Discovery of spearhead sets history on its ear

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What started out as a hobby for Debra Cameron and Shelly Eyahpaise has lead to a major archaeological discovery that could change the history of North America as we know it.

Cameron and Eyahpaise, both of Beardy's, have discovered a fully intact spearhead believed to date from approximately 12,000 BCE. If so, the spearhead would be proof prehistoric hunters were present in the area thousands of years prior to when scientists believe they first arrived on the scene.

The discovery was made in a field not far from Cameron's home on the reserve, though she wishes to keep the exact location secret for now. It was discovered while Cameron and Eyahpaise were searching the field for artifacts.

"We've always looked in plowed fields and summer-fallow for arrowheads and old coins, always surface collecting and never digging."

Eyahpaise was the first to see the spearhead, Cameron said.

"She saw something that was sticking out of the path ahead of me and told me about it. From a distance, we thought it was a piece of broken beer bottle or brown glass, but didn't realize what it was at first."

The spearhead, which has no notches carved into it by which to bind it to a shaft, is believed to be a clovis point, one of the first spear points made by man. It is made of Knife River flint, which is found in Montana. It is completely intact, and surprisingly still retains a sharp cutting edge even after centuries of lying underground.

The significance of this find is monumental, said Cameron, as it is proof that people inhabited the region during a time thought to be part of the ice age, when a great mass of ice covered western Canada.

"When people think of this area and its history, they only seem to go back to 1885," Cameron said, referring to the battle of Duck Lake during the Riel Rebellion. "This takes it back even farther than that. I've found arrowheads here that date back from 400 to 1,800 years ago, and we've found fossils in my own yard that go back millions of years."

Cameron believes that the number of archaeological artifacts found in the area could eclipse those found at Wanuskewin, a national heritage site just north of Saskatoon where evidence of human habitation dating back centuries has been found.

The discovery of this spearhead in Beardy's is one of a flurry of archaeological discoveries that have taken place in the area in recent months. A similar artifact was recently discovered in the town of Davidson, approximately 200 kilometres southeast of Beardy's and Okemasis. The skeleton of a prehistoric giant bison was discovered while crews were building a new bridge in the town of St. Louis, 75 kilometres northeast of the reserve, and last month workers at the Cooke municipal golf course in Prince Albert, 57 kilometres north of Beardy's, stumbled upon what is believed to be the remains of an Aboriginal man dating back 400 to 500 years.

Cameron and Eyahpaise have a theory as to why such discoveries have taken place in this area bounded by the North and South Saskatchewan rivers.

"The old people say that this area between the two rivers has always been settled (by Aboriginal people), as it was an ideal place for our people. It is a place where the tree-line and the plains meet, and there has always been water and game to survive on," said Cameron.

"This land was thought of (by non-Aboriginal people) as useless, but we've always known that it is special," Eyahpaise added. "That's why our chiefs didn't sign treaty right away, because they didn't want to give up this land."

Cameron and Eyahpaise say their discovery has provided them with a link to their ancestors. "When I hold it, my thoughts were of those old people who lived and survived out here" said Eyahpaise. "It's amazing to think that this spear might have been used to kill a giant Bison or mammoth, here on our own reserve."

Both Cameron and Eyahpaise insist that they are not interested in financial gain from their find "We would never sell (the artifact)" said Eyahpaise. "That would be selling our history."

The two would like to see the piece in an Aboriginal museum or perhaps an on-reserve interpretive centre-type setting similar to what's in place at Wanuskewin.