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Last Updated: May 8th, 2008 - 20:33:00
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When the buffalo were scarce in the past, a legend tells of a Blackfoot woman going out and looking for guidance about how to feed and clothe the tribe.
“She came along and found one of the ammonite that she thought was a beautiful rock. She took it back to the tribe and, within a short time, the buffalo came back,” said Beth Day Chief, one of the owners of the Buffalo Rock Mining Company.
The story inspired the name of Day Chief and her husband Tracy Day Chief’s company, Buffalo Rock Mining Company.
Day Chief said it’s the first aboriginally owned mining company mining for ammonite and she is appreciative of Blood Tribe chief and council and Indian Affairs for giving them the opportunity to start the company on the Blood Reserve.
The mining began six short weeks ago, but Day Chief and her husband started looking into doing the mining five years ago and incorporated their company more than two years ago, with shareholders and marketers Cathy and Todd Spencer coming on board. They eventually hope to employ 25 people from the Blood Tribe.
The company has taken special precautions with the site, 10 kilometres southwest of the Lethbridge County Airport, close to the St. Mary River. They’ve had Fisheries and Oceans Canada come in and elder Bruce Wolf Child examine the site because it’s close to the river and a buffalo jump.
A past campsite with teepee rings and a couple of gravesites are also nearby, so the company is told where they are able to mine and where they cannot.
“Once we’re done two acres, we have to reclaim the site to make it look exactly like it was before we started. So that is really important to the tribe that we do not disturb the land,” Day Chief said.
She said they expect to be on the current site for the next three years and, besides the elasmosaur, they have already uncovered about 40 recycling bins of ammonite, which they hope to eventually sell not just locally, but internationally. A large fully intact ammonite fossil can be worth $15,000.
“It’s really exciting to get to this point,” Day Chief said. “It’s been a long hard road to get here, but it is worth it.
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