Historical Indigenous Landscapes in a Canadian Prairie City: The Case of the Métis

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

From the early nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century, the settlement that would become the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta, was composed primarily of an historical era Indigenous people called the Métis. Despite their history and enduring presence in Edmonton, the Métis are positioned as peripheral in narratives of Edmonton’s development from historical and archaeological perspectives. The lives of Indigenous peoples throughout the historical period in Edmonton has rarely been explored archaeologically, with a far greater emphasis on prehistoric (often imagined as pre-Edmonton) Indigenous presence being common. A lack of consensus about how to identify historical Indigenous sites and widespread misunderstanding of historic Métis populations contribute to the situation. To better understand the historical Métis presence in Edmonton, and to explore historical urban Indigenous landscapes in a Canadian context, I map Métis land use up to the early twentieth century onto satellite images of Edmonton’s core.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• 2023 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow