CONCLUSION more -->
The early deposits at Charlie Lake Cave contain fairly scanty evidence about the people who first inhabited the post-glacial landscapes of western Canada, and some indications of the nature of the environment in which they lived. The early faunas contain a mixture of northern and southern species, but all seem to indicate a fairly open environment quite different from the boreal forest which developed between 10,000 and 9500 B.P. The lowest two components at Charlie Lake Cave were created during episodes of bison hunting and butchering. We do not have enough data to state whether bison were killed at the site, or whether the site simply contains refuse dumped from a nearby kill or processing area. Both this site and the Vermilion Lakes site near Banff suggest that big game hunting was an important component of the early economy.
