A very long time went by before Manitoba and the Western plains were colonized and cultivated. Thousands upon thousands of years passed before the land and its ecosystem developed into their present form, becoming a region suitable for agriculture. That was the time of the native prairie, both exploited and revered by the first groups of humans who lived there.

It was also the time of the open prairie, where collective, communal use of the land was practised, leading, in essence, to the development of the Amerindian and Métis ways of life. An overview of this period, however brief, at least allows us to grasp the magnitude of the historical change wrought when the West was colonized for agriculture.






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