Cumberland House is a village in Census Division No. 18

Division No. 18, Saskatchewan

Division No. 18, Saskatchewan, Canada, is one of the eighteen census divisions within the province, as defined by Statistics Canada. It occupies the northern portion of Saskatchewan, and it is the largest division in the province at 270,067.78 km² , almost 46 percent of the entire area of the...

 in north-eastern Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 on the Saskatchewan River

Saskatchewan River

The Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada, approximately long, flowing roughly eastward across Saskatchewan and Manitoba to empty into Lake Winnipeg...

. It is the oldest community in Saskatchewan and has a population of about 2000 people. Cumberland House Provincial Park, which provides tours of an 1890s

1890s

The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" - because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion - and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no...

 powder house built by the Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

, is located nearby.

Cumberland House Cree Nation

The population of Cumberland House consists of mostly First Nations

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

 people, including Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

 and Metis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

.

History of the community

It is situated on Pine Island in the Saskatchewan River delta, on the southern edge of the Canadian Shield. It was established in 1774 by Samuel Hearne

Samuel Hearne

Samuel Hearne was a an English explorer, fur-trader, author, and naturalist. He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, actually Coronation Gulf, via the Coppermine River...

, in the interest of the Hudson's Bay Company. Cumberland House was and is a Cree "n" dialect community, known in Cree as "Waskahikanihk".

The key factor in the establishment of Cumberland House was its location. It is located on the Saskatchewan River, which was a key route in the fur trade. From Cumberland House, you can travel east to Hudson Bay, via Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg

Lake Winnipeg is a large, lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about north of the city of Winnipeg...

 and the Nelson River

Nelson River

The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its full length is , it has mean discharge of , and has a drainage basin of , of which is in the United States...

. You can also travel west as far as the Rocky Mountains. Its location as an island was also important to its establishment. The island was a meeting place even before the trading post was established here, which provided the settlement with some initial status, along with the fact that as an island, it would have been easier for travellers to locate.

It is frequently claimed that Cumberland House was the first inland trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company; however, this distinction is held by Henley House, established 31 years earlier, 200 km up the Albany River

Albany River

The Albany River is a river in Northern Ontario, Canada, which flows northeast from Lake St. Joseph in Northwestern Ontario and empties into James Bay. It is long to the head of the Cat River, tying it with the Severn River for the title of longest river in Ontario...

 from James Bay

James Bay

James Bay is a large body of water on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean. James Bay borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario; islands within the bay are part of Nunavut...

 at the confluence with the Kenogami River

Kenogami River

The Kenogami River is a river in the James Bay drainage basin in Thunder Bay and Cochrane districts in Northern Ontario, Canada, which flows north from Long Lake near Longlac to empty into the Albany River. The river is in length and its name means "long water" in the Cree language...

. Nevertheless, it was the first inland post on the fur-trade highway from Hudson Bay to the west. Its founding was prompted by competition from the North West Company. In 1773 the supply of furs destined for the HBC was intercepted inland by the Frobisher brothers of the NWC, thereby saving the natives the long paddle to coast where the HBC posts were. Hearne then set up the original Cumberland House 16 km west of the Pine Lake Trading Post, established by the Frobishers the year before. Thus began the leap-frog game of establishing posts ever further west than the competition - a game that was to last until 1821 when the NWC was absorbed by the HBC.

On June 24, 2005, Cumberland House residents were evacuated to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan...

, and housed in a shelter set up by the Red Cross on the SIAST campus there, due to impending flooding from the Saskatchewan River. The influx of water was from record breaking rainfall in Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

 where the North

North Saskatchewan River

The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows east from the Canadian Rockies to central Saskatchewan. It is one of two major rivers that join to make up the Saskatchewan River....

 and South Saskatchewan River

South Saskatchewan River

The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan....

s collected the runoff from that rainfall.

Transportation

Cumberland House is the northern terminus of Saskatchewan Highway 123

Saskatchewan Highway 123

Highway 123 is a highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It runs from Highway 23 to Cumberland House. Highway 123 is about 133 km long....

. The first bridge connecting Pine Island, where the community is located, across the Saskatchewan River to the mainland was built in 1996, replacing a ferry during the summer months and ice crossings in the winter.

External links

• Cumberland House Cree Nation
• SK Government Press Release
• Cumberland House at the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
• Cumberland House Provincial Park