Hundreds of media stories have been written about Canada’s Prairie Chinooks. Few, however, delve into how plants, animals and humans may have adapted to them or used them to their advantage over the centuries.

A Chinook wind, named after the Chinook First Nations People of the upper and middle Columbia River region, or ‘snow eater,’ roars down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It creates high winds and rapid temperature changes to the Canadian Prairies.

When it first happened, I was about four years old, growing up on a farm north of Portreeve, Saskatchewan, Canada. I awoke in the middle of a winter night to the most ungodly, ghastly noise outside. The farmhouse shook, the windows rattled, and the wind howled. I was terrified, never having experienced a winter Chinook before – a name given to the Canadian prairies’ strong winter winds, sometimes reaching speeds of over 100 mph.

The following day, when I looked outside, the foot or more of snow covering the ground was replaced by puddles of water and sheets of polished ice. I remember my father not going out to feed the cattle because they could easily find the prairie grasses again.

What Are Chinooks?

A Chinook is a warm, dry wind that blows off the slopes of mountain ranges and reaches tremendous speeds as it flows over the plains. In other parts of the world, this wind is called a Foehn (Germany), Zonda (Argentina), Berg (South Africa), and Asi’kssopo, which means ‘warm wind’ (Blackfoot).

Where do Canada’s Chinooks Occur?

Chinooks are not entirely a Canadian phenomenon. They occur along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, as far south as Colorado, and also in Washington State, blowing off the Cascade Mountains and Nevada (rolling down the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains).

A Few Fascinating Facts About Chinooks

Chinooks bring sudden relief from the cold during Canada’s winter months. Temperatures can change by 20C or more in a few hours. Chinook winds can reach over 150kmph (~100mph) and last a few hours or days. However, in Alberta, these winds range from 16kmph (10mph) to 60kmph (37.5mph), although gusts can reach over 100kmph.

At their extreme, Chinook winds have set some mind-boggling meteorological records. For example, in 1962 in Pincher Creek, Alberta, the temperature changed 41C in one hour. Over the years, Chinooks have set several world records:

•World record for the most extreme temperature change in 24 hours: Loma, Montana in 1972, the temperature increased from −54 to 49 °F (−48 to 9 °C), a 103 °F (57 °C) temperature change;

•World record for fastest increase in temperature: Spearfish, South Dakota, 1943, the temperature increased from −4 to 45 °F (−20 to 7 °C), a 49 °F (27 °C) change in two minutes;

•World record for the fastest decrease in temperature: Spearfish, South Dakota, 1943, the temperature decreased from 54 to −4 °F (12 to −20 °C), a 58F (32C) change in 27 minutes.

How Old Are Chinooks?

Chinooks affect weather, plants, animals, and humans. But how long has this been going on? As a historian/archaeologist, I have wondered when did these winds first blow across the Canadian Prairies? And how did they affect humans living on the Canadian Prairies several hundred or thousands of years ago (assuming Chinooks were already present long ago)?

I asked a former colleague, Dr. Alwynne Beaudoin, a paleoecologist at the Royal Alberta Museum, whether Chinooks were a recent or ancient phenomenon. According to Beaudoin, a leading expert on paleoenvironments in Alberta, no one is certain since Chinooks leave little or no trace in the paleoenvironmental records.

“I can’t come up with a definitive answer – but I suspect the Chinook pattern would have been established early in the deglaciation process and probably became more intensified as deglaciation proceeded.” (Dr. Alwynne Beaudoin, paleoecologist, Royal Alberta Museum)

Dr. Beaudoin goes on to specify that because of the lack of research and data, the following points about the genesis of Canadian Chinooks are currently speculative:

