SASKATCHEWAN RESEARCH COUNCIL
Uncovering Saskatchewan’s History
Finding and protecting artifacts
By Suzanne Johnston, Saskatchewan Research Council
There’s history buried under your feet – artifacts from
those who lived and worked before us. As kids, we may
have come across an arrowhead or a tea kettle or a fos-sil.
These are cherished relics of the past.
While it’s a lot more work than digging in the sand for bur-ied
treasure, archeologists are uncovering hundreds of artifacts
in Saskatchewan every year. The Government of Saskatchewan’s
Heritage Property Act (1980) was established to protect and con-serve
heritage properties, archaeological and paleontological sites
in Saskatchewan. Our heritage resources and archaeological sites
are non-renewable; once an archaeological site is disturbed or arti-facts
are damaged or destroyed, the knowledge that may have been
gleaned from them could be lost forever.
There are many culturally significant areas in Saskatchewan
where there’s a higher chance of finding heritage resources (e.g., in
sand dunes or near significant bodies of water). When there’s a risk
of development impacting heritage resources (e.g., highway crews
digging a new road), the Heritage Conservation Branch (HCB) uses
a screening process to determine if the project is heritage-sensitive
based on a number of criteria, such as distance to water or terrain.
If the project is deemed heritage-sensitive, a Heritage Resources
Impact Assessment is required.
Depending on the HCB’s recommendations, an assessment might
need to be done before, during and/or after the development work.
Case study: Project CLEANS
As part of a large-scale, multi-site remediation project that the
Saskatchewan Research Council is working on called Project
CLEANS (Cleanup of Abandoned Northern Sites), pre- and post-impact
site surveys were carried out to support the 2016 remedi-ation
activities at the Gunnar Mine and Mill Site and the Satellite
Sites. Post-impact assessments were conducted at the Satellite
Sites, which meant the areas were assessed after construction
work took place.
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COURTESY OF THE SASKATCHEWAN RESEARCH COUNCIL
If the project is deemed heritage-sensitive,
a Heritage Resources
Impact Assessment is required.
thinkbigmagazine.ca | Quarter 1 2018 | Think BIG 49