The Connell Creek area occupies a small part of the central Carrot River valley and its archaeological record provides evidence that indigenous people first took up occupation here when glacial Lake Saskatchewan drained into glacial Lake Agassiz, about 10,500 years ago. This initial human movement into the region ended as glacial Lake Agassiz rose and re-inundated the area about a millennium later. Following this, as Lake Agassiz receded, there was the first widespread and permanent human presence, this by peoples of the Nipawin complex, ca. 8,500-7,800 BP.

By 7,500 BP, a new set of plains bison hunters took up residence in the central Carrot River valley and, culturally, this region became very stable for the next 5,000 years. By 4,000 BP, boreal forest would have been expanding into this region; however, it is likely that for some centuries the residents maintained a parkland landscape, attractive to bison, through controlled burning.

After ca. 2,200 BP, people of the Laurel culture expanded west through the Saskatchewan River valley and this culture developed into the River House complex, dating ca. A.D. 800-1200. These cultures have not been found in the Connell Creek area but there was a light occupation by people of the following Selkirk composite, ca. A.D. 1300-1700.

The people who produced the Selkirk composite “emerged” in the mid 1750s as the western Woods Cree. Historical records and elder accounts provide information that in the mid 1800s there were three Cree groups residing in the central Carrot River valley. In the late 1800s, these people took reserves at Red Earth and at the Papikwan River.