Today, the Ottawa Valley is the home of a nation's capital and
an active participant in the high-tech sector of the twenty-first
century. In the nineteenth century, it was at the heart of the Canadian
logging industry. Before that, the Ottawa River was a major travel
route for explorers and fur traders. However, prior to the arrival
of Europeans, the region had witnessed thousands of years of Native
history.
Kichi Sibi, which means great river in the Algonquin
language, provides an overview of the ancient history of the Ottawa
Valley using artifacts found in the region. Picnickers, hikers,
farmers and avocational archaeologists found these objects over
the past 150 years and donated them to museums. Their generosity,
hard work and interest in preserving the past have given us a
greater awareness of the Valley's ancient history.
The artifacts found throughout the Ottawa Valley allow archaeologists
to piece together the region's ancient history. They tell us,
for example, that Native peoples lived here for about 8,000 years
before the arrival of Europeans. |