Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan River flows east from the plains through a vast delta of lakes, marshes and branching channels before reaching Lake Winnipeg. Its name comes from the Cree kisiskâciwani-sîpiy, “swift-flowing river.” For Indigenous communities the river was both a source of food and a route linking the northern forest with the plains and the waters leading to Hudson Bay.

Henry Kelsey travelled through the lower Saskatchewan country in 1690 and 1691. In 1774 Samuel Hearne established Cumberland House on an island beside Cumberland Lake for the Hudson’s Bay Company. The post was part of the company’s response to traders who met Indigenous suppliers farther inland. Cree knowledge and labour remained central to the movement of furs and provisions along the river and its tributaries.