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The west, river side of the building incorporates a number of important cultural concepts. In an energy-saving reflective glass curtain wall, gold represents the earth and blue represents the sky. Looking up from the sunburst-patterned floor of the amphitheatre, you see a lattice of cantilevered Sundance poles and stacked Mo- tokiks travois. The light poles around the am- phitheatre are shaped like coup sticks, used by warriors who rode into battle without weapons to demonstrate their bravery. The west-facing wings of the building are like a great hawk, settling down on the prairie. Pre- cast walls blend seamlessly into the adjacent coulee hills on the escarpment. Throughout the building, the design uses prairie colours; the front is the colour of the native soil; the west, valley side matches dried prairie grasses in the fall. The windows that punctuate the diamond patterned precast walls form two segmented arrows — the life force , a symbol used to com- memorate the life-giving energy of the grasses that fed the animals, which in turn, gave the Siksika people life. g The building was designed to accommodate conferences and meetings, and can be rented out for family gatherings and weddings without interfering with most tourist activities. Three teepees behind the gift shop give the sense of being in an ancient camp. Not coinci- dentally, the teepees on the main level (in par- ticular the Elders Lodge) are the dimensions of a Horse Days teepee, about 22’ in diameter. The smaller Dog Days teepee skylights on the roof are the dimensions of pre-horse teepees, when everything had to be carried by camp dogs or the people themselves. The much larger pole structures of the lower gallery represent today’s nation. The finish on the teepees at the main floor level is a polished plaster, tooled to reflect the ap- pearance of a scraped buffalo hide. They have
clockwise from top: life force diagrammed on the west face of the building, Mrs Tom Turned Up Nose with a horse travois (1880s), interlaced travois making the Mokotiks or Buffalo Society women’s lodge (1892), dancing in the interpretive centre amphitheatre, section through the auditorium, the Blackfoot night sky, the roof structure drawn from the form of the Mokotiks travois lodge.
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