When the Dominion of Canada was created in , its leaders wanted to expand the country west of the Great Lakes , partly to prevent the United States from annexing western territories. The US had created four new states along the border, and also purchased Alaska in After taking over Rupert's Land in , Canada began negotiating treaties with various First Nations.
Many Aboriginal leaders believed switching from a nomadic to a farming lifestyle in new reserves was their best chance at survival. However, decades of poor administration by the Canadian government — including a general failure by leaders in Ottawa to address the needs of people in the West — only added to Aboriginal struggles.
Canada quickly sent 5, troops west on new railway lines to fight the rebels. The uprising was quashed. Riel faced trial in Regina , and was executed in September With the territory now pacified, Canada sent in waves of European immigrants.
In , the NWT had a population of 32,, of which about half were Aboriginal and half were European. By , the population had risen to ,, of which just 2. The territory received responsible government in , but real political control over the vast area still resided with federal officials in Ottawa. Local leaders sought provincial status in as a way of better controlling the region's affairs.
Some western leaders argued that the NWT should form one large province, but federal officials said that would be too big to manage. On 1 September, , the federal government adopted the Saskatchewan Act and the Alberta Act , creating Canada's 8th and 9th provinces. Contact with Europeans brought great changes to Aboriginal culture and society. The introduction of the horse and the rifle changed the method by which Aboriginal peoples hunted buffalo and other big game upon which they were reliant.
Additionally, horses , which were able to carry more than humans or dogs, allowed for a greater accumulation of wealth and more elaborate cultural institutions. Beginning in , epidemics of European diseases, such as smallpox , devastated the Aboriginal population, as did the introduction of alcohol.
Not all exploration was motivated by profit. Men interested in the land and the environment entered the region a century behind the traders. The best known of the early observers were Sir John Franklin and Dr. John Richardson , between and , and John Palliser in — Previously, the Northwest had been viewed as a desolate wasteland, unsuited for settlement. The reports produced by the Palliser and Hind expeditions refuted this long-held belief and helped to encourage European settlement and agricultural development in the region.
In , in order to facilitate westward expansion and, hopefully, avoid the type of conflicts occurring in the United States, the Canadian government began negotiating treaties with Aboriginal peoples in the Northwest to extinguish their title to the land and establish reserves for Aboriginal settlement.
Aboriginal leaders signed these treaties to maintain as much of their traditional way of life as possible while adapting to the challenges they faced resulting from the encroachment by European settlers and the devastating collapse of the buffalo population.
Aboriginal leaders insisted on making grants of farm implements and animals part of the treaties. Although traditionally nomadic, they sought to take up agriculture as they could no longer rely on the buffalo as their principal food source. Their efforts, however, were undermined by maladministration by the Canadian government. Using the nearly-completed Canadian Pacific Railway , the government was able to send troops to the Northwest and quickly put down both uprisings.
Aboriginal leaders Big Bear , Poundmaker and One Arrow were sentenced to prison, and the government implemented more restrictive measures to subjugate Aboriginal populations. Also during this time, in , Parliament passed the first Dominion Lands Act , a provision for homesteaders and an act to stimulate immigration.
In —83 the first railway lines crossed the area in a southern route through Regina and Moose Jaw. The prerequisites for European immigration and settlement were therefore all in place well before The impact of their combined influence shows dramatically in the statistics. In the population of the area was 32,, half of whom were British and 44 per cent were Aboriginal. Just over 25 years later, in , the population was ,, half of which was still British, and the Aboriginal population had dropped to 2.
Many of the immigrants who came during this period were eastern Europeans, especially Ukrainians , whom Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton regarded as the ideal candidates to settle the West. The British had by then consolidated their hold on familiar political institutions; the principles of responsible government , which held the Cabinet responsible to a majority of the legislature, were settled in Provincial status, first sought in , came in , and with it the relevant apparatus of parliamentary government.
See also Saskatchewan and Confederation. The province's size and shape were important; although many leading Prairie politicians favoured one large western province, the federal authorities always insisted that the western plains were too large to be made into a single constitutional entity. Depending on where one settled its northern boundary, such a province could have been the largest in Canada, a potential economic threat to the central heartland.
In any event, in the federal government retained jurisdiction over crown lands in Saskatchewan. Settlement proceeded in a generally northwesterly direction, most of the arable area being occupied by the s.
The pattern of settlement itself profoundly affected the nature of Saskatchewan society. Identifiable groups of immigrants, varying from English people desiring to set up a temperance colony to Doukhobors escaping persecution with the aid of Leo Tolstoy and the Society of Friends see Quakers , established communities, which in the s still reflected their origins. Time, social mobility and intermarriage have blurred the lines separating the original settlements, but at the time many parts of the province were still discernibly French and German, Ukrainian and Scandinavian, Hutterite and Mennonite.
Leading up to the First World War , there were a number of indications the province was well on its way to establishing stability. In , the Saskatchewan Legislative building opened in Regina. Saskatoon began constructing the University of Saskatchewan in the same year and Prince Albert became home to the federal penitentiary. Roads, hospitals, schools, and courts were also built in this period.
Agriculture dominated the economy beyond the interwar years and shaped the lives of those who settled in the province. Wheat was the most important crop grown in Saskatchewan. In the face of falling prices, farmers organized and formed the Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers Ltd.
Throughout the s, the province has endeavoured to diversify agriculture to include cattle and hogs. Towards the end of the 20th century, small family farms have been replaced by the agri-business model. Immigration en masse into Saskatchewan had ended, at least temporarily, by the s, although a high turnover in the population did not stop.
The province's modern history is marked by the steady departure of people from Saskatchewan, especially in rural parts of the province. Sometimes, as in the two World Wars, thousands left over a short period to enlist or to work in war industries, and many did not return.
