Secondary Sources

This article examines the physical history of the lower Assiniboine River. The area at The Forks has changed over time, and, originally, it did not exist. The topics of the paper are about the Portage la Prairie alluvial fan, changes in the water channel position, and implications for human occupation at The Forks. The dates studied range from 6000 BP to 200 BP. There are maps and charts included.

Various data show that the Red and Assiniboine rivers cut the valleys they occupy today within a thousand years of the regression of Lake Agassiz. A decrease in sedimentation rate at 1400 BP is coincident with the shift in the position of the Assiniboine from the valley of the La Salle River to its present position.

This article examines the changing flow of the Assiniboine River during the Holocene. There are topics discussing alluvial-fan morphology, Holocene hydroclimatology of the Assiniboine River basin, evolution of the Assiniboine paleochannel system and a summary of the channel history on the Portage la Prairie fan. There are maps and charts.

Archaeological data for the area between The Forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers and the junction of the Rat River with the Red indicate that no large permanent villages existed on the riverbanks in this area. All sites seem to be the remains of brief camps, a pattern which is associated with contested areas of high resource potential.