Team Challenges:

The project expands on work previously conducted in the three prairie provinces of Western Canada. Research is concentrating on five "time slices" from the past: 500, 1500, 3,000, 6000 and 9000 years ago. The research team is working to better understand human-environmental interactions in locales of high biodiversity over time. To do this, the team is investigating how the cultural and biophysical landscapes of the areas have changed through time.

Team Opportunities:

The multi-disciplinary approach of the project is providing an unprecedented opportunity to create a holistic view of the past lifeways and the cultural processes that guided and enabled the survival and progress of Aboriginal Peoples living within the Canadian Prairies Ecozone over the millennia.

The project is providing opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to work on a major project in a multi-disciplinary context. Students are participating in field work under expert supervision. The project is also providing data for undergraduate and graduate theses. The team is actively encouraging Aboriginal students to participate in all aspects of this project.

Goals:

• The reconstruction of the natural and cultural landscapes in selected locales at several time intervals between 500 and 9,000 years before present.
  
• The collection of data on landscape use in areas of high biodiversity within the Canadian Prairies Ecozone at selected intervals in the Precontact Period.
  
• Developing an understanding of the perceptions and responses of Aboriginal groups to the environmental changes and opportunities provided by these landscapes through time.
  
• The identification of the ways in which Aboriginal groups intentionally modified their environment to maintain or enhance resource potential.
  
• The use of Geographical Information Systems technology to model the data collected.