The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1958-02-14
By RAY C. GULICK, Joplin

Merits of setting aside the Uln
buffalo kill'' or "pishkun', as stat,
park will be discussed at a luncheon
meeting tentatively set for Friday
February 81, in Great Falls.
1t is anticipated that DR.. CARING
Malouf and DR.. Dee Taylor, Montana
State University psychologists, and
Ashley Roberts, state parks director,
will be in attendance and will explain
the contractual arrangement between
the Land Board and Mr.. Cave of Glas-
gov for excavation of the "pishkun".
The sudden interest in the pishkun
has been precipitated by the re-
cent leasing of the area to the Glas-
gov man and the seeming impossible
ity to either "save" the area or to
get adequate information on how the
State Land Board let this vital link
in Montana history get by them. AS
one man said, 81 went up there and
there is nothing there" Of course,
there is nothing there. Only a high
cliff and a pile of rubble at the
bottom, fence with padlocked
gate; large series of excavations,
and a sign that says mo trespassing
without permission. This means YOU"
| stopped at the mans house twice
and no one was there. No tourist |
would go to the bother that l did.
They would just pass on unaware that
one of the greatest landmarks of civil
lization lies here smothered by the
centuries.
The "pishkun'', or buffalo kill, is
an ancient institution in the evolu-
ion of man, not only with the Ameri-
IAN Indian, but also with his counter
'art, CroMagnon Man, on the CONT
lent of Europe.
Something like twenty-five thou
and years ago Cro-Magnon Man
rove herds of wild horses over cliffs
y guiding them through funnel
haped lanes made of stone piles and {
uge bon-fires. Screaming and wav- +
1g skins and clubs the Gro agnons 8
frightened the wild animals into jump
1g to their death.
This action is thought to be, by
the first example of
)cial organization by primitive man. Q
he working together, the evolving N
chiefs, of hunters, of drivers and p
the prestige" of being skilled at e
lie kill led to the organized society
later times. 81
|
she'd in Europe and Asia even before =,
en. About the time that Pithecan- "
ropus man split into the two r
'anches represented by Neanderthal =,
an and Cro-Magnon man, and by :,
nanthropus, or Pekin Man, two hun M M
ed to one hundred thousand years "a
o, Man may have been driving the =
Id beasts over cliffs individually.
lis, however, would not be "pish- +,
NJ. But it would suggest the meth MI
to them AS the American Indian ~,
a defendant of Sinanthropus Man. -
en- the idea probably decended from - -
I'm. y
The American Indian of the West ~
4 Plains for centuries established -,
ITS where they carried out the pish- w.
n, driving the buffalo over cliffs PC
o ever increasing piles of bone
flesh. Many is the stone hammer. ri
ow head and spear that lies among H
, remains of man and beast for
tainly, man too plunged to his
18th among the believing herds. the
will be here at Ulm that the pos in
lie missing link may be found that ira
tie for certain the hereditary
t of the American Indian. of
he proximity of the Russell Gal sta
es, the closeness of the Great Falls Del
ools and the ease with which tour LEI
can reach the area all add up to nov
fact that this site should be pre- ing
-ed as a park and one that hasn't con
I robbed of its charm and history aIc'
for phosphate. RusselPs 10
ting number four, Charlie Rus N
and his Friends, shows the Ulm mig
20 IL