Today, the Ottawa Valley is the home of a nation's capital and an active participant in the high-tech sector of the twenty-first century. In the nineteenth century, it was at the heart of the Canadian logging industry. Before that, the Ottawa River was a major travel route for explorers and fur traders. However, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the region had witnessed thousands of years of Native history.

Kichi Sibi, which means great river in the Algonquin language, provides an overview of the ancient history of the Ottawa Valley using artifacts found in the region. Picnickers, hikers, farmers and avocational archaeologists found these objects over the past 150 years and donated them to museums. Their generosity, hard work and interest in preserving the past have given us a greater awareness of the Valley's ancient history.

The artifacts found throughout the Ottawa Valley allow archaeologists to piece together the region's ancient history. They tell us, for example, that Native peoples lived here for about 8,000 years before the arrival of Europeans.