4 Best Sights in Alberta, Canada

A multilevel interpretive center built into the side of a cliff provides information about the lifestyle, legends, and story of the Blackfoot people at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Exhibits describe the history of the buffalo jump, and a film re-creates the event when native peoples herded buffalo over the cliff to their thunderous death. Trails surround the jump, and tours are given by Blackfoot guides. If you visit on Wednesday in summer you can enjoy native dancing, drumming, and singing. During the summer months you can spend the night in a fully equipped Blackfoot tepee. The site is about 18 km (11 mi) west of Fort Macleod.

Created in partnership with the Stoney Nakoda Nation (Iyarhe Nakoda), this after-dark winter-only multimedia experience includes four multisensory art installations that provide an Indigenous perspective on Banff National Park, which has long been a place of gathering for many Indigenous Peoples. Sounds, lighting, video projections, and other immersive elements allow guests to connect with the mountains and the park in a new way. Visitors can dine at the top of the mountain while watching as the summit of Sulphur Mountain (Mînî Rhuwîn) is transformed with Nightrise.

Across the road from the preserve is Saamis Tepee, the world's largest tepee built for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics in recognition of Alberta's First Nations people.

When Jasper National Park was established in 1907, the Indigenous people who had inhabited the land since time immemorial were forced to leave. Soon after that, a totem pole featuring a Raven was created by Haida carvers and erected for park tourists to enjoy. It stood for 94 years until it was removed and returned to the Haida people who live in an archipelago off British Columbia’s west coast. In 2011, a new totem pole that had been carved by brothers Gwaii and Jaalen Edenshaw replaced the original one. The new totem pole uses imagery of wildlife commonly found in Jasper to tell the story of two brothers who travel from Haidi Gwaii to the Rockies. One of them stays while the other returns home. The totem pole is meant to suggest a connection between the Haida and the Indigenous Peoples of Jasper National Park. It is also intended to be viewed as a gift between Indigenous nations.