwest on the county road. Ulm
Pishkun, PO Box 109, Ulm, Montana
59485, 406-866-2217.
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