• The topography (Rocky Mountain range) that promotes the formation of the Chinook would be the same during glaciation (though mostly submerged by ice) and deglaciation (becoming more pronounced as the ice melted). However, the synoptic situation (wind patterns) that permitted the Chinooks to occur would be different;
• The high pressure over the Laurentide Ice Sheet would have resulted in outward clockwise air circulation from the center of the Ice Sheet (see diagram below). This would have deflected the westerly airflow (from the Pacific) to the south. In addition, the ocean circulation in the North Pacific would have been different from that of today, and probably colder – it’s the generally warm surface water in the North Pacific that fuels the moisture brought by the Chinook;
• The southwest margin of the Laurentide ice sheet (a thick sheet covering all of Alberta at its maximum 12,000+ years ago) melted back quickly. Was that because the Chinook became re-established early in the deglaciation process and helped promote rapid melting along the southwest margin of the Laurentide Glacier? It would certainly seem to help account for the rapid deglaciation;
• According to Catherine Yansa ² the plains along the mountainfront in southwestern Alberta were not ever forested, and the effect of the Chinook could be part of the explanation for that (as well as the rain-shadow effect).

And, there you have it. No one is certain because the clues to when the first Chinooks appeared are subtle and difficult to acquire. However, Beaudoin makes a valid point: As soon as the ice receded the Rocky Mountains were exposed (likely c.11,000 years or longer) and the Pacific Ocean currents warmed, the potential for Chinooks to invade the western Canadian Prairies was present.

The Effect of Chinooks on Plants, Animals, and Humans

Chinooks bring reprieve from our cold, snow-laden Alberta winters. They also create drought and wind erosion. It is no coincidence that the part of southern Alberta having the highest number of Chinooks per year is also one of the driest places on the Canadian Prairies. There’s little or no spring runoff in this area since there’s no accumulation of snow, and evaporation rates throughout the year are high.

Let’s examine how humans adapted to or took advantage of the Chinook winds. Large herbivores, such as bison and elk, were well adapted to deal with the harsh North American winters and would have benefitted from the more open grasslands in the winter. Did the Chinooks attract more bison and elk during the winter months? And also humans?

“To the people inhabiting the vast interior this Chinook has ever been a joy and a mystery. When snows lay deep, and lakes were ice-bound and Indians herds were famishing, the aborigines, from the Mandan of Dakota to the Yakima and the Walla Wallas, sought to welcome this great spirit by incantations and long continued dances. If after years the white herdsman desponding as he saw his horses and cattle dying on the frozen snows, found cheer and returning fortune in its warm and melting breath.” (The Sheridan Post, 1908)

Many newspaper excerpts like the one above from Sheridan, Wyoming, all along the Chinook Belt of the American and Canadian Rockies describe the merits and mysteries of these winds. How did First Nations People and later White settlers cope with or take advantage of these winds?

Large herbivores, like the Plains Bison, are well adapted to North America’s mid-continental climates and roamed this region in the millions. But even these animals benefitted from the warming winds in the winter, which reduced the snow and made grazing easier. Did these periodic winds attract more bison in the winter months, and if so, did they also attract the First Nations people who relied heavily on this animal as their primary food source?

“…the snow was deepening and the weather becoming colder… we thought it would bring the wild herds nearer to the foothills….The cold was intense and the buffalo were steadily heading for the hills…We could see the herds moving westward…” (John McDougall, Morley Mission, west of Calgary Alberta in 1876.) ⁴

McDougall’s Morley Mission was located in the heart of Chinook country and near the foothills where the bison herds found shelter and less snow cover.

Even when further out on the plains and not within easy walking distance to the foothills, both bison and humans sought shelter in the major river valleys and coulees in extreme winter conditions. ⁵

Prehistoric Alberta and Chinooks

How did First Nations Peoples react and adapt to Chinooks in Alberta? Would they have taken advantage of the milder weather and followed the grazing animals into the Chinook zone? The big problem when positing this question is finding the evidence to examine it.

Humans would not only be attracted to areas with more game animals, such as bison, but they would also benefit from wintering in areas having less snow and fewer cold days. Archaeologist Neil Marau (Arrow Consultants Ltd.) has worked extensively with Blackfoot informants to record their historic seasonal movements in southern Alberta.

Marau and other archaeologists and Blackfoot elders believe that Chinooks played a key role in the Blackfoot seasonal round and were important in deciding where to camp in the winter:

“These river valleys had plentiful wood and other plant resources. Probably more importantly, both rivers are in the Chinook belt of southwestern Alberta and provided good wintering habit for bison. Bison in southern Alberta tended to move toward and into the foothills as winter approached, especially to areas such as the region around Okotoks and south where occasional to frequent chinooks that cleared or reduced snow cover from important grazing lands.” (Archaeologist Neil Marau, talking about the Blackfoot seasonal round). ⁶

Other major rivers, such as the Oldman River, running west out of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains onto the southern Alberta Plains, were popular wintering areas for both First Nations Peoples and the Plains bison.

