Nakoda Summer: A story of the Ya Ha Tinda

It was created and evolved through the mists of early time and evolution was the instrument of its creation. Vast sedimentary basins rose skyward to form the Rocky Mountains – great sheets of ice ground their way southward through the steaming rock. It gouged out deep valleys, carved naked ridges and pulverized solid rock into crude soil. The ice halted and began a gradual retreat. Rain fell on this new land and then the hot sun shone and the surface below sprang into life. Warm winds from the distant seas poured in through the valleys, modifying their climates and melting the snows. From the Great Plains to the east came birds bringing their grassland seeds in their dropping. When the grass flourished the grazing animals came – buffalo, deer, elk, moose and sheep. Soaring in on the winds came the eagles, hawks and owls. Thus was born this eco-system in the Alberta Rockies we call the YA HA TINDA – to the native peoples the “Little Prairie Within the Mountains.”