A 16-year-old boy from the Onion Lake First Nation is dead and a 20-year-old man is in custody following some sort of incident in the early hours of Saturday.

"There's not much we'll be releasing with the investigation as we're still in the early stages," Cpl. Kelly West, a spokesman for the RCMP, told CBC News on Saturday afternoon.

Even basic information about the cause of death and what led up to it were not available.

West would only say that local RCMP and emergency medical services were called to a home on the Onion Lake First Nation, about 50 kilometres north of Lloydminster, some time early Saturday.

When they arrived, West said, the young man was dead.

"The 16-year-old was found by friends and was reported to both RCMP and EMS in Onion Lake," West said.

Police are treating the case as a homicide and, in addition to officers from the local detachment, members of the RCMP's major crimes unit and forensics are investigating.

Although a man is in custody no charges had been laid.