As we step back in time, the number of archaeological campsites in southern Alberta decreases, and there are fewer sites along large river systems. But by the Middle Prehistoric Period (c.7,800 – 1,800 B.P.), relatively more archaeological sites begin to appear along those river systems.

As we move further away from the Chinook Belt, the frequency of archaeological sites in all three time periods decreases. ⁸

The Protohistoric-Historic Period and the Arrival of the Horse

Once First Nations People in southern Alberta adopted the horse around c. 1720 A.D., the warming Chinook winter winds in the province may have become even more critical. Horses, unlike bison or elk, weren’t as capable of surviving in Alberta’s harsh winters. Here are a few historical facts about horses on the western Great Plains:

• Eastern grain-fed horses could not withstand Alberta winters. For example, during the winters in the 1830s at Fort Edmonton (North Saskatchewan River), conditions were so bad that the fort’s horses were starving and dying despite being fed hay;
• According to American ethnologist John Ewers’ Blackfoot sources, the horse will starve in four days without food;
• Ewers’ Blackfoot informants told him that the women would peel off the inner bark of the cottonwood to feed their horses in the winter if conditions became severe;
• According to American trapper and frontiersman William Ashley: “When the round leaf or sweet bark cottonwood can be had abundantly, horses may be wintered with but little inconvenience. They are fond of this bark, and, judging by the effect produced from feeding it to my horses last winter, I suppose it almost, if not quite as nutritious as timothy hay.”

Given the necessity of finding suitable wintering pastures for horses, how did the Chinook Belt factor into the selection of winter camping areas and travel? While the horse allowed First Nations People to move faster, hunt more efficiently, and transport larger loads of goods, having now to care for these animals in the winter became an extra burden. ⁹

Did First Nations’ acquisition of the horse necessitate an even greater use of Chinook regions in southern Alberta? Not only would people have had to move into these areas to provide adequate winter feed for their horses, but they may have had to move more often to find new pastures (creating more archaeological campsites) than during the Late Prehistoric Period.

“When the grass in the vicinity of a winter camp was consumed, it was necessary to move camp….Some bands, whose members owned large horse herds, had to move camp several times in the course of each winter for no other reason than to secure adequate pasturage. This did not necessarily entail movement of any great distance. A few miles, a short day’s journey, might bring them to good pasturage.” (John C. Ewers on the movement of winter camps by the Blackfoot during ‘horse’ days.)

In the diagrams below, there are far fewer historic period Indigenous sites (right) in southern Alberta than Late Prehistoric sites (left) primarily because the Protohistoric-historic period covers about 160 years while the Late Prehistoric Period covers approximately 1500 years (the latter, longer period allowing more archaeological sites to be created). But if we account for these different lengths of time, do more archaeological sites occur in the Chinook belt during the historic period than before ‘horse days’?

According to ethnohistoric records, horses died during the winter and particularly harsh winters killed large numbers. However, was the winter kill the same throughout the Great Plains? Indigenous horses were very tough and could, up to a certain degree, cope with relatively harsh winter climates.

“Their front feet were left free to paw away the snow to the dry grass below. At this practice, commonly known as “rustling,” Indian ponies were remarkably adept….the Canadian North West Mounted Police, during their first winter in Alberta, employed Indian ponies which “were hardy, serviceable animals, and would find their own food under the snow by pawing in the coldest weather.” ¹¹

For many of the Plains Indigenous tribes, and some west of the Rocky Mountains, the number of horses a family owned denoted wealth. John Ewers compiled data regarding the number of horses owned by various western North American plains tribes. These data might reflect how sustainable it was to keep large numbers of horses in different regions of North America.

