Of the LANDWanuskewin Heritage Park near Saskatoon is working to connect non-Indigenous and Indigenous people to 6,000 years of the region’s First Nations heritage BY AARON KYLIE OTH FIRST NATIONS and non-First Nations people come to this “ park, and a lot of them say, ‘When I come out here I feel differ- ent,’ ” says Ernie Walker. He’s standing amid prairie grass near the edge of the BOpamihaw Buffalo Jump, used some 2,300 years ago by Indigenous Peoples of the northern plains at the confluence of the South Saskatchewan River and Opimihaw Creek, a big cloud-filled, blue prairie sky overhead. “I’m a hard scientist,” he continues. “I believe in the As and Bs and Cs of things. But I do recognize that there are other stories here. Lots of other stories.” Looking more farmhand than world-renowned archeologist in his green University of Saskatchewan ball cap, plaid shirt, dusty blue jeans and cowboy boots, Walker is touring a group of visitors around Wanuskewin Heritage Park, an Indigenous cultural site a 15-minute drive from down- town Saskatoon that has a history dating back more than six millennia. It’s not unusual in the summer to find Walker stooping over a one-square- metre excavation unit here. There are likely few, if any, more qualified to share stories from this 240-hectare national historic site. A professor in the department of archeology and anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan, Walker was, in 1982, the first to identify 19 pre-European-contact archeological sites in the terraces and point bars in T.J. Warren, a prairie chicken dancer, the creek valley bottom and coulee depressions that now form the bulk of and his daughter Omiyosiw the park, which opened in 1992. Despite being one of its founding board Nazbah Warren, a jingle dress members, Walker hasn’t lost his taste for fieldwork, spending the past 35 dancer, visit Wanuskewin years meticulously digging artifacts out of Wanuskewin’s dirt. Heritage Park for a ceremony. CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC TRAVEL 45 WANUSKEWIN O p i m i Dog Child h a site w SASKATCHEWAN C r e e Wanuskewin Wolf Willow k Heritage Park site Saskatoon Interpretive Regina Centre WANUSKEWIN HERITAGE PARK HERITAGE WANUSKEWIN Trail 0 250 m Archeological site e w a n R i c h v e a t r s k a S Medicine wheel t h u o S There are countless treasures from this site on the west bank realized in the very early days that this is about First Nations Clockwise from opposite bottom: The park’s medicine wheel; trails of the South Saskatchewan River that promise a transformative culture and history, and we wanted First Nations people to be wind around archeological sites and a teepee encampment; the experience during any visit — tours and cultural programs, six a fundamental part of this. And that’s how it got built.” Wanuskewin dance troupe performs near the Interpretive Centre. kilometres of trails, teepee encampments and an interpretive centre with galleries showcasing the work of local and inter- “WANUSKEWIN BRINGS PEOPLE together,” says park elder sun dances, medicine lodge ceremonies, vision quests, burials, national Indigenous artists. But visitors who have the great Jake Sanderson, 70. “It’s not only First Nations people but alignment with astronomical phenomena (although there fortune of running into Walker while exploring Wanuskewin people from around the world. It’s nice to see other nations appear to be none associated with the Wanuskewin wheel) and are sure to gain an even greater appreciation for the sacred come and shake hands and tell us their stories.” calendrical purposes. The presence of the medicine wheel at place that in Cree means “being at peace with oneself.” No artifact illustrates the longstanding historical and cultural Wanuskewin is extremely important. After all, Walker’s knowledge of Wanuskewin’s past is so importance of Wanuskewin as a meeting place better than the “The keepers of the stories of ancient times were connected great that local First Nations people named him Miyo Teyasew medicine wheel. One of the site’s most interesting archeologi- to spiritual places here on Mother Earth,” says Sanderson. “And (Red Thunderbird) and made him an honorary chief. cal finds, the wheel is on a ridge in the southwest corner of the one of them, the main one, was the medicine wheel. The park that overlooks the South Saskatchewan River and offers a spokes were points to different sacred places on Turtle Island “IF YOU WERE STANDING here 12,000 years ago and looked buffalo jump sites, precipices that drew almost every pre- 360-degree view of the surrounding plains. and the world.” off to the northeast, you would see a mile-high block of ice. European-contact Indigenous group known to inhabit the Great The wheel consists of a seven-metre-diameter central stone Local Indigenous Peoples use the wheel today as a site for That would