Pelican Narrows sits on Pelican Lake in the boreal forest of central Saskatchewan, northwest of the narrows that join Mirond and Pelican Lakes. The Woods Cree name for the place, opâwikoscikanihk, means 'The Narrows of Fear.' A Cree settlement has stood here since at least 1730, and the area was a trading ground for both the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company.
In 1874 the Hudson's Bay Company set up a permanent post at Pelican Narrows. It became a Northern Store in 1987 and is still open today. Roman Catholic missionaries had been travelling through the area since the mid-1800s and founded a permanent mission in 1878. Anglican missionaries came in the late 1890s and built a church in 1911. For a number of years, schoolchildren were sent away to be educated.
An all-weather road reached the community in 1967, and other services followed. Today Pelican Narrows is the administrative headquarters of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, and most of the townsite is reserve land. The community has its own schools, a library, and an arena with a fitness centre. Each July it holds a walleye fishing derby, and it hosts a winter festival every year.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.