Ewers’ data show that the Nez Perz and Cayuse living west of the Rocky Mountains possessed the highest number of horses per person. Also, those tribes living on the southern Great Plains (south of Colorado) had relatively higher numbers of horses per person (than further east and north). He reasoned that these higher numbers, relative to those of other plains tribes, was related to a lower incidence of horse raiding and milder winters.

However, when we examine the number of horses owned per person east of the Rockies, both within the Chinook Belt and further east outside it, the results in the diagram below show that they were always relatively higher in the Chinook Belt than those of the tribes living further east away from the Chinook Belt.

Put in another way, based on the figures below, one hundred Blackfoot people would own approximately 110 horses compared to only seventy horses for one hundred Cree and forty for one hundred Assiniboine people.

The Plains First Nations Tipi – A Dwelling That’s Hard to Blow Down

Did the Canadian Prairies’ strong winds and Chinooks affect the dwellings First Nations people constructed and lived in? We are all familiar with the conical First Nations tipi of the North American Great Plains. It was the primary type of dwelling for these nomadic people living on the windy prairies. Wind tunnel tests on tipis indicate they can withstand speeds reaching over 100mph if securely anchored.

The tipi’s basic construction (i.e., poles, rocks and hides) and shape (circular or conical) were primarily responsible for its strength and ability to survive very high winds. How did each component of the tipi help First Nations people adapt to these severe winds?

Three factors were required for the tipi’s sturdiness/strength and ability to withstand high wind forces: 1) the wooden frame and anchor system consisting of long wooden poles and rope; 2) methods of anchoring the tipi poles and cover, such as rocks, pegs, or logs placed around the base of the cover; and, 3) the size of the tipi (i.e., a smaller tipi would be able to withstand higher wind forces than a bigger, taller tipi, assuming all other things being equal).

1. The Tipi Wooden Three- Versus Four-Pole Anchoring System

Not all tipis were constructed similarly on the North American Great Plains. Tipi pole anchor frames consist of tying three or four poles together at the top and then anchoring them to the ground by a hide rope near the center of the lodge. Ten to eleven poles were placed between these main anchor poles to form the tipi frame. This wood frame was covered by hide or canvas. ¹⁴

How does the three—or four-pole tipi anchor system affect the tipi’s strength and stability? According to basic principles of physics, a three-pole anchor frame is more stable and less prone to wobbling than a four-pole anchor frame. This is especially true on uneven ground because the three contact points ensure a more stable, balanced base, than the four-pole anchor system.

While a three-pole anchor system may be sturdier in principle, to my knowledge, no one has conducted experimental wind tests on each pole anchor system to answer this question with data. If both were used on the windy plains, then both would have had to be strong enough to withstand variable wind speeds. This would have had to include the high Chinook winds and severe Prairie summer storms where wind speeds occasionally were equal to or surpassed the Chinooks.

If the three-pole tipi anchor system is strongest, then in those regions of the Plains having the most frequent and highest wind speeds, would this anchor system be the most prominent? When we look at the distribution of the three- versus four-pole tipi anchor system, both occur in the Chinook Belt and further away from the Chinook Belt. Only the four-pole system (believed to be less sturdy) was used in southern Alberta, where the most frequent and highest Chinook winds occur. Their distribution then, in terms of their strength currently makes little sense if we assume that the three-pole anchor system was superior in sturdiness to the four-pole system.

Is there another possible explanation for the three- versus four-pole anchor system? Clark Wissler, an American ethnologist, was the first to observe that the number of anchor poles was related to Indigenous tribal differences (and beliefs):

“In a way, this reinforces the four-pole tribal distinction, placing their geographical group in a class with tribes on the northern border, differentiating them from a southern and eastern three-pole group in which the Dakota are the most conspicuous.” (American Ethnologist, Clark Wissler commenting on the distribution of the three-pole versus the four-pole tipi anchor system.)

Wissler’s observations suggest that the type of tipi anchor pole system that various cultural groups used held cultural and spiritual symbolic significance, which differed from tribe to tribe. The use of different anchor pole systems may have little to do with sturdiness; both anchor systems seemed to be sturdy enough:

• Wahpeton Dakota First Nation Knowledge Keepers believe the thirteen tipi poles represent a trait to be honoured, starting with the three anchor poles that signify respect, obedience and humility.” ¹⁸
• Also, the four-pole anchor system denoted the four cardinal directions, which the Blackfoot consider sacred.

