Study sheds light on First Nations society

Rather than living as simple hunters and gatherers, First Nations people of the Canadian prairies some 2,000 years ago formed a complex society, says a university archaeologist.

Dr. Dale Walde of the University of Calgary said he’s unearthed evidence pointing to a theory that pegs area aboriginals first developing impressive social structures some 1,700 years earlier than many researchers believe.

“I was exploring the question of how sophisticated these people might be,” said Walde of his recent article published in World Archaeology in response to papers suggesting Natives on the northern plains lived at very low levels of social organization before the arrival of Europeans.