Medicine Wheels

The central rock pile was 14 feet high with several cairns spanned out in different directions, aligning to various stars. Astraeoastronomers have determined that one cairn pointed to Capella, the ideal North sky marker hundreds of years ago. At least two cairns aligned with the solstice sunrise, while the others aligned with the rising points of bright stars that signaled the summer solstice 2000 years ago (Olsen, B, 2008). Astrological alignments of the five satellite cairns around the central mound of Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel from research by John A. Eddy Ph.D. National Geographic January 1977. MEDICINE WHEELS Medicine wheels are sacred sites where stones placed in a circle or set out around a central cairn. Researchers claim they are set up according to the stars and planets, clearly depicting that the Moose Mountain area has been an important spiritual location for millennia. 23 Establishing Cultural Connections to Archeological Artifacts Archeologists have found it difficult to establish links between artifacts and specific cultural groups. It is difficult to associate artifacts found in burial or ancient camp sites with distinct cultural practices because aboriginal livelihood and survival techniques were similar between cultures in similar ecosystem environments. Nevertheless, burial sites throughout Saskatchewan help tell the story of the first peoples and their cultures. Extensive studies of archeological evidence associated with burial sites have resulted in important conclusions with respect to the ethnicity of the people using the southeast Saskatchewan region over the last 1,000 years. In her Master Thesis, Sheila Dawson (1987) concluded that the bison culture frequently using this area was likely the Sioux/ Assiniboine people. In her thesis she presents the following map showing a likely land use area which clearly overlaps, and at the very least, adjoins the current lands of the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe peoples. THE BETHUNE BURIAL MOUND The Bethune Burial located in the Arm River Valley, northeast of Bethune, Saskatchewan, approximately 200 km from White Bear First Nations, dates to approximately 1400 BP. This site is the only Avonlea8 burial known to date in Canada, and only one of three burials now known in North America. The burial is situated on the top of a knoll with large rocks nearby, and prior to disturbance by cultivation, may have been a secondary mound interment. Secondary interment mounds coincide with the mortuary practices of the Plains people. Rather than one primary burial, whereby a complete body is buried, the Plains mortuary practices involved several stages from scaffolding the dead, removing decomposed flesh, and collecting bones to be interred in a single burial or mass grave (Dawson, 1987). The remains of seven incomplete individuals were recovered from this mound, along with Plains cultural grave goods including an Avonlea projectile point; a biface; an endscraper; a drill; a retouched flake; and an ochre stained antelope bone artifact (Dawson, 1987). 8 Avonlea culture consists of Plains peoples, known to be excellent bison hunters, and believed to be the first group to rely completely on the bow and arrow in Saskatchewan. The Avonlea complex dates from 1750 to 1150 BP and refers to Plain peoples who occupied the north mixed woods and southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northern Wyoming, and Montana (Dawson, 1987). Avonlea Burials tend to be situated on a prominent point of land particularly where protection is offered by a natural rock formation (Dawson 1987, Walker, 1984) 24 Figure 4: Sioux/Assiniboine Land Use Area 25 Chapter 2 – EUROPEAN COLONIZATION The Fur Trade With the beginning of colonization the North American fur trade blossomed as European demand for exotic fur products was fueled by the reciprocal native desire to obtain European goods. The French began their colonization of New France in the St. Laurence River basin in the early 17th century. Since his first encounter, the French Captain Samuel de Champlain, formed an alliance with the Huron and the Algonquin Peoples of the St. Laurence Valley and supported them in their conflicts with their southern neighbours, the Iroquois. The French strategy was to combine colonization and settlement with trade and their efforts allowed them to reach as far as the western tip of Lake Superior by 1618 and by the mid-17th century they had huge supplies of furs flowing into Paris. Also, at the beginning of the 17th century the Dutch wanted to share in the riches of the fur trade and began trading with the Iroquois south of Lake Ontario on the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. With this connection to European markets the Iroquois developed a thirst for trade. As the market demand depleted the furs in their homeland, in 1638 the Iroquois began to conquer the neighbouring tribes, first south of Lake Ontario and then more conflicts developed with their neighbours to the north and west. By the