2. Use of Rocks and Pegs to Increase Tipi Sturdiness

For thousands of years, First Nations people used rocks, then later pegs, to hold down the tipi cover and strengthen it against high winds. ¹⁹Thousands of stone tipi rings found on the Great Plains and Canadian Arctic held down tipi covers. ²⁰

According to Blackfoot informants, the tipi rocks also “…weighed down the sacred messages that tipi designs depicted, so that their blessings would remain with the land and the tipi occupants.” ²¹

For some of the tipie ring data I examined, the range of the number and total weight of rocks was quite mind-boggling. We’re not talking about a few pounds and some minor pebbles to hold down covers. Rock frequencies ranged from as low as 20 rocks to over 100 rocks placed on the tipi cover. The total weight of rocks ranged from as little as 200kg (440.1 pounds) to nearly 1,000kg (2,205 pounds). Some rocks weighed less than 1kg (2.2lbs) while others weighed over 35 kg (77lbs). But if you’ve stood outside in an even mild prairie wind, these weights aren’t too surprising.

Archaeologists working on the Great Plains have examined how prairie winds might have affected where prehistoric tipi cover rocks were placed, how many rocks were used and how much they weighed. A leading authority on this topic in Canada, James Finnigan, Western Heritage Environmental Services, collected tipi data from the Suffield tipi ring Site, located just northeast of Medicine Hat, Alberta, (EdOp-1) and lying on the open prairies. He devised a series of formulas to determine the kind of force certain wind velocities would generate on tipis of varying sizes (and weights). ²³

Using Finnigan’s formulas, I estimated how many rocks and the total rock weight were required on a tipi cover to keep it from blowing over at certain wind speeds. My interest lay primarily in high wind speeds such as those created by Chinooks or severe prairie summer storms. ²⁵

²⁶

When I applied these figures to the Suffield tipi ring data, 21 out of 26 (81%) tipis had sufficient stone weights to withstand 100kmph winds and only 8 out of 26 (31%) tipi rings had sufficient stone weights to withstand 125kmph winds.

When I applied these figures to other central and southern Alberta tipi rings (n = 56), the results indicated that 67.9% tipi rings had sufficient stone weights with withstand 100kmph winds and a mere 7.1% tipi rings had sufficient stone weight to withstand 125kmph winds. ²⁷

²⁸

Unfortunately, out of this sample of fifty-six tipi rings only five stone rings in my sample functioned as winter camps. These rings would have been most susceptible to the frequent Chinooks in the region. Four of the five rings were located in the high Chinook Belt while the fifth ring was located in the Red Deer River Valley, a region where Chinooks occurred but less frequently than southern Alberta. In all five cases the total weight of ring rocks were insufficient for the tipi to withstand either a 100kmph or 125kmph wind velocity.

If I might use a Prairie metaphor here: “Don’t go P***ing into the wind”, it would apply to the tipi ring evidence: “Don’t fight these strong winds. Hide your tipis somewhere more sheltered.”

If these results from the wintering tipi rings continue to show the same trends as we acquire a larger sample of winter tipi rings then the wintering tipis in the high Chinook season weren’t weighted down to withstand strong winds, namely because they were placed in the more sheltered, less windy river valleys.

Here is a summary of my findings regarding the use of rocks to hold down tipi covers, using a small sample of tipi rock rings in central and southern Alberta:

• When I compared tipi rock frequencies/weights at Forty-Mile Coulee in southern Alberta of camps sitting on the coulee edge in the open prairie as opposed to those sitting in the more sheltered coulee bottoms, there was no difference in either the size of the tipi or the number of tipi rocks to hold down the covers between the two areas. ²⁹
• When I compared tipi ring sites present inside the Chinook Belt in Alberta to tipi ring sites outside the Chinook Belt, I found no significant differences in either tipi ring rock frequency or total rock weight between the two areas.
• When I compared known Alberta tipi wintering sites to tipi ring sites occupied during other times of the year, there was no discernible difference in the number of rocks or total rock weights, either in the high Chinook belt or outside it.

