Before European interests and settlement expanded to the region, Palliser's Triangle was inhabited by a variety of aboriginal peoples, such as the Cree, Sioux, and the Blackfoot Confederacy. Their lifestyle was centred around the buffalo hunt, as the bountiful herds of buffalo made this a sustainable and effective means of feeding themselves, the meat of which was used to make pemmican. By the mid-1850s, however, the hunt had become an economic venture, their hides and meat sold by Métis and First Nations hunters to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), and the increased demand led to a decline in herds.