Great Plains People edit
The land in Saskatchewan was first believed to been populated by Paleo-Indians around 9,500 BCE. These were hunter-gatherer societies who mainly hunted big game, such as bison.
Eventually Saskatchewan became populated with Great Plains Indian peoples.
The records of the first people near Willow Bunch are few, but they left behind a piece of themselves at the St. Victor petroglyphs. St. Victor is 19 km west of Willow Bunch. The petroglyphs are carvings of many Great Plains Indian symbols. Carvings include several variations of human faces, many types of hooves, turtles, grizzly bear paws, and human handprints. These were carved into the rock faces approximately AD 500-1700. Since there are no carvings of horses or horse hooves, researchers assume the carvings were created before 1750; the approximate year horses arrived in the northern part of the plains. The carvings use may have been for records or as a way of communication, but researchers are unsure[1].
The petroglyphs are located on a hill with a grand view of the surrounding area. This may have been a resting spot for nomadic peoples at the time. These peoples could have been Assiniboin, Cree, Cree-Assiniboin or Siouan. From the style of the carvings it is believed that they may have been carved by Siouan speakers. Sioux-speaking cultures include the Dakota, Nakota and Lakota[2].
The Assiniboin inhabited the area near South-east Saskatchewan[3]. They were an off-shoot of Yanktonais in the south[4]; it is believed this split occurred around 1550. They were also called asini-pwat, Stoney Sioux, Stoneys or opwa-si-mu[5]. The Assiniboin referred to themselves as Nakota, which meant they were Siouan speakers[6]. They became close allies with the Cree, who came as “invaders” from areas north and east of the prairies[7]. The Assiniboin were referred to as “cultural godfathers to the Plains Cree in introducing them into many of the ways of the Plains life”[8]
The Cree spoke a variety of Algonquian languages and are said to have taken over areas that had formerly been that of the Assinibion or Gros Ventre. They were also a nomadic band, which explains their movement into the territory now known as Saskatchewan.
The Gros Ventre were Algonquian-speaking. They had originally been allies with Blackfeet, also Algonquian-speaking. However, the Gros Ventre later allied with the Assiniboins until the Cree invaded the area. The two struggled to get along and the Gros Ventres began to relocate[9].
Cree and Assinibions eventually became great allies around 1730-1775. Their alliance became so strong that they began to intermarry into a band known as the Cree-Assiniboin or nehiopwat[10]. This band, Cree-Assiniboin, inhabited areas by Wood Mountain, 105 km west of Willow Bunch. However, they eventually moved to the Piapot area, which is 346 km west of Willow Bunch[11].
It was around 1679 that Cree-Assiniboin created an alliance with the Sioux, who traded almost exclusively with the French[12].
The Canadian Sioux had traveled north from America[13]. Those around Wood Mountain were known as Titunwan or Tetons; members of the Hunkpapa sub-band. Tetons is another term for a Lakota Sioux. The Lakota Sioux would eventually settle in the Wood Mountain area[14]. --Lacellem (talk) 21:28, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
References edit
- ^ Government of Saskatchewan - St. Victor Provincial Park
- ^ Wishart, David J., 1998, Great Plains Indians,page 185
- ^ Ibid. page 33
- ^ Howard, James, 1984, The Canadian Sioux, page 4
- ^ Mandelbaum, David. 1979, The Plains Cree, page 8
- ^ Howard, page 4
- ^ Mandelbaum, page 3
- ^ Mandelbaum, page 8
- ^ Carlson, Paul. 1998,The Plains Indians, page 33
- ^ Mandelbaum, page 9
- ^ Ibid. page 10
- ^ Ibid. page 21
- ^ Howard, page 1
- ^ Ibid. page 15