So what happened when the Chinooks came and the winds gusted to 100kmph or more? Perhaps, as Arapaho elder Althea Bass recounts, the people used other methods in the winter to prevent tipis from blowing away, regardless of what pole-anchor method or how many rocks were used to hold down the covers. This might explain why the wintering tipi rings in Alberta weren’t more heavily weighted down. For example, as oral and written histories suggest, wintering sites in Alberta are often found in protected and woody areas such as river bottoms or coulees, a strategy similar to what the Arapaho did:

“In the winter, our villages stood on low, sheltered ground near the river, where the wind and cold could not reach us; in summer they were moved to higher ground where they could catch the cool winds.” (Arapaho elder Althea Bass describing where people camped to avoid high winds)

Or, First Nations used other methods to hold down their tipi covers or methods to deflect the high winds that don’t survive in the archaeological record:

“In winter, there were windbreaks to shelter our lodges. The women went to the river in the fall and cut a kind of tall grass …The women bound this grass into panels and set them up like a stockade fence outside our tipis to shut out the wind and the snow. Then they pegged down the lodge cloth and laid sod or earth over it to seal it. When that was done, we were snug for the winter, however stormy it might be outside.” (winter tipi described by Arapaho elder, Althea Bass ³³

Get Along Little Doggies…

The heartland of the old Canadian ranching frontier was the foothill country of southwestern Alberta, where the sheltered, well-watered valleys and the Chinook winds stripped the hills of winter snow made it one of the continent’s preferred stock-raising areas. Today the region in southern Alberta’s Chinook belt still contains a large cattle industry.

By 1884 the following are a few of the forty-one historic ranches that covered approximately 2,782,000 acres land along the front range of the Canadian Rockies, leased from the Canadian Government:

• Bar U Ranch (over 160,000 acres);
• Cochrane Ranch (355,831.749 acres);
• Oxley Ranch (80,900 hectares (200,000 acres);
• The Walrond Ranch (300,000 acres);
• Circle Ranch;
• Quorn Ranch.

The Year of the ‘Great Die-Up’: The Winter of 1886-87

Known as the ‘Great Die-Up’, the winter of 1886-87 was one of the severest on record, stretching from southern Alberta down to Texas. ³⁴

In Canada, the winter of 1886-87 hurt the large ranches in southern Alberta. The Bar U ranch near Longview, Alberta survived the disaster. The ranch’s owners were foresighted enough to put up winter feed and lost relatively fewer head of cattle than many of the other ranches that winter.

The lesson learned from that disastrous winter was not to rely entirely on Chinooks, which occasionally failed to clear major snow storms quickly enough, having disastrous consequences for those who were unprepared.

Canada’s Chinooks – A Blessing and a Curse

Our Canadian weather, whether in Newfoundland or Alberta defines who we are and impacts our everyday lives. The Chinook winds roaring off the eastern slopes in southern Alberta have affected humans for thousands of years.

What if the Chinook winds in southern Alberta changed?:

• If they stopped blowing, there would be deeper winter snow cover. Ranchers would have to feed their cattle more often in the winter. Our beef prices in the supermarkets would likely go up.
• Fewer people would be complaining of severe migraines with the coming of Chinooks (a malady that is not entirely scientifically proven).
• If Chinooks stopped blowing, major irrigation projects in the Lethbridge-Taber regions might not be necessary because there would be more spring run-off and hence more available groundwater for agricultural plants.

Even southern Alberta’s large, powerful wind turbines occasionally shut down because of the excessive Chinook wind speeds.

“Four strong winds that blow lonely….” When Canadian and Albertan, Ian Tyson wrote one of the most popular Canadian songs ever, was he influenced by those strong Chinook winds blowing off the Canadian Rockies? I can’t prove that he was, but I’d like to think so. Once you’ve experienced one, you never forget it. “And those winds sure can blow cold way out there.”

It was a Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in October 2010. I was competing with my springers at the Canadian National Spaniel Field Trial southeast of Calgary near Vulcan, Alberta. At the end of the first day of competition, we drove into Milo for the Trial banquet. I had two American passengers with me. I looked up and saw an ominous Chinook arch heading our way from the west. I informed my American friends to batten down the hatches because all hell was about to break loose. I don’t think they believed me until all hell did break loose, and the Chinook wasn’t just A’Commin’! It had landed in full force.

