Aboriginal History Unit: The Early Period

With the retreat of the glaciers, southern Saskatchewan transformed from an Arctic steppe-like environment populated by camel, musk-ox, horse, and mammoth, to grasslands and parkland where the bison was the dominant animal. Thus was established the foundation of a lifestyle that continued for about 330 generations of plains-dwelling First Nations people. Most of our evidence for the early occupation of Saskatchewan comes from surface sites - individual artifacts or clusters of artifacts that have been exposed by erosion. However, in rare instances, a few intact sites have been found and excavated.

 

The Parkhill Site: An Agate Basin Surface Collection in South Central Saskatchewan

Approximately 7000 to 8000 years ago, people who made Agate Basin points gathered on a gravelly moraine that provided a commanding view of both the Missouri Coteau and Glacial Lake Moose Jaw. They probably came to hunt bison, which in those days was a much larger animal than is today's bison. These people left behind hundreds of points, bifaces, scrapers, and flaking debris.

2 Agate Basin projectile points from the Parkhill site (EbNj-4).

The people who came to the Parkhill site had far-flung contacts. Non-local stone material found at the site came from the Swan River valley (west central Manitoba), central North Dakota, southwestern Saskatchewan, and possibly even Montana. We don't know if they travelled to these places or obtained this material through trade.

For further information contact the Curator of Aboriginal History

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