This 11,000-Year-Old Village Discovered In Canada Is Changing The Notion That Early Indigenous People Were Nomadic
In central Canada, a newly uncovered 11,000-year-old settlement is challenging the notion that early Indigenous people were nomadic.
The village of Âsowanânihk, which means “a place to cross” in the Cree language, is one of the oldest archaeological sites in North America. It suggests that an organized sedentary society existed in Canada much earlier than previously thought.
“The revelation of an 11,000-year-old pre-contact settlement—one of the oldest known Indigenous sites on the continent—confirms that highly organized societies existed in the region far earlier than previously believed,” stated the University of Saskatchewan.
“This places it among some of the world’s most well-recognized ancient sites, such as the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge in England, and Göbekli Tepe in Turkey—each known for their immense historical significance and their role in shaping human civilization.”
Âsowanânihk is located in the Sturgeon Lake First Nation (SLFN) in central Saskatchewan. Evidence from the site includes fire pits, stone tools, and bison bones.
According to Glenn Stuart, an archaeologist at the University of Saskatchewan, the presence of a large fire pit indicated that the site was used for a long period of time, or for several shorter periods.
The settlement was most likely a long-term camp where Indigenous hunters harvested the now-extinct Bison antiquus.
From one of the hearths, charcoal was dated to about 10,700 years ago, which meant that people were living at the settlement just after the end of the last ice age when the land was finally suitable for plant growth.
“This indicates that people arrived in this location as soon as it was habitable and then continually reoccupied the site for thousands of years. Ancestral First Nations have been living in the area west of [the city of] Prince Albert for as long as it has been possible to live in the area,” Stuart said.
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The discovery also raises questions about the Bering Strait Theory, supporting the idea that Indigenous communities have lived in the region for many generations.
The Bering Strait Theory speculates that humans crossed a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska around 13,000 years ago, populating North America for the first time.
However, oral histories passed down in Indigenous groups in Canada and the United States have contradicted this hypothesis.
Instead, they suggested that smaller groups crossed the bridge over different periods of time. Oral histories also described the area as a center of trade and cultural exchange. Until now, there was no physical evidence to back this up.
The Âsowanânihk Council is calling for protective measures to be implemented immediately for the site since it faces possible damage from nearby logging and industrial activity.
In the future, the council hopes to turn the site into an educational opportunity to teach the community about the land’s cultural background.
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