Winning the Prairie Gamble -
Meet the Neighbours
As the first settlers were arriving on the prairies, First Nations people were moving onto reserves and learning to farm. The Aboriginal people knew the land and its many moods - rainfall and frost, hail and drought - and they shared this knowledge with the newcomers.
A
diorama of the years after Treaties were signed shows an elderly First
Nations woman drying fish in front of a log house, a crew of men threshing
wheat in the background, and a group of women and children preparing a meal
for the threshing crew in the foreground. Graphics panels tell the story of
the pass and permit system, as well as of other restrictions on First
Nations farming. The background mural was painted by Dwayne Harty, a
Saskatchewan artist. Models for the mural were from St. Mary’s Community
School in Saskatoon.