I’ve been hoping to write about this amazing story for quite a while. Thankfully, well preserved archaeological sites are forgiving that way: they just keep getting older! Radio-carbon dating shows charcoal samples from the site, located about five kilometers north of Prince Albet, Saskatchewan, to be 10,600-10,800 years old. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly 6,000 years older than the Pyramids in Egypt.
The photo above is credited to SLFN in a online news story from the University of Saskatchewan that “identifies the site as one of the oldest known Indigenous sites on the continent” and “confirms that highly organized societies existed in the region far earlier than previously believed.”
According to Glenn Stuart, UofS Professor of Anthropology, “This discovery challenges the outdated idea that early Indigenous peoples were solely nomadic. The evidence of long-term settlement and land stewardship suggests a deep-rooted presence. It also raises questions about the Bering Strait Theory, supporting oral histories that Indigenous communities have lived here for countless generations.”
The long-term effort to protect and study the site is in the hands of the Âsowanânihk Council, which includes SLFN Elders, Knowledge Keepers, teachers and youth working alongside archaeologists from the University of Saskatchewan and University of Calgary.
The photo above is from the UofS story, and credit to Sturgeon Lake First Nation. The video below is a CTV news story shared from YouTube.
