From the ashes, new archaeological discoveries in Waterton

While wildfire is a destructive force, it has been extremely beneficial in the archaeological community. According to Parks Canada archaeologist Bill Perry, the Kenow Wildfire has opened vast opportunities for learning about the history of the Waterton area, adding to the understanding of the past 10,000 years of human history in the park. Based on this new information, Perry and his team are rethinking the role of human impacts on past environments and landscapes in Waterton.

The Kenow Fire burned over about half of the park last summer.

“I have been grinning ever since I got here. I’ve been doing archeology for 40 years and I have never seen anything like this. The Kenow fire was like Christmas for archeology. We are so spoiled because we usually have to work like hell to find the kinds of things we have been finding,” he said. “I put out a call and the entire archaeological community came running because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. For us, the fire is a positive story. Yes, we lost a lot of the organic material, but what the fire has revealed is absolutely amazing.”

Prior to the fire, Waterton Lakes National Park encompassed 375 known archaeological sites (representing 9,000-10,000 years worth of history), almost all of which were touched by the Kenow fire. While much was lost, much more has been gained. Not only have new sites been discovered, the boundaries of many existing sites have doubled and tripled in size with the new findings.

“The archaeological sites got hammered by the fire, but not all of archeology is on the surface,” Perry said. “What the fire did for us was to reveal everything left that is on the surface. It makes our job 100 percent easier. It’s a trade off.”

Among the items revealed by the burn were trade beads and a pocket knife from early interactions between settlers and the native peoples as well as campsites and countless arrowheads. More interesting still were the tremendous number of bison bones exposed by the fire, leading Perry and his fellow archaeologists to speculate that the Red Rock Canyon area may have been used as a winter holding area for the animals, providing a reliable food source for the Blackfoot.

According to Perry, one of the more exciting developments of the current research has been providing geographical locations for long-standing Blackfoot stories.

“Waterton is the place where a lot of the original Blackfoot stories happened. It’s where the Beaver Bundle happened. It’s where the Otter Bundle happened. What we are starting to do, to a limited extent, is starting to put actual locations along with these stories. For an archaeologist, that is an amazing thing,” Perry said.

Perry has also been very interested to find connections between Waterton and the Blackfoot people and tribes around the region.

“I didn’t realize how much the history of this park is based on where it is in relation to other places. There are trails that link all of the area tribes together, both historic and prehistoric, they just go on and on. If I could date them, we would be looking and thousands and thousands of years of trails,” he said. “Based on what we are finding, we are rewriting a lot of what we thought we knew about this park and the general archeology of the area. We have one hell of a job ahead of us.”