Boulder Erratics

Boulder erratics are giant stones that the Ice Age glaciers carried out onto the prairies and then dropped when the ice melted. There they are, all alone out there in the grass, making a good place for a hawk to rest, swatching it with white excrement flags that have nothing to do with surrender. Or maybe a big cat will jump up on top on a warm summer day, to bake in the sun and doze where it can see in every direction. Most often in the old days the buffalo come to scratch their itchy hides, especially when they were shedding and the great mangy patches of winter fur came off in rug-sized pieces. The buffs circled round and round, pushing against the stone, so that they wore a ring path around the outside. Then came the rain or snow and the ring was a mini-moat, holding enough moisture that plants found the location friendly. When the boulder was warm, they bloomed. Now it's up to the cattle and horses to create that little ecology.

The Blackfeet had a lot of stories about these boulders. They figured that now and then they came to life, like a slide chute on the side of a mountain, and just moved themselves on as they pleased. Napi was often said to have been pursued by such a boulder -- deservedly, no doubt.

Over centuries of standing on the prairie, the boulders became landmarks and then, eventually, altars where people left small signs: tobacco tied up in calico, sweetgrass braided, a complex of beads, in later years maybe a note on paper. They were and are a distinctive place to pray.

The boulder in this photo has been underground for ten thousand years. It was dug up by earth-moving equipment when the road was rebuilt. There is no moss or lichen yet. The edges have not been polished as they would have been in buffalo days. But there it is -- looking rather like a buffalo itself. What does it know about the underground, where the old people thought the buffalo must have gone when they disappeared?

Maybe the badger that has dug its hole into the dirt underneath could tell us.