Indigenous history The first known people in the Castle Provincial Park was the
Kutenai and
Piikani First Nations. Their history with the land is over 10,000 years old and they called the area "A'saani", meaning scared paint. This region was used for spiritual ceremonies and to sustain their ways of life through hunting, food gathering, and the removal of firewood. These First Nations People were the guides of early explorers and traders in the Castle. When Western Canada began settlement, the indigenous populations declined due to clashes with the
Niitsitapi,
Ktunaxa,
smallpox, and the designation of reservations beginning in 1855 with the Lame Bull Treaty.
Early exploration Trade and settlement began east on the prairies earlier than in the Castle. Early surveyors included
Peter Fidler and
David Thompson, but exploration began with the
Palliser Expedition in 1841, led by
James Sinclair. In 1914, the southern portion of the Castle Provincial Park was protected under
Waterton Forest Park but by 1921, these protections were reduced to a federal Forest Reserve designation. This trend of protectionism and privatization continued until the Castle Provincial Park and
Castle Wildland Provincial Park was announced under the
N.D.P.
Rachel Notley government in 2015. This announcement was formalized two years later in February 2017. == Climate ==