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History of Saskatchewan

History of Saskatchewan encompasses the study of past human events and activities of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, the middle of Canada's three prairie provinces. Archaeological studies give some clues as to the history and lifestyles of the Palaeo-Indian, Taltheilei, and Shield Archaic traditions who were the first occupants of the prehistoric era of this geographical area. They evolved into the history of the First Nations people who kept their history alive in oral tradition. The First Nation bands that were a part of this area were the Chipewyan, Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, Atsina, and Sioux.[3]

Map of Canada showing Rupert's Land boundaries by 1870.
Map of Canada showing boundaries of the North-West Territories which was divided into provisional districts 1870.
The Provisional Districts of Alberta, Assiniboia, Athabasca, and Saskatchewan were Districts of the North-West Territories created in 1882. They were named provisional districts to distinguish them from the District of Keewatin which had a more autonomous relationship from the NWT administration. (1882 districts are superimposed over the 1881 map)
Due to the vastness of the North-West Territories, it was divided into more administrative districts. 1895 saw the formation of the District of Franklin, District of Ungava, and the District of Mackenzie which were all part of the NWT. By this date, the Provisional District of Athabasca had extended as far east as the first meridian.[1][2]
Map of Canada showing provincial and territorial boundaries set out April 1, 1999

Henry Kelsey (1667–1724), was the first European (an Englishman) to visit this area, and arrived in 1690.[4] Other European explorers also soon arrived followed by fur traders such as the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay (Hudson's Bay Company) and North West Company. Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior in charge of immigration, (1896–1905) induced a variety of agriculturally inclined European emigrants to Canada to settle prairie land around the transcontinental railway. The political boundaries of this area have changed several times evolving through Rupert's Land, Provisional Districts of the North-West Territories, and finally a province. Saskatchewan has been a province of Canada since 1905.

Natural history edit

The history of this plains area actually began 2,000–2,100 million years ago wherein there were two continents separated by an ocean. The "Churchill Continent" which would be Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and the "Superior Continent" which would comprise Manitoba and Ontario. 1,830 – 1,800 million years ago these two land masses collided. The Northern shield area and western Rockies formed higher land from the collision.[5]

The lower lands of today's parkland were covered by a shallow sea even in the Palaeozoic Era. It was not until the Cretaceous Period 144 – 66 million years ago that the inland sea began to drain. Here we begin to find the paleontological artifacts of various dinosaur species. The ice age of the Quaternary Period totally again re-shaped and re-shifted the landscape of Saskatchewan, occurring 2 million years ago.[5]

Following these geological changes to this area, and the formation of the continent of North America as we know it, pre-history to the history of contemporary day can begin.

Pre-European edit

Archaeologists divide the time frame to study ancient findings into contemporary which would be from the 20th century on, Protohistoric archaeology from 1620 to contemporary, and Prehistoric archaeology is the study before early exploration to the area.

The prehistoric archaeology studies the findings and further classifies them according to traditions followed by the ancient peoples.

Palaeo-Indian Tradition of the Agate Basin finds date to as early as c. 6000 BC, Taltheilei Tradition c. 500 BC and Shield Archaic tradition c. 4000 BC.[6]

The Athapaskans, Dene, or Chipewyan First Nation lived in the shield area, and were caribou hunters. Their early archaeological history is documented around 1615.[6]

Samuel Hearne was one of the first early explorers to make contact with the Dene. Algonkian or Woodland Cree (Kristinaux) lived above the treeline, whereas plains Cree lived in the open parkland area. Prairie buffalo hunters pre-dominated in southern Saskatchewan and were mainly of the first nation Siouan or Assiniboine (Nakota). Atsina or Dakota (Sioux) were living on the outskirts of the area now known as Saskatchewan.[3]

Early explorers edit

Some early explorers who made inroads to the West are:

Fur trade era edit

 
First Nations trading furs for goods from fur traders.

