The original report authored by Meyer has been slightly edited and re-organized by Tim Jones, Saskatchewan Archaeological Society, to appear in the form presented below. It is used here with the permission of Cochrane Engineeing Inc. of Regina, Saskatchewan

Archaeologists divide the sites which they find into three main periods:

1. historic,
2. protohistoric, and
3. prehistoric.

Sites of the historic period are those that contain artifacts which are almost wholly of European manufacture, that certainly date within the period in which Europeans were present in a region and for which period, therefore, we have some documentation. The protohistoric sites are those which contain a small number of European tools along with a predominance of prehistoric tools. During this period Europeans were not present, the trade goods having been obtained through Indian trade networks. Prehistoric sites are those which contain no European goods and, therefore, predate any sort of white influence on technology (Meyer 1977:20).

In far northern Saskatchewan the last glacier receded about 9,000 years ago. At this time flora and fauna were re-established on the newly exposed landscape and, about 8,000 years ago, the first people established occupancy. This initiated the period of prehistoric human occupation of this region, a period which did not end until about 350 years ago.

The Chipewyans of far northern Saskatchewan and the adjacent Northwest Territories are believed to have obtained some European goods as early as the 1620s. In the winter of 1619-20 Jens Munk sheltered in the mouth of Churchill River and, upon his departure, left cabins and boats. The metal from these was salvaged by both Inuits and Chipewyans and, presumably, some found its way far inland (Morton 1973: 32-33). By 1682 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had established trading operations at Port Nelson on the Hudson Bay, south of the Churchill River; however, as the trade was mainly with the Crees, few goods fell into Chipewyan hands. The HBC did endeavour to establish permanent trade with the Chipewyans and sent trading missions to the Churchill mouth in the late 1600s, attempting to construct a trading post there in 1689.

In 1715 an expedition under William Stewart of the HBC was made into Chipewyan territory. At this time, therefore, direct European contact was established, to be quickly followed by the construction of a trading post at Churchill in 1717. After this time the Chipewyans came out to the coast to trade regularly. During the second decade of the 18th century, therefore, historic information on the Chipewyans becomes available. The Chipewyans of this region, then, lived in the protohistoric period for almost a century, from about 1620 to l7l7, in receipt of some European technological items but in the absence of Europeans in their territory.

Chipewyan documented history, therefore, begins about A.D. 1715. However, between 1715 and 1769 the Chipewyans in their territory were on the edge of history only. Effective European presence and documentation of life in this region only begins with the journey of Samuel Hearne in 1769-72 and the establishment of trading posts along the southern border of Chipewyan territory in the 1780s and 1790s. In far northern Saskatchewan and the adjacent Northwest Territories, therefore, the historic period actually begins about A.D. 1770.

For archaeological purposes the historic era is usually divided into two parts, the fur trade period and the contemporary period. The former begins at the time of European contact and is arbitrarily ended in 1900. The contemporary period begins in 1900 and continues through to the present. In summary, these periods and their ages are as follows:

1. historic (a) contemporary. ca. A.D. 1900 to the present
2. protohistoric, ca. 1620-1715
3. prehistoric, pre-1620

The research conducted by Minni, Wright and Gordon has been oriented to very large rivers and lakes and, therefore, their findings may not be directly applicable to the inland region of smaller lakes and streams which characterizes most of the study area. However, sufficient archaeological research has now been carried out in far northern Saskatchewan to allow a broad synthesis of the cultural history and some generalizations concerning the types of terrain chosen for occupation.

The cultural chronology of far northern Saskatchewan is centred about four traditions (see Table following):

1. Palaeo-Indian,
2. Shield Archaic,
3. Arctic Small Tool and
4. Taltheilei

A tradition is defined as a (primarily) temporal continuity represented by persistent configurations in single technologies or other systems of related forms (Willey and Philips 1958: 37). In other words, a tradition refers to archaeological complexes within a given region which, although they change through time, are obviously related. An archaeological complex is the total expression of a number of assemblages left by the same group over a sufficiently narrow time period that the cultural expressions undergo only minor changes... It represents the remains of a group with a shared lifestyle, the same overall tool kit, the same technological attributes (Syms 1977: 71). As charted in the table, the dates of the traditions are shown, with those complexes which have been defined within each tradition. All of the traditions charted in the table are found over a huge area of far northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and north into the barrens of Keewatin and Mackenzie districts. Far northern Saskatchewan is just one section of the distributional range.

While Europeans entered far northern Saskatchewan from its western side in the 1780s and 90s, they also approached from the southeast. By 1792 the Northwest Company had established a post at the head of the Reindeer River (Smythe 1968:226). In 1796 David Thompson of the HBC surveyed the route from Reindeer Lake through Wollaston Lake, to Black Lake and Lake Athabasca. Here, he discovered a stake set up by Turnor in 1791. Thompson and Malcolm Ross established a trading post, Bedford House (1796-1824), on the west side of Reindeer Lake. This post was located about half way up the lake, near the beginning point of a water route to Wollaston Lake (Smythe 1968:226-227). In subsequent years, although trading posts were not built on Wollaston and Black Lakes, posts were established on the eastern arm of Lake Athabasca, particularly in the vicinity of the present community of Fond du Lac. A summary of fur trade activities about the eastern arm of Lake Athabasca is extracted from Saskatchewan Research Council Report C 77-10 (Meyer 1977).

In 1717 a permanent trading post was built at the mouth of the Churchill River, specifically to cater to the Chipewyan trade. However, although the Chipewyans came to trade regularly, little information is available on the extent of Chipewyan territory or concerning their culture and social organization until the 1770s. Between 1769 and 1772 Samuel Hearne travelled with the Chipewyans and his observations are very useful.

