The Healing Site

Wind River Research Services and the Manitoba Archaeological Society (MAS)initiated the Selkirk Healing Site Pubilc Archaeology Project in the fall of 2002. The field component of the program ran during the summers of 2003 and 2004, With the analytical, exhibit, edukit and final report stages following from 2005 to 2008.

Further details about this site can be found in the Manitoba Archaeological Journal - Public Archaeology and Research at the Healing Site. To order a copy, please contact the MAS at mbarch@mts.net.

The following is an excerpt from the journal which starts off with a story of the Healing Site as it is told through archaeology...

We returned to our camping place on the river in the fall, spending our time fishing, hunting and trapping. The women made pots from clay dug along the river's banks, picked berries and plums, and gathered firewood. The skins we got during our hunting trips were made into clothes, moccasins and
new covers for our tipis. We made stone scrapers for preparing the hides. We have used many scrapers and some of them broke. Our hunting trips were so successful that we have much work to do. Winter will be here soon. The tendons from the bison and deer legs were stripped away. We use them for sewing and fastening handles for our tools. The whistle I was carving for the big ceremony broke and I left it to the fire. I am carving a new wooden handle for a knife. I will give this to my son. My wife is making a sheath for it. She will decorate it with dyed quills and stone beads. The beads were made from the last of the pipestone we brought back from our trip to the river in the East last year....

To learn and read more about the Healing Site, order the journal from the MAS at mbarch@mts.net

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