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Beginnings
 There
was a theory that people arrived in America about 11,000
years ago during the Ice Age, over a land bridge between
what we know as Siberia and Alaska. The land bridge,
called Beringia, was created by the
displacement of water on land as ice and snow. Sea levels dropped
low enough to create the land bridge.
Nomadic
hunters who followed animals across the land bridge migrated south along an ice-free zone on the eastern side of the Rockies.
This theory is now in doubt as there have
been discoveries of habitation sites 500 to
1000 years before Beringia existed. Other routes
were probably used by those who arrived so early,
although scientists are still investigating this theory.
The oldest sites of habitation found
in Alberta are from 11,500 years ago. Archaeological
evidence suggests there
were two distinctive groups in this period, the
Clovis and
Folsom peoples,
identifiable by their spear tips.
The mid-1700s brought the first European traders
to Alberta. The Europeans met
many different Aboriginal Peoples, each with their own way of life and distinctive culture. Different peoples tended to live in different regions of the province and
each had developed a way of life that was based on the specific natural and
physical characteristics of their home territories. Plains groups, such as the
Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai, relied heavily on buffalo as a source
of food, clothing and shelter.
Further north the Woods Cree and some
Nakoda tended to hunt and
collect food in the Parkland region in summer, before moving north and west into
the foothills and boreal forests to winter. They too hunted large mammals,
including buffalo, but their way of life required more attention to fishing and
trapping. Many of the Athapaskan-speaking peoples, such as the Chipewyan,
were different. They hunted caribou that moved between the boreal forest in
winter and the Barrens in summer.
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Heritage Community Foundation Presents
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