Wheat that has been threshed leaves behind the chaff. Sometimes this chaff falls into a fire, becomes carbonized, and is preserved in the soil for thousands of years. This chaff from Syria is about 11,000 years old, preserving the tell-tale rachis. 5/

Wild grasses are different from domesticated grasses; their ears shatter when fully ripened. Domesticated grasses have a “rachis” which holds the seed to the ear that is less brittle than that of a wild grass. This is why wheat has to be threshed off the ear. 4/

The development of microlith technology, which are small, sharp, chipped rocks that can be set into a larger tool, allowed people to harvest plants like grasses into sheafs, but they had to be harvested before they were fully ripened. 3/

Around 23,000 years ago, at a site in Israel called Ohalo II, people started living sedentary lives. They harvested numerous wild plant seeds, among them grasses like Aegilops as well as wild wheat, barley and rye. 2/

The Siksika were one of 4 bands of the Niitsítapi, or Blackfoot Confederacy. Their band leader, Ack Ko Mok Ki (a.k.a. “Feathers”) welcomed direct trade with the HBC and supported the endeavor. He even drew this map of the Upper Missouri River country for Fidler in 1801. 3/18

In the fall of 1800, Peter Fidler and 18 Hudson’s Bay Co. traders established a post called Chesterfield House in the heart of Siksika territory at the confluence of the Saskatchewan and Red Deer Rivers in southern Alberta. 2/18