This paper summarizes progress on an ongoing Canadian Plains ceramic distribution and typology project. For this summary some of the diversity of the many types of pottery present on the Canadian Plains during the Terminal Precontact period (ca 1100 rcybp to Contact). The spatial and temporal distributions of these types are discussed. A discussion of the implications of the diversity of the detailed and well–preserved archaeological record available to Canadian Plains archaeologists is initiated and a few thoughts as to the relationships of that diversity to, among other things, present–day land claims and ethnohistory.

Recently, we have adopted counter-mapping as an alternative approach to interpret the archaeological record of the Northwestern Plains as an imprint of Blackfoot oral traditions. Counter-mapping involves the production of maps of culturally inscribed landscapes of particular groups as a counter to western maps that misrepresent these landscapes. Based on the Cartesian grid, western maps display the geology, topography, hydrology, flora, and fauna as defined by disciplinary specialists. Archaeologists use these data to create the stage and model human behaviour according to a western understanding of the world. To counter map this landscape, researchers must begin by accepting the Blackfoot understanding of the world and thus creating a stage that establishes connections between oral traditions, maps, toponyms and archaeological sites. Using this approach, the homeland of the Blackfoot becomes a managed landscape serving as an archive of Blackfoot oral traditions. Once restricted to reservations, the Blackfoot could no longer visit the places, remember the names, tell the stories, sing the songs, perform the ceremonies, and transmit this information to subsequent generations. Colonization was therefore so much more than the extermination of bison and the appropriation of the homeland.

My long a d convoluted history with Brian Olfert Kemmis Reeves began with my first exposure to archaeological field work in 1963. I had just completed my freshman year at what was then called "The UNiversity of Alberta at Calgary" when the university did not yet have a Department of Archaeology but had announced that one would be established in the coming academic year.  Barney had already been accpeted as a graduate student in the forthcoming department.  That year he was still employed by the Glenbow Museum, and the project I was to participate in with him that summer was funded by and executed by the same instution.  That began a memorable journey for both of us, with our professional and personal association persisting for the best part of the nxt many decades. My comments will relate some of those earliest moments.

In 1958 Richard G. Forbis recorded the first site in the DjPp Borden Block in the Crowsnest Pass– the pictographs in the cave on Crowsnest Lake.  He and his assistant from the Glenbow Foundation’s newly established Department of Archaeology completed a few more site recordings elsewhere in the Pass but no further investigations took place at that time. That came about through the work of Dr. Brian (Barney) O.K. Reeves, to whom most of the credit for our understanding of the archaeology of the Pass is due.  His work there began with a major three-year program of survey and site excavations in 1972, 1973 and 1974, and continued over following years through a mix of field schools, salvage work and graduate student research.  Lifeways of Canada Ltd., established by Barney in 1972 and the first heritage consulting company in Alberta, conducted almost all CRM projects in the Pass for a number of years and I can bring a personal perspective to some of that work.  I will reflect on Barney’s contributions to Crowsnest Pass archaeology, review work done in recent years and revisit ideas of past human use of this intensively studied and important Rocky Mountain pass.

 “Our Mountains are our Pillows” is the title of an ethnographic overview Barney (Brian) Reeves and I worked on over 30 years ago for the US National Parks Service to document the traditional activities of the Piikáni peoples, and others, within the boundaries of Glacier National Park (Reeves & Peacock 2001).  This paper highlights aspects of our multi-year collaboration with Piikáni elders and spiritual leaders in Alberta and Montana, including our extensive ethnobotanical and ethnohistorical fieldwork and the unique perspectives Barney brought to the research.  It concludes by suggesting this work moves beyond a utilitarian management perspective to describe a sacred ecology of the Piikáni peoples, an integration of their traditional beliefs, practices and ecological stewardship centered along Mistakis – the “backbone” – the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.