Distinctly Montana Magazine

44 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 B ETWEEN 65 AND 90 MILLION YEARS AGO, ammonites, a shelled ancestor of the modern squid, thrived along what is now called the Bear Paw Shale. These creatures of the Western Interior Seaway swam among the cephalopods, turtles, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs, dodging the jaws of larger predators and, sometimes, succumbing to them. As the seaway retreated, some of these sea beasts got caught in clay and over millennia became fossils. Today, they are a treasure trove for paleontolo- gists, who study them in Montana and Alberta. But they were no less important to the Native American tribes who encountered them for hundreds of years. A particular ammonite variety known as the baculite was espe- cially sacred, for as baculite fossils erode they break into smaller bits that resemble the profiles of bison. They are known as buffalo calling stones, or in Blackfoot "Iniskim;" eons after the creature had lived, died, and turned to stone, such a fragment would find itself, after a long journey through space and time, nestled among the prairie brush. If someone walked by, they might faintly hear the sound they were said to make, described by ethnographer George Grinnell in his Blackfoot Lodge Tales as a "peculiar faint chirp." Those blessed to hear the noise did well to search for the source, as it was an object of great power. The first to find an Iniskim was the wife of a hunter. It was during a time of starvation. First the bison disappeared. Then the small game was hunted until the supply was nearly exhausted. One day, the hunter husband was lucky to bag a small jackrabbit, telling his wife to go to the river and gather water in which to cook the rabbit. While there, she heard the bison calling stone singing a song, according to Grinnell's version of the tale: The woman was frightened and dared not pass the tree. Pretty soon the singing stopped, and the I-nis´-kim [buffalo rock] spoke to the woman and said: "Take me to your lodge, and when it is dark, call in the people and teach them the song you have just heard. Pray, too, that you may not starve, and that the buffalo may come back. Do this, and when day comes, your hearts will be glad." According to the story, the woman returned to her people and did as the stone told her. Almost immediately they heard a gathering rumble—the buffalo returning en masse. Word spread quickly among bands of Blackfeet. From then on, buffalo call- ing stones would be sacred objects, highly sought after, and rubbed in red ochre to emphasize their power. In Invisible Re- ality: Storytellers, Storytakers, and the Supernatural World of the Blackfeet, Indigenous writer Rosalyn R. Lapier mentions several similar objects, such as "'worm rocks,' which controlled insects that might be harming their edible plants, ...'oyster rocks' to cross over rivers, [and] 'copper rocks' that made humans stron- Buffalo Calling Stones, Stinging, by NICK MITCHELL

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