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The first people to live in North America came from Asia at least 14,000 years ago. They arrived near the end of the Pleistocene epoch, which is also known as the Ice Age. Archaeologists believe the first Americans crossed into North America when it was connected to Asia by land^[1]. According to archaeological discoveries, Paleo-Indians inhabited the lands of the southern Saskatchewan since 9500BCE. Paleoindian means ancient Indian^[2]. The finding of spearheads and bones indicated that people lived on the land for hundreds of years. The Paleo-Indians were a hunter gatherer society who hunted mainly large game animals, such as bison and buffalo^[3]..

The Assiniboine Indians, a branch of the Sioux, referred to themselves as Nakota's people. They occupied the southern portion of the plains after migrating from the Devil's Lake Region in the United States. The early Jesuits mention the Assiniboine as a strong and hardy tribe living in the forest band lake regions around Lake Winnipeg as early as 1640. The Nakota people shared a close relationship allied relationship with the Nehiyawak or Cree, who occupied the Canadian Shield and boreal forest from what is now northern Quebec to northern Alberta. As allies, the Nehiyawak and Nakota traded with the Mandan south to the Missouri River, and occasionally made war on the Lakota (Sioux), Dakota (Sioux) and Atsina (Gros Ventre) to the southeast and southwest^[4].

In the early 1800's, fur traders traveled the southern plain (formerly North West Territories) to make exchanges with the Cree, Sioux and Assiniboine Indians. These groups joined together were referred to as the Iron Confederacy. After the fur traders discovered several tribes, they began referring to the people as the "Plains Indians". Around the 1820’s the Indian tribes began killing buffalo for trade in more vast numbers, with the introduction of guns and horseback transportation. By the late 1870's, the buffalo were extinct and their economy, depleted^[5].

Assiniboine is a Siouan language. It was derived from other Sioux dialects at the same time as other Sioux languages were being diverged and differentiated from each other. The language today is endangered, and there are very few speakers that are living. Most Assiniboine today are English speakers^[6].

An adhesion to Treaty 4 was signed by Chief Piapot on September 9, 1875. He was originally seeking a reserve in the Cypress Hills region, but settled on reserve land bordering Carry the Kettle reserve in August 1883. The following Winter was devastatingly cold, and killed 1/3 of Chief Piapot's people. Of his 311 tribe members that he arrived with, 130 died. Malnutrition and disease also factored into the deaths. They abandoned the reservation land and were permitted to break the treaty and select a new one 29km north and 11km east of Regina in September 1884, where Piapot Cree First Nation is today^[7].

After the loss of 1/3 of Chief Piapot’s people the land they were given was considerably less than what had been allotted for one square mile per family. The official boundaries were laid out in 1892, and the Piapot reserve was mapped out as 9 miles by 8 miles. French immigrants began to arrive in the area, and some took land inside the southern boundary of the reservation land^[8].