From Glaciers to Grasslands: Nakoda-Stoney-Sibbald Flat

Standing on a lateral moraine looking over Sibbald Flat where Sibbald Creek, Bateman Creek, Moose Creek and Jumpingpound Creek converge, we can easily imagine the presence of paleo-Indians who hunted here as the glaciers retreated.

The camping tradition at Sibbald Lake which spans several cultures and at least 11, 000 years continues today. It is with cruel irony that this area should be named after Howard E. Sibbald, an Indian agent (1901-1904) turned Banff National Park game warden (1909-). He was the Indian agent when the outer boundaries of Banff National Park were enlarged to encompass nearly all the hunting grounds of the Stoney-Nakoda First Nations and although he understood that the Stoney "took the enlargement of the Banff National Park very hard" he became a fierce opponent of First Nations hunting rights. So there it is, visitors to this area come away with his name on their photos! This region is associated with some of the oldest archaeological evidence of paleo-Indian hunting dating from the Plano Period (10,000 - 8,000 BP) as the glaciers retreated (now revised to as far back as 13, 000 years ago), the Assiniboine hunters of the 1700s and the Siouan-speaking Nakoda-Stoney who probably arrived in Banff in historic times-almost certainly after 1790, and perhaps not until the mid-1800s but they knew the place well by 1870. Surveyors and explorers of the late nineteenth century typically turned to Stoney guides, and as a result many landforms in Banff National Park are still known by their Stoney names.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Nakoda-Stoney
• Kananaskis
• Alberta
• archeaology

[paleomangary]

I give anything to dig around there.