James Smith, an anthropologist, has used Hearne's information and pertinent HBC documents for the l9th century, to detail the nature of Chipewyan social organization throughout the fur trade period. Smith has shown that Chipewyan social groups were adapted to the necessities of a subsistence economy based on the barren-ground caribou:

The Chipewyan (including the Yellowknife branch) traditionally exploited the taiga-tundra ecotone stretching from the Seal River north-westward in a great arc to the mouth of the Coppermine River on the Arctic ... Their environmental adaptation was to the migratory and nomadic reindeer or barren-ground caribou ..., the Chipewyan, ... spent the winters within the northern transitional zone of the boreal forest, the summers on the tundra. The periods of the great migrations, early winter and spring, were the times when the Chipewyan congregated in greatest numbers on the migration routes for the great kills utilizing the chute and pound. As the great herds dispersed into smaller bands in their foraging zones, so the Chipewyan dispersed in smaller hunting groups. As the Chipewyan exploited three major caribou populations, the Kaminuriak, Beverly and Bathurst ..., there were similar and equally amorphous socio-territorial units to exploit them, with minor dialect distinctions differentiating those exploiting the different populations - the Yellowknives with the Bathurst herd forming one, the bands between Great Slave Lake and Black Lake and the Beverly herd another, and those from about Lake Wollaston to the Bay following the Kaminuriak (Smith 1976:74).

Smith recognized two major social units, the local band and the regional band, as characteristic of Chipewyan society. In so doing, he employed concepts defined by June Helm, on the basis of her Dogrib research. Helm defined the local band in this way:

... it is distinctive as a spatial grouping together of kinsmen, characteristically structured around a core sibling set, including females as well as males, with their spouses. To nucleated-settlement pattern and core-kin focus must be added some degree of temporal duration to set the local band apart from a kind of task group (Helm 1968:121).

The local band, therefore, appeared as a greatly enlarged extended family. Everyone within the group had either a direct blood, or a marriage tie, with at least one other member. Throughout Subarctic North America in general, local band groups usually numbered from 12 to 50 persons. However, as is discussed below, Chipewyan local bands tended to be larger than this.

Helm defined the regional band as composed of all of the local bands and nuclear family units "within a recognized range or territory":

... the regional band has its social identity as a "people". The total territory yields sufficient materials for the necessities of life ... so that within its domain the regional band can endure as an identity for generations. ... Characteristically, the total constituency of the regional band is not physically together. The families that make up the regional band are most apt to come together when operating as a task group exploiting a resource which allows large assembly, as at a fall fishing camp" (Helm 1969: 119,121).

The regional band is a much larger group than the local band, and is often composed of 150 persons or more in Subarctic North America.

On the basis of the fur trade documents, Smith (1976:83) has determined that, for the Chipewyans, "the range for what may be considered the local band is from about 6 to 28 hunters, or about 30 to 140 persons. Most commonly, winter hunting-trapping bands consisted of from 10 to 20 hunters, or 50 to 100 individuals." According to Smith, the local band was maintained into the 20th century as a social unit important to the Chipewyan of northeastern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba. In this region local bands were present through to the 1960s and after (Smith 1976:20-21).

For the late l9th century and the early 20th centuries Smith (1975:432-438) has recognized five regional bands among the Chipewyans resident in the area between Churchill and Lake Athabasca. These are, with their most frequently utilized hunting and trapping area:

1. the Churchill or Duck Lake band centred about Little Duck Lake in northern Manitoba,
2. the Barren Lands band oriented to Nueltin Lake and frequently resident throughout far northeastern Manitoba,
3. the Hatchet Lake band occupying the area north of Wollaston Lake, with Charcoal Lake a particularly important location,
4. the Black Lake or Stony Rapids Band, occupying the area north and northeast of Black Lake, and
5. the Fond du Lac band whose territory was located north and northeast of Lake Athabasca.

Although these social units have been recognized as characteristic of historic and recent Chipewyan society, Smith and others have been careful to stress the flexible nature of Chipewyan social organization. Local bands frequently broke up and the members joined other local bands or travelled in smaller family groups through the summer. While we may assume that aggregations of several hundreds of people involved in ambushing or corralling caribou during the migrations may have been composed of all of the members of a regional band, at times these gatherings seem to be so large that "outsiders" also must have been present. Evidently, the personnel within social groups changed frequently and the concept of territorial boundaries was not strongly developed.

Northern Saskatchewan, therefore, is within that region utilized historically, and to the present, by the Black Lake/Stony Rapids regional band. It is possible that the eastern portion of the study area, nearer to Wollaston Lake, was sometimes hunted by the Hatchet Lake regional band. Historically and, we believe, prehistorically the Chipewyans occupied these regions in the winter, preying upon the caribou. In the spring they accompanied the caribou north into the barren grounds. Minni (1976 78-79) has summarized the likely prehistoric occupation of the Black Lake area by the Chipewyans in this way:

The basic adaptation of the Chipewyan has not been to a single environmental zone but to a single animal species whose range cross-cuts several environments. This information, along with the seasonal range of the caribou, suggests that the occupation of the Black Lake area by Chipewyan was primarily in the winter. The occupation coincides with the winter range of the Beverly herd and may represent the southern terminus of the major herd range. As such, it is suggested that the Chipewyan occupation of Black Lake relates to hunting of the foraging sub-groups or of the more widely dispersed males. Hunting along the major seasonal migration routes would have occurred farther north before the herds reached their winter range.

Minni's last comments probably apply to the whole of the study area and, therefore, we may expect that local archaeological sites should be small - much smaller than those left by the larger aggregations of people which took place farther to the north.