(1793) The Dakota were opposed to the fur trade in the Souris basin and wanted the Assiniboine to stop trading with the fur traders. During a battle held in this approximate location, the Dakota wiped out an entire Assiniboine village.
(10,000 BC - Present) The unique environment provided by the Lauder Sandhills attracted bison, which appealed to the early peoples who came to camp and live there.
(1780) Spurred on by the Dakota, the Mandans waged several battles against the Assiniboine. This was closely following the dissolution of an alliance between the Mandan and the Assiniboine.
Skull Swamp is an example of the ingenuity possessed by post glacial societies in their bison hunting techniques and how they used the existing landscape to their advantage.
(900 – 1400 AD) Artifacts from these thousand year-old burial mounds indicate the trade relations that existed upon the plains before convenient modes of transportation.
The site of an old trading post. Artifacts such as musket balls, trading beads, broken dishware, a rusty knife and some native artifacts were turned up here as a result of cultivation.
(1780-1845) The site of an earthenlodge village belonging to either Mandan or Hidatsa existed on this site. Mandan villages along the Missouri River were connected to Canadian fur trading posts via the Mandan Trail.
(1500-1781) The ruins of a large Mandan village exists at this site. Remains of earthlodges, refuse mounds and two surrounding ditches are clearly discernible. Mandan villages were connected to Canadian fur trading posts via the Mandan Trail.
(1100-1845) At this site is a prehistoric earthlodge village surrounded by a large fortification ditch with four clearly defined bastions. Mandan villages along the Missouri River were connected to Canadian fur trading posts via the Mandan Trail.
(Pre 1600 - 1885) The Boundary Commission Trail was the first “highway” to the west, carrying First Nations to and fro, Métis on buffalo hunts and finally Europeans looking for rich farmland.
The Mandan Trail was a primary artery of travel and trade between the Assiniboine River Forts and the Missouri River where the Mandan First Nations lived.
(Pre 1790 - 1886) The Yellow Quill Trail began as a trade route used by First Nations but served as a convenient avenue of travel for pioneering Europeans as well.
(1877 – 1913) Dakota Chief H'Damani convinced the government to grant him and his band a square mile of land on the slopes of Turtle Mountain – the smallest First Nation's Reserve in Canada.
