There was life everywhere long before the human species evolved, including this part of what we know as Saskatchewan. Researchers have found evidence of human life in this area going back 10,000 to 11,000 years. Combining that evidence with the oral histories of the people here now, it seems clear that our beginnings have been shaped over many centuries, and that the first European settlers to come here added to a very old story. We have barely begun to tell that larger story at our museum, and realize just how comparatively recent is the bulk of the material we have on display. In order to put our story in context, we need to especially include the peoples who were here when large numbers of immigrants arrived from Europe, central & eastern Canada, and the USA. The First Nations people who preceded us were, we know, quite mobile and often intermixed. We understand that there is evidence that Chief Kinistin, who was at one time a headman for Chief Yellow Quill of the Saulteaux people who previously lived in northern Ontario and then Manitoba, was a brother of James Smith, of what is generally referred to as a Cree nation. It is far beyond our capacity at Melfort & District Museum to sort out the details of this history, but we certainly want to acknowledge the presence of the Cree, the Saulteaux, and other aboriginal peoples in this area long before white settlers arrived. We also want to keep in mind the presence of the Metis, whose roots here go back at least 100 years before the Canadian government acquired the territory and started granting homesteads.