Economically, the most significant single event of Saskatchewan's modern history was the transfer of jurisdiction over crown lands to the province in Had this transfer not taken place, the province would still have become a great agricultural producer and contributor to the Second World War effort. However, with it, the province not only had access to lucrative sources of taxation, but also new sources of power which affected its influence within Canada in the s and after, giving it a formidable voice in national affairs.
The experience of the Depression created an environment that was especially conducive to the idea of a big government that would intervene to manage the economy and alleviate social problems. The CCF championed democratic socialism and made way for co-operation, public ownership of industries and universal health care in the province.
The CCF also spearheaded initiatives to integrate and modernize northern parts of the province. Unfortunately, efforts to improve health care facilities, for example, only heightened unemployment and poverty. Aboriginal peoples were adversely affected by these measures. Once Europeans established settlements, agriculture overtook hunting and trapping. Wheat, once the plains were settled, was a large factor in Canada's international dealings.
This relationship is especially true of wheat farming, cattle ranching and the extraction of fossil fuels. The province's economy since the drought and Depression decade of the s has shown an impressive capacity for diversification in both agricultural and non-agricultural production. In recent years, the province has seen a surge in the transportation sector as well as in development and construction.
Commonly the province has had little control over the transportation of its own products, or the financing of it, and this situation did not change as wheat was supplemented by natural gas, petroleum and potash.
A high percentage of the consumer goods used in Saskatchewan, on the other hand, from canned food to automobiles and farm implements, are imported. A recurring feeling among sections of the population is that the province's economy is the victim of outside forces that are not always benign.
This feeling provides one reason for the remarkable success of the Co-operative Movement in Saskatchewan, through which citizens have banded together to satisfy numerous economic needs. Co-operatives are found in virtually every segment of the retailing and distributing trades, and in many service industries.
In , the province had 1, co-operatives with , active members. Co-operative associations in Saskatchewan represent 14 per cent of the national total. Although non-agricultural production constitutes over half of Saskatchewan's annual output, agriculture remains the largest single industry. The settled era began almost exclusively as a farm economy, with nearly , ha of wheat planted in the year of the province's creation, yielding 26 million bushels.
With the exception of setbacks during the Great Depression when drought reduced all rural activities and the Second World War when some overseas markets for wheat almost disappeared , wheat acreage has grown steadily throughout the province's history and now tops 5 million hectares annually.
The province is also a leader in the growth of canola , rye , oats , barley , flax , forage crops and pasturage for livestock. Beginning in the s the development of mining in Saskatchewan was almost as spectacular, though not as conspicuous, as that of agricultural settlement half a century earlier. By the s mining ranked second to agriculture as a contributor to the province's production. A major part of this shift was the increase in fuel production, mainly crude petroleum.
In , the first commercial oil well was discovered in Lloydminster. In , Saskatchewan produced Saskatchewan also produces a relatively significant amount of natural gas — 5. The mining of uranium began after and by the s one large mine had already been, in economic terms, worked out, but remarkably rich deposits remained elsewhere. The province was once the largest uranium producing-region in the world. The company generates electricity from a mix of different stations: seven hydroelectric , five natural gas, three coal-fired and two wind.
Coal provides the province with more than 50 per cent of its electricity. In light of this high percentage and rising concern about climate change burning coal produces CO 2 , a contributor to global warming , Saskatchewan is pioneering carbon capture and storage CCS technology. Forestry is not one of Saskatchewan's largest industries, although where it exists, primarily in the middle third of the province, it is of great local significance.
The rapid opening of the Prairies for settlement created a demand for building materials, not just for farm buildings but also for railway ties and telegraph poles; and the closer settlement moved to the northern forest, the more local wood could be used.
Pulpwood, which uses smaller growth than lumber, was cut for export as early as the s, but the province's first pulp mill was not built until the s with substantial assistance from the government.
Saskatchewan wood is used for softwood lumber, pulp, plywood and engineered wood products. Despite the industry being relatively small, its activities are nonetheless sufficient enough that Aboriginal leaders frequently express concern over the damage caused to wildlife habitat.
Fisheries rank well below forestry as a contributor to the province's economy, ranking with wildlife trapping and fur farming. The fish caught are namely walleye , whitefish , lake trout and pike. Much of the commercial fishing activity is in the north, while in the south, a fairly common sight is the rainbow trout dugout, a licensed artificial pond in which individual farmers raise fish for their own use or for profit. Saskatchewan is not generally considered a manufacturing centre.
Most manufactured goods are exported to other parts of Canada. Nor did the coming of peace alleviate the suffering. There was widespread starvation in the wake of the smallpox epidemic. William Christie at Fort Edmonton reported that the Cree who wintered on the plains in search of bison "suffered frightfully" and reduced to eating their horses.
The Cree along the North Saskatchewan came together in to discuss their plight— and the unsettling news that Canada had bought their lands from the Hudson's Bay Company. Newcomers meant more competition for the dwindling bison. The Cree sought farming assistance as part of a new, long-lasting, reciprocal arrangement with the dominion of Canada. Treaties, reconciliation and Indigenous history in Canada.
Whereas Ottawa was preparing the land for settlement and the railroad, it had no immediate plans for treaties west of the new province of Manitoba. And so the Cree refused to allow any government-sponsored activity in their territory until Ottawa finally agreed to deal with them. Nor was Ottawa prepared to give the western population a meaningful voice in the settlement and development of the region. The Northwest Territories was treated as little more than a federal colony into the 20th century.
And even when Saskatchewan became a province in , it had to wait another quarter century before it was granted control over its public lands and resources. It is little wonder, then, why the Saskatchewan story of confederation is a protracted, at times acrimonious, experience. What did Saskatchewan look like in ? CBC News Loaded.
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