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Local: Saskatoon History - Native Indians

The plains region of southern Saskatchewan was home to large numbers of buffalo, and many thousands of native Indians who lived off them. The Wascana River are was ideal for building buffalo pounds, pens for capturing and then killing buffalo. The meat was then washed and left to dry on the flat ground, and the bones were piled up. The Cree believed that the living buffaloes would not leave the bones of the dead buffalo, and that as long as there was a pile of bones, there would be buffalo to hunt.

Saskatoon and the surrounding area has been inhabited for over 6,000 years, the earliest residents were members of the Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine and Plains Cree tribes. There cultures were similar, with their main source of food coming from bison hunters, traveling as far as Montana and South Dakota in the U.S.

The surrounding tribes used an area just north of present day Saskatoon as a winter camp. The site, Wanuskewin, was and is still a place of spiritual power, and has both mortal and supernatural protectors.

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