Piikani First Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy. For 76 years Rocky Mountain House was the centre of commerce for the west. The great mapmaker, David Thompson used the site as his starting point when seeking passage to the west coast. In the thick forests of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the rapids at the confluence of the North Saskatchewan and the Clearwater rivers mark a site where in 1799, the Northwest Company established Rocky Mountain House here to serve as a fur trade post