Artifacts tell story of Winnipeg’s past
Finds unearthed on site of rights museum
WINNIPEG Tools, pieces of ceramic pots and other artifacts dating as far back as 900 years are shedding new light on the role an area of modernday Winnipeg played in aboriginal lives.
Officials with the Canadian Museum For Human Rights, along with archeologists, revealed Wednesday some of the 400,000 artifacts retrieved during construction of the building, which sits at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers — a place where aboriginals gathered for centuries.
Some fragments of ceramic pottery include a mixture of styles seen in First Nations pieces to the south and west.
The discovery reinforces the idea that The Forks, as the site is known, was a meeting place of different cultures, said Mireille Lamontagne, the museum’s manager of education programs.
“So we start to ask questions as to how were people travelling, were they inter-marrying and then sharing those traditions?”
The dig also uncovered 191 hearths or fire pits, which may suggest The Forks was more than just a gathering place — it may have also seen seasonal habitation.
Archeologists also found maize and bean residues on ceramics, as well as hoe fragments, which suggests farming took place there centuries ago.
Officials cautioned, however, that the farming implements could have been brought in from elsewhere.
Another find — an intact ceremonial pipe — is similar to those made by aboriginals far to the south and further supports the notion that sophisticated trade networks existed, Lamontagne said.
The fact that artifacts from many cultures were found in one place also backs oral histories among local aboriginals concerning a large peace gathering of more than a halfdozen First Nations about 500 years ago.
The Forks was a location prized by many, Lamontagne said.