Roche Percée (Geographical Feature)

Roche Percée or “pierced rock” is located along the Souris River, and adjacent to the SOO LINE of the CPR, 17 km southeast of Estevan. It is a geological feature, a place of worship for the Assiniboine people, and a village of 169 people in 2001. The material out of which the Roche Percée structure was formed was once sand on a river bottom; now soft sandstone, it erodes rapidly. The pierced rock which attracted attention over the centuries has broken in the 1900s and is now a simple outcropping.

Assiniboine Chief Dan Kennedy indicated that his people lived in Roche Percée in the late 1700s, returned there to worship up to 1955, and used to eat the wild plums of the area. Prior to European settlement this area was also a battleground. Petroglyphs have been found in the vicinity.

Gregory Salmers