mid-17th century the Iroquois controlled all of the lands surrounding Lake Erie including southern Ontario. These conflicts were known as the Beaver Wars and caused the displacement of many eastern tribes. For example, the Huron were forced northwest into Anishinaabe territory and the Lakota People were pushed westward into the prairies which necessitated a change in their means of survival. In 1664, the English took over the trade with the Iroquois from the Dutch in New York and rekindled trade out of Fort Albany. However, fur bearing animals were becoming depleted in the French trading region around the St. Lawrence River Valley and in the Hudson River Valley forcing the traders to trade further north and west. The Anishinaabe, who occupied lands north of Lake Superior, tried to trade directly with the French and the English posts but the Iroquois intercepted them. Despite efforts of the French to promote peace between the Iroquois and the Anishinaabe, the Iroquois continued their blockade. The history of the conflict between the Anishinaabe and the Iroquois is legendary in frontier history. In summary, after continued provocations by the Iroquois, the Anishinaabe mounted a concerted effort to drive the Iroquois out of southwestern Ontario in a most bloody war. Finally by the beginning of the 18th century the Anishinaabe occupied southern Ontario and the lands north of the Great Lakes. In 1670 the English chartered the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Avoiding the French controlled St. Laurence, the HBC established Moose Factory (1673) and Albany Fort (1679) on the James Bay and at York Factory (1684) further north on the Hudson Bay. These forts accessed rivers flowing from the western frontier. The Cree and eventually the Chipewyan traded at these northern posts. However, during the 1600s these northern 26 posts changed hands between the English and French several times. Queen Anne’s War ended in 1713 with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht. Among its many provisions, the Treaty required France to relinquish all claims to Hudson Bay, which again became a British possession. In 1690, when the posts were held by the English, Henry Kelsey, an early explorer employed by the HBC, traveled with Nakota (Assiniboine) and Cree guides down the Nelson River system reporting that what is now called the southeast Saskatchewan area was occupied by the Nakota and Siouan tribes. This record is reflected the pre-contact occupancy of the Moose Mountain region noted in the pre-contact map in the preface. Meanwhile, during the first half of the 1700s the Anishinaabe, who were known to travel at least as far west as Lake Winnipeg (Saulteaux), enjoyed a period of stability trading at French and English posts. However, after the 7 Years’ War (1760) between the British and French, the British took over control of the St. Lawrence fur trade. These new British trading partners were not as sympathetic to the Anishinaabe as the French and did not respect the traditional trade payments. The English terms of trade placed considerable distress on the Anishinaabe and from 1763 to 1766 the Anishinaabe carried out a war against the British (Pontiac’s Rebellion) until the British sued for peace and promised to respect old trading rules. As proven in the Pontiac conflict, the military organization of the 3 Fires Confederacy, the Ottawa, Potawatomi and the Ojibwe, was proven yet again to be strong and they continued to play a pivotal role in conflicts such as the American Revolution, the Indian Wars that followed as well as the War of 1812. Some Anishinaabe claim that they have never been conquered and this is a testimony to their political and military organization. First Nation Middlemen Before the 7 Years War, (Ending in North America circa 1760) the English traded by establishing posts along the edge of the Hudson and James Bays. The French approach was to establish settlements along rivers and in central locations around the great lakes and down the Mississippi into Louisiana. Both relied upon the natives to bring the furs to their trading posts. The Cree who occupied the woodlands around the Hudson’s Bay were more than willing to make the long voyages to bring furs to the northern posts. The Anishinaabe traded primarily with the French on the St. Lawrence. The Assiniboine also traded alongside their allies the Cree but also traded further south along the western Great Lakes where their territories extended and further south with other colonial groups. The Nêhiyawak (Cree) and the Nakota (Assiniboine) had become allies as a result of a conflict between the Nakota and Dakota. The legend tells that a love triangle caused this conflict (Warren, W, 1885). To protect them from being overwhelmed by the greater numbers of Dakota, the Nakota allied themselves with the Cree, the traditional enemies of the Dakota,. The Cree continued to participate in the fur trade as middlemen, bartering goods for furs with other first nations further west.

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