Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques

The Pre-Dorset Culture in Manitoba

The first occupants of the shores of Hudson Bay were the people of the Pre-Dorset Culture who came from their ancestral homeland in Alaska, about 1500 B.C. In winter, they lived in snow houses with central hearths; and during warmer months in skin tents. Their diet varied according to season: seal in the winter, large sea mammals and fish in summer. In the fall they hunted migrating caribou. In this area archaeologists have discovered small delicate stone tools which were used for cutting, scraping, piercing, and chiselling. These reveal the peoples' skill in adapting to this rugged subarctic environment.

By 1000 B.C. the climate had warmed and the treeline shifted to the north. As Indian people came in from the south, the Pre-Dorset people moved northward out of what is now Manitoba.