Touchwood Hills are a range of hills in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. The hills are composed of the "Big" Touchwood Hills and the Little Touchwood Hills. Together they are referred to as the Touchwood Uplands. The hills are in the

Prairie Pothole Region The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) is an expansive area of the northern Great Plains that contains thousands of shallow wetlands known as potholes. These potholes are the result of glacier activity in the Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin gl ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, which extends throughout three Canadian provinces and five

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s, and within Palliser's Triangle and the

Great Plains ecoregion The ecology of the Great Plains is diverse, largely owing to their great size. Differences in rainfall, elevation, and latitude create a variety of habitats including short-grass prairie, short grass, mixed-grass prairie, mixed grass, and tall-gras ...

of Canada. The hills make up a large plateau that is north-east of Saskatchewan's capital city, Regina. To the west of the hills is Last Mountain Lake; to the north are the Quill Lakes, Foam Lake, and Fishing Lake; to the east is Good Spirit Lake; and to the south is the

Qu'Appelle Valley The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near t ...

. Several rivers flow out of the hills, such as the south flowing Qu'Appelle River tributaries of East Loon Creek (via Loon Creek), Jumping Deer Creek, Pheasant Creek, and Pearl Creek. To the north, rivers such as Dafoe Brook, Birch Creek, Bevcar Brook, Beckett Brook, and Milligan Creek work their way into the Quill Lakes. Milligan Creek and its tributaries are the primary inflows for Foam Lake and the Quill Lakes.

Highway 35 The following highways are numbered 35: The Karakoram Highway (Urdu language, Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم, ''Śāhirāh-i Qarāquram''), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (Urdu language, Urdu: قومی شاہراہ ۳۵), N-35, and ...

cuts across the plateau in a north to south direction and Highway 15 heads in an east to west direction cutting between Big Touchwood and Little Touchwood Hills. To the north and east of the hills is Highway 16, also known as the

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway () is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg west to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western provinces of Britis ...

, and to the south is Highway 10. Highway 6 runs past the western side of the plateau. In 2005,

Ducks Unlimited Canada Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is a Canadian non-profit environmental organization that works to conserve, create, restore and manage Canadian wetlands and associated uplands in order to provide healthy ecosystems that support North American wate ...

announced a ten-year study of how nesting success of prairie waterfowl varies in relation to the landscape types of the prairie pothole region, to be conducted in the Touchwood Hills area.

Touchwood Hills Regional Economic Development Authority

The Touchwood Hills Regional Economic Development Authority (REDA) was created in 1995, and was the tenth REDA created in the province. It included the rural municipalities of Tullymet,

Lipton Lipton is a brand named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, Tom Lipton, who started an eponymous grocery retail business in the United Kingdom in 1871. The brand was used for various consumer goods sold in Lipton stores, including tea from 1 ...

Cupar Cupar ( ; ) is a town, former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland. It lies between Dundee and Glenrothes. According to a 2011 population estimate, Cupar had a population around 9,000, making it the ninth-largest settlement in Fife, and the ...

, Garry, Ituna Bon Accord, Kellross, Touchwood,

Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...

and Kutawa; the towns of

Ituna Ituna () is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2006, it had a population of 622. It is north-east of the capital Regina. The town contains several businesses serving the local residents and rural community, including financial services, gr ...

, and Southey; and the villages of Dysart, Hubbard, Kelliher, and Leross; the Crossroads Rural Development Corporation and the Carlton Trail Regional College.

Touchwood Hills Post

Touchwood Hills Post was a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

(HBC) trading post in the Touchwood Hills from 1852 to 1909. It was one of the few HBC posts not built on a river and supplied by canoe. Rather it was a resupply point and stopping place on the part of the

Carlton Trail The Carlton Trail was the primary land transportation route in the Canadian Northwest for most of the 19th century, connecting Fort Carlton to Edmonton along a line of intermediate places. It was part of a trail network that stretched from the ...

that ran from

Fort Ellice Fort Ellice was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post that operated from 1794 to 1892. It was first established in February 1794 by John Sutherland on the Qu'Appelle River about upstream from its mouth at the Assiniboine River, and known as the Qu ...

on the

Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River ( ; ) is a long river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked ...

north-west to

Fort Carlton Fort Carlton was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post from 1795 until 1885. It was located along the North Saskatchewan River not far from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, Duck Lake, in what is now the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The fort wa ...

on the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

. The section of the Carlton Trail that runs from the Touchwood Hills to the Fishing Lakes is called the Fort Qu'Appelle-Touchwood Hills Trail. All that remains of the original fort is the cellar depression and a segment of the Carlton Trail with Red River cart tracks. In 1986, the Touchwood Hills Post historic park was designated a Provincial Park.

Touchwood Hills People

The Touchwood Hills People, or ''Pusakawatciwiyiniwak'' were part of a larger group known as the Downstream People, or ''Mamihkiyiniwak'', who occupied the south-eastern plains and utilized the

, Red River, and

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg () is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its southern end is about north of the city of Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg is Canada's sixth-largest freshwater lake and the third- ...

waterways. The Touchwood Hills People consisted of four bands under the leadership of chief ''Kawacatoose'' (Poorman or Lean Man): ''Kawacatoose'', ''Kaneonuskatew'' (One that walks on four claws or George Gordon), ''Muscowequan'' (Hard Quill), and ''Kisecawchuck ''(Daystar). ''Kawacatoose'' and the other chiefs signed Treaty 4, which created the Kawacatoose First Nation, Gordon First Nation, Muskowekwan First Nation, and Day Star First Nation. Along with the Fishing Lake First Nation, these bands are collectively a part of the Touchwood Agency Tribal Chiefs (TATC).Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy.
Sarah Carter. McGill-Queen's Press: 1993.

References

*Elizabeth Browne Losey,"Let Them be Remembered:The Story of the Fur Trade Forts, 1999,page 655-658 {{Authority control Landforms of Saskatchewan Hills of Saskatchewan First Nations in Saskatchewan

Touchwood Hills Regional Economic Development Authority

Touchwood Hills Post

Touchwood Hills People

See also

References