Imagining Head Smashed In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains, written by Jack Brink and published by Athabasca University Press, has won the second annual Felicia A. Holton Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America. Brink will receive the award at AIA's Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in January, 2012.
"This is an incredibly important honour for AU Press," said Dr. Frits Pannekoek, President of Athabasca University. "The Archaeological Institute of America is the oldest and most important organization of its kind and its recognition of the work of AU Press and Jack highlights the quality of the books we produce."
Author Jack Brink, who devoted 25 years of his career to "The Jump," has chronicled the cunning, danger, and triumph in the mass buffalo hunts and the culture they supported. He also recounts the excavation of the site and the development of the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, which has hosted more than 2 million visitors since it opened in 1987.
The book has won a number of prestigious awards, including the 2009 best book award from the Society of American Archaeology.
The Felicia A. Holton Book Award is given annually to a writer who, through a major work of non-fiction, represents the importance and excitement of archaeology to the general public.
The Archeological Institute of America was founded in 1879 and boasts nearly 250,000 members. The AIA exists to promote archaeological inquiry and public understanding of the material record of the human past worldwide.
For more information, contact:
John O'Brien
Manager, Communications and Media Relations
Athabasca University
403-990-1131 (cell)
jobrien@athabascau.ca