Kamsack SK

Kamsack, Saskatchewan, Canada is a town, located in the Assiniboine River Valley where the Whitesand River joins the Assiniboine River. It is 56 km (35 miles) northeast of Yorkton. Highway 8 and Highway 5 intersect in the town.

Coté First Nation is located 8 km (5 miles) north and Keeseekoose First Nation is 18 km (11 miles) north of Kamsack on Highway 8.

History

Kamsack was established when Chief Gabriel Cote’s Saulteaux band signed Treaty 4 on September 15, 1874, and a reserve was surveyed in 1877. In 1904, land was partitioned from the Cote First Nation for the Canadian Northern Railway station and the town site of Kamsack. Between 1905 and 1907 additional land was allocated, the northern sections of which were returned to reserve status. In 1913 a further two-mile strip of land on the southern boundary was given, but returned in 1915 when it was identified the Cote people had lost too much of their best agricultural land. In 1963, further acres surrendered in 1905 were also reconstituted as reserve land. The interest in and surrender of land from the reserve’s southern boundary—nearest the Kamsack town site—resulted in part from speculation of its value for settlement.

The lands around what is now Kamsack were originally settled in the 1880s by a handful of agricultural settlers. The farming area around Kamsack was well settled by 1905. These farms consisted of a variety of ethnic groups which are still present to this day: Doukhobors, Ukrainians, Europeans, Americans and Eastern Canadians were all among the early settlers to the area.