be the waning Wisconsin Glacier,” says Walker, Plains here — Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Nakota cairn and a 13-metre-wide outer ring of rocks. There are also offerings, ceremonies and songs. And the larger park continues setting the scene for how this dried-up creek valley became a and Dakota. Year after year they followed the bison. at least five smaller stone cairns, spaced between one and 17 to be a meeting place for these and other First Nations from hot spot for Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years before “Bison are a critical part of the story,” says Walker, noting metres away in all directions and many boulders scattered across North America. At the end of June each year, it hosts a Europeans arrived on the continent. that by 2018, the park expects to reintroduce a herd of geneti- within the larger structure itself. major celebration that kicks off the northern plains powwow As the glacier melted, Lake Saskatchewan formed in the cally pure plains bison as part of its larger expansion plans, One of fewer than 100 known medicine wheels on the north- season. About 50 sweat ceremonies are held here annually, as vicinity of present-day Saskatoon. As ice dams in the area which include a campaign to be named a UNESCO World ern plains — and the northernmost of them all — it’s believed are numerous blessings, smudge ceremonies and other Native melted in subsequent centuries, meltwater and lake water cut Heritage Site. to have been created about 1,500 years ago. Unlike many medi- cultural art events. Saskatchewan’s Federation of Sovereign through the landscape in a series of water channels that created “Bringing plains bison back to the park is a symbol of resil- cine wheels, there are no spokes connecting the central cairn Indigenous Nations holds meetings and ceremonies at a braided river system. About 7,000 years ago, explains Walker, ience and adaptation,” says Walker. “It’s a good analogy for and the outer ring. Wanuskewin, which has also hosted Indigenous groups from the present-day Saskatchewan River dug deeper into its trench, what First Nations cultures have gone through — signing trea- “I describe it as a gift from a creator,” says Sanderson, who Nunavut, Haida Gwaii and Arizona interested in implementing and other small channels dried up, further shaping the distinct ties, being moved off to reservations, disease, residential was born and raised on the James Smith Cree Nation near similar preservation initiatives. geography of the park’s centrepiece Opimihaw Valley, because schools and all of that.” Prince Albert and still lives in the area. “The spirit gave us this “This is arguably one of Canada’s top high-priority cultural where an important tributary of the mighty South Saskatchewan The return of bison to Wanuskewin is also symbolic in medicine wheel, to all the people, to all the animals and every- projects,” says Walker. “We’re about the arts. We’re about First once ran there is now just a minor creek. another way. The very animals that brought Indigenous Peoples thing in this world and in this universe.” Nations’ interests. We’re about science. We’re about ecology Opimihaw Creek, which means “flying man” in Cree, has to this land in the first place are essentially responsible for the Cultural experts believe medicine wheels served a range of and stewardship.” meandered over the years, eroding its way across the valley and amazingly intact and complete record of cultural development religious and ceremonial activities, which may have included carving out new banks. It’s those steep banks, with their 40- to in the region. MORE THAN ANYTHING, Wanuskewin seems to be about 50-metre drops from the lip of the surrounding prairie, that “It’s a phenomenal archeological resource,” says Walker of Aaron Kylie (@aaronkylie) is Canadian Geographic Travel’s editor. connecting people — both Indigenous and non-Indigenous provided good shelter, particularly in winter, and created ideal the ongoing discoveries being made at Wanuskewin. “We PARK. OPPOSITE PAGE: WANUSKEWIN HERITAGE PREVIOUS SPREAD: TOURISM SASKATOON. MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO THIS PAGE: TOURISM SASKATOON; from any background — to the cultures and history of the 46 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC TRAVEL SUMMER 2017 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC TRAVEL 47 WANUSKEWIN northern plains of North America. And the place does make Archeologist Ernie Walker (left), one of the park’s co-founders, you feel different, even if you can’t explain why. has overseen much of the excavation work (right) at Wanuskewin. That’s certainly how I feel, my hands dusty from digging in To date, nine of 19 pre-European-contact sites have been explored. a one-metre-square excavation unit, as I discover a bison toe in the small section of dirt I’m clearing.