Archaeology in the Bow Valley on display at Canmore Museum

An interactive seasonal rounds display in the “Footsteps Through Time” exhibit at the Canmore Museum on Friday (May 15). LEAH PELLETIER RMO PHOTO

CANMORE – There’s more to an ancient arrowhead or bison bone than meets the eye.

In the artifacts unearthed from Bow Valley soil, stories of migration across the rugged mountain landscape start to emerge.

From the shifting of ice sheets to the seasonal travels of Indigenous peoples, the Canmore Museum’s latest exhibit Footsteps Through Time: Human Journeys on the Land explores how movement has marked life in the Bow Valley through the ages.

“We decided to have a look at the archeology of the Bow Valley through the lens of migration and what animals, what people and how movement was happening through the Bow Valley and how it still continues today,” said Lisa Isley, executive director of the Canmore Museum.

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Along with archeological findings, interactive displays and Indigenous traditional knowledge are combined to paint a picture of life in the Bow Valley through the millennia.

“The terrain here really lent itself to moving and mixing,” said archeologist Christina Clavelle Meyer, who helped curate the exhibit.

An important corridor connecting what is now interior B.C. to the plains, Clavelle Meyer says the “crossroads” of meltwater streams contributed to the movement of artifacts.

“There would’ve been a lot of movement [from the west] and then also north to south along the Eastern Slopes, so that area became kind of one of the earlier environments that was sort of hospitable after the glaciers left,” she said.

But archeology doesn’t tell the whole story, Clavelle Meyer says.

“I really wanted to include a section on what is not preserved which is about 90 per cent what would’ve been used day to day, so really even though we kind of feel like as archeologists we’ve put together a pretty good picture of what life and lifeways might have been like, when you really think about it, we’re only operating with about 10 per cent of the material culture that would’ve been used,” she said.

Collaborating with Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda and Blackfoot elders on the exhibit, traditional knowledge, including oral histories, reveals how Indigenous people travelled seasonally across the landscape, hunted and gathered using their knowledge of plants, animals and the mountain environment.

“It was really clear that we had to include those traditional ways of knowledge keeping because they’re just as valid as digging up the bones and analyzing them or the rocks,” said Isley, noting several of the artifacts on display are on loan from an Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda family while others are from the Lethbridge chapter of the Archaeological Society of Alberta.

Coming back to present day, the exhibit also tells the stories of community members who have more recently immigrated to the Bow Valley and how the landscape is significant in their lives.

“The Bow Valley is a really important corridor, and a lot of people are drawn to it for different reasons,” said Isley.

“Now more than ever, there’s a lot of knowledge there, especially Indigenous knowledge, of ways to be in relationship with the land and it can be as simple as being respectful when you’re out on a hike. There’s a lot of opportunities to learn about not taking more than you need or just different ways of living seasonally.”

Footsteps Through Time opened on May 1 and is on display at the Canmore Museum until April 2027.

“I’m hoping people come for the archeology and stay for the fact that Indigenous people, which is kind of who we indirectly study through archeology, that it’s not a lost or gone thing, like they’re still here, they still have a vibrant culture. They’re our neighbours,” added Clavelle Meyer.

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. This position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.

Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Rocky Mountain Outlook