1. Historically, the Grande Prairie area was an open prairie as a result of both regular firing and the dry Chinook winds melting the winter snows and reducing its annual spring runoff.[]
2. 2006. The timing and nature of Late Quaternary vegetation changes in the northern Great Plains, USA and Canada: a re-assessment of the spruce phase. Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 25, Issues 3–4, pp. 263-281 .https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.02.008.[]
3. For one of the most comprehensive works on the Noth American Bison, see: F. G. Roe. 1951. The North American Buffalo. A Critical Study of the Species in its Wild State. The University of Toronto Press.[]
4. From an unfinished manuscript, 1917:34. Provincial Legislative Library, Edmonton, Alberta.[]
5. Chinook winds, while most frequent along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, occurred much further east, but less frequently, reaching the Dakotas in the United States and even Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. This large region would, therefore, have less snowfall build-up throughout the winter months.[]
6. From Neil Marau. 2009. Traditional Knowledge and Landuse Assessment, Town of Okotoks. Arrow Consultants Limited[]
7. Maps are courtesy of Neil Marau, 2009. Traditional Knowledge and Land Use Assessment, Town of Okotoks. Arrow Consultants Limited[]
8. Because of the insufficient information about these archaeological sites, we currently do not know which ones were only occupied during the winter months. These are the types of data necessary to more accurately test the hypothesis that prehistoric wintering sites increase in areas of increasing Chinooks in southern Alberta.[]
9. For a thorough description of the horse in Blackfoot culture, John C. Ewers’ work is the best available: John C. Ewers. 1955. The Horse in Blackfoot Culture. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 159.[]
10. However, that being said, the resolution (the quality and specific information about many archaeological sites such as time of use, length of use, etc.) of the archaeological record is currently insufficient to answer this question with any certainty. It is a question to reconsider with a larger, more information-laden database.[]
11. John C. Ewers. 1955. The Horse in Blackfoot Culture. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 159:42[]
12. All data for the above diagram from: John C. Ewers. 1955. The Horse in Blackfoot Culture. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 159:42[]
13. Henry Hopkins Sibley (a Federal Army Colonel at the time) developed the one-pole Sibley Tent while posted in Texas. He got this idea for his tent from the First Nations conical tipi. Short side walls were later added to these tents. The NWMP tents resemble the Sibly tent.[]
14. According to various historic sources, the number of poles used for a tipi ranged from over ten to over twenty.[]
15. Ring 33f drawing courtesy of Glenn S. L. Stuart, Permit 87-59[]
16. What the map doesn’t show is where the most intense winds occur and how frequent they are. Even if high winds are less frequent in the Dakotas than in Alberta, people would still have to prepare for them the same way. It only takes one high wind event to blow your dwelling away.[]
17. Image A, courtesy of Campell, W. S. 1915. The Cheyenne Tipi. American Anthropologist 17:685-94. Image C, courtesy of Pinterest: https://kr.pinterest.com/pin/58828338876329776/.[]
18. From Saskatchewan Polytechnic: https://saskpolytech.ca/news posts/2022tipitrainingatprincealbertcampus.aspx#:~:text=According%20to%20these%20teachings%2C%20the,signify%20respect%2C%20obedience%20and%20humility.[]
19. Dr. Richard Forbis, University of Calgary, considered the Father of Alberta Archaeology, estimated that before White contact, there were as many as one million stone rings in Alberta.[]
20. We rarely find stone tipi rings in the Boreal Forest, either because wood was more abundant and used for anchoring covers or high winds were less prevalent in the sheltered forests than on the open Plains and Arctic tundra.[]
21. From Todd Kristensen and Emily Moffat, 2024. Home on the Plains. Indigenous tipis connect land, life, and spirit. In Canada’s History[]
22. Photographs: left: Kaj Birket-Smith. 1893. The Caribou Eskimos. Material and Social Life and their Cultural Positions. Gyldeddalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, Copenhagen, 1929); center: courtesy Wikimedia CC; Right: https://canadianmysteries.ca/sites/franklin/archive/image/StoneRingsKamookak_en.htm[]
23. For more detailed information, see: Finnigan, James T. 1982. Tipi Rings and Plains Prehistory: A Reassessment of Their Archaeological Potential. A Diamon Jenness Memorial Volume. National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.[]
24. Diagrams from, Finnigan, James T. 1982. Tipi Rings and Plains Prehistory: A Reassessment of Their Archaeological Potential. A Diamon Jenness Memorial Volume. National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.[]
25. At the Suffield site, the mean weight of stones was 9kg (19.8lbs) which is what I used in these calculations.[]

