Lords - and Ladies - Of The Dance

Thursday, July 20, 2006,

Things happen so fast! Yesterday we spent a little time in Claresholm, AB – a town much changed since mother and I visited it fifteen years ago. A very helpful librarian gave us some historical material on my grandparents, and we were able to locate the Moffatt plot in the Claresholm Cemetery. I said hello to Ernie and Sue and had a bit of a chat with Uncle Billy for whom I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart. I was delighted to see that his stone is engraved with a treble and bass clef.

In the early afternoon we drove south to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and just happened to arrive at the beginning of a presentation of Blackfoot dances. The outfits – NOT costumes – were fabulous and we watched for about an hour and a half as these people danced a variety of dances in full sun.

The Jump is another World Heritage Site and they’ve done a marvelous job of presenting it. Although it's not possible to walk beneath the cliffs, inside the interpretative centre they recreated the cliff - with buffalo - as well as presenting an excellent overview of how buffalo were hunted by both the Indians and the early settlers. Needless to say, the white boys don't come off looking too good. It took us only about twenty years to reduce a buffalo population of about sixty million to a little over one thousand!

From there, we drove to Crowsnest Pass and then to Chinook Lake Provincial Park where we spent the night. After a hike around the lake we set out for Creston (where we’re presently having lunch under tall white pine trees totally surrounded by mountains) and then we’ll drive north along Kootenay Lake and get the ferry to Nelson where we’ll spend the night.