First Peoples is close to landmark designation

First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park is moving closer to receiving National Historic Landmark designation.

Earlier this month, the National Historic Landmark Review Committee met in Washington, D.C., to consider the site’s nomination.

The committee approved and forwarded the nomination to the next level, which is the National Park Service’s National Landmark Advisory Committee.

That committee is scheduled to meet in May and generally approves nominations the review committee has approved, Montana State Parks officials said.

If that committee OKs the nomination, it will be forwarded to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell for her final approval. There’s a set timeline for how long it could take Jewell to sign off on the landmark designation.

The buffalo jump site near Ulm is already on the National Register of Historic Places.

In September, the Montana State Historic Preservation Review Board toured the site with the former park manager and Montana State Parks officials.

In 2008, the state hired an archaeologist who started with a survey of about 1,000 acres at the park. It was supposed to take two weeks, but the team found so much that it expanded to seven weeks, Sara Scott said during the tour. Scott is the heritage resources program manager for state parks.

“He was amazed,” Scott said of the archaeologist. “He had no idea he would find so much.”

Based on that first survey, the archaeologist suggested they consider pursuing National Historic Landmark status, Scott said in September. Montana parks officials started talking to NPS, who agreed that they should pursue the elevated status.

NPS provided funding to prepare the First Peoples nomination, Scott said, and the began the nomination process in earnest in 2010.

Receiving landmark status would open opportunities for funding and research through NPS, but First Peoples would remain a state park under state control, Scott said.

Thirteen tribes have oral histories that include mention of what is now First Peoples Buffalo Jump, Richard Hopkins, former park manager, said during the tour.

According to the state’s website, Indians stampeded buffalo over the mile-long cliff for hundreds of years. The animals were then slaughtered.

Hopkins worked at the park for the last decade and had regular conversations with tribal elders about the park, its history and significance.

During the tour, he told the board members that First Peoples is the only buffalo jump site where trip walls have been discovered. Hopkins said they were used to prevent the herd from coming to a fast halt at the cliff’s edge and evading the hunt.

“The more we study this place ... the more we realize we don’t know that much about it,” Hopkins said.