26. Tipi Diameter	~No. of Stones/Tipi	Weight (kg) of Stones/Tipi	Wind Speed (kmph)
    4 metresw	20	180	100
    4 metres	60	540	125
    5 metres	55	495	100
    5 metres	110	990	125
    6 metres	90	810	100
    6 metres	190	1,710	125

    []

27. Keep in mind that my tipi ring sample size here is extremely small given Forbis’s estimate of there once being approximately one million tipi rings present in Alberta.[]

28. Region	Site	# Rings	Can withstand 100kmph winds	Can withstand 125 kmph winds
    Neutral Hills	FbOr-57	2	1	0
    40-mile coulee (Calder)	DjPb2&3	3	2	1
    Empress (Hanna)	EdOm-13	4	2	0
    Oldman (Stuart)	DlPb-2	26	24	2
    **Bow River Valley	EfPm-104	4	0	0
    **Red Deer River Valley	FjPj-8	1	0	0
    40-Mile coulee (Brumley)	DjOu-42	4	2	0
    40-Mile Coulee (Brumley)	DjOu-2	6	2	0
    Oldman Pincher Creek	DlPm-24	1	1	0
    Oldman Pincher Creek	DJPm-21	5	4	1
    Total		56	38	4
    Percent ‘Yes’		0	67.9	7.1
    ** denotes winter tipi ring

    []

29. The sites examined included DjOu-2 (valley edge), DjOu-42-44 (base of coulee wall). All data come from Barry J. Dau and John H. Brumley. 1987. HISTORICAL RESOURCE INVEST IGAT IONS WITHIN THE FORTY MILE COULEE RESERVOIR. Permit 86-20c. Archaeological Survey of Alberta.[]
30. From Barry J. Dau and John H. Brumley. 1987. HISTORICAL RESOURCE INVEST IGAT IONS WITHIN THE FORTY MILE COULEE RESERVOIR. Permit 86-20c. Archaeological Survey of Alberta.[]
31. From Lifeways of Canada Limited. 1976. Archaeological Impact Assessment Alberta Gas Ethylene company Litd, CNR Rail Spur, AGEC Water Intake and Pipeline Right of Way Red Deer Ethylene Plant Site Area.[]
32. From Brian Ronaghan and Alison Landals. 1981. Final Report Historical Resources Impact Assessment and Conservation Excavation Studies Douglasdale Estates (ASA Permit 81-38).[]
33. Althea Bass. 1967. The Arapho Way. A Memoir of an Indian Boyhood. Clarkson N. Potter.[]
34. “The impact of the blizzards in the southern plains in early 1886 was compounded by conditions later that year, especially on the northern plains. The summer and fall were dry and grass was in poor condition for grazing cattle. The first blizzard of winter occurred on November 22 and 23. Cattle had trouble digging through the snow to reach to grass underneath. In late December the weather turned very cold reaching an unofficial temperature of −35 °F (−37 °C) at Glendive, Montana. Bitterly cold weather returned in late January and a newspaper report said “more snow has fallen this year than any previous year in west Dakota.” Bismarck, North Dakota reported temperatures of −43 °F (−42 °C) on February 1 and 12. The winter weather even reached the West Coast, with snowfall of 3.7 inches in downtown San Francisco setting an all-time record on February 5, 1887.” From: San Francisco Snowstorms”. TheStormKing.com. Mic Mac Media.[]
35. Photograph courtesy of: https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/with-the-rocky-mountains-as-a-backdrop-wind-turbines-at-news-photo/592768076?adppopup=true.[]