In May 1670, King Charles II of England declared sovereignty over the lands which drained into the Hudson Bay watershed and granted those lands to "the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay", which later became the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The lands became known as Rupert's Land after the founder of the company. In 1774, Cumberland House, the company's first trading post, was erected.

Travelling inland were the French Canadian voyageurs of the North West Company arriving from Eastern Canada, and from 1740 to about 1820 the Cree peoples were migrating westward as well, coming into contact with the Haaninin and Siksika nations already inhabiting the Saskatchewan river basins as they continued their role as intermediaries in the fur trade. Canadian, European, and American fur traders set up forts and trading posts and continued commerce with the indigenous people, however conflicts between the local Haaninin and the incoming Cree and Assiniboine were exacerbated because of the preference Europeans showed toward trading with the latter indigenous groups over the locals, culminating in attacks in 1794 against both North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company forts.

 
The North-West Territory shewing British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Red River and Saskatchewan Settlements, for the Canadian Almanac 1870.

Local indigenous peoples including the Métis, Haaninin, and Siksika were accustomed to the buffalo hunt, however, some Métis had arrived from the Red River Valley in the 1840s-60 precisely because the hunt was declining in that region, a sign of things to come further west. When Manitoba was established in 1870, many Métis were disappointed with what they felt was a disenfranchisement of their laws and way of life in the new province and migrated into the Saskatchewan River basin, establishing a settlement there and electing Gabriel Dumont as the first president of the council of St Laurent in 1872, charged with governing the annual buffalo hunts and other local laws.

In 1875 local Métis hunters led by an HBC employee broke the hunting laws established by this council to protect the buffalo by hunting ahead of the main caravan. A fine was imposed by the local council on the hunters, who appealed to the local magistrate, Lawrence Clarke. Clarke was, in fact, an officer of the HBC, so in siding with the hunters, he appealed for assistance from the North-West Mounted Police, who sent fifty officers to intimidate and undermine the authority of the local councils in favour of the HBC. Soon after, the seat of the government of the North-West Territories was transferred to Battleford and a North-West Mounted Police fort was established at Duck Lake.

In 1876 a treaty was concluded between the Government of Canada and the local Cree peoples (Treaty 6), and though restrictions on the buffalo hunt and land ownership were tabled by some, they ultimately failed to materialize in the written version of the treaty.

The North-West Rebellion edit

In 1877, at the first council meeting in the new seat of government in Battleford, many of the laws of the previous council of St Laurent were adopted to protect the buffalo,[8] however these hunting restrictions did not apply to non-Métis indigenous people as per the arrangement of Treaty 6, nor were they an effective means to reduce hunting by and for American markets. According to Gabriel Dumont, the leader of the South Saskatchewan River caravan, bison had become extinct in the region by 1878.[9]

In the late 1870s and early 1880s, several appeals were made by Métis people to be better represented in government. The treaties established with aboriginal groups in the area gave a sense of voice at that time, and territorial government was dominated by the euro-Canadian minority, referring to themselves as 'white' in contrast to the Métis majority in many regions. In April 1883, a local council voted against a proposition to send a delegation to Ottawa to demand their rights, and instead supported an effort to bring Louis Riel back to Canada.

Before the arrival of Louis Riel, a petition was sent from Bishop Gardin to Prime Minister Macdonald that presented all of the grievances and demands of the Métis in the South Saskatchewan river basin including the establishment of the province of Saskatchewan, proper surveying of the traditional river lots of the Métis, and the appointment of Riel as a member of the Territorial Council or Canadian Senate.

Louis Riel arrived in Saskatchewan in July 1884. A feast day was established on September 24 (later moved to July 24) along with the establishment of a patron saint of the Métis and Riel met with many councils and individuals before declaring the establishment of the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan on March 19, 1885. On March 26 Gabriel Dumont, adjunct-general of this provisional government captured Duck Lake with a small army, forcing back the North-West Mounted Police, thus began the North-West Rebellion.

Political boundaries edit

Rupert's Land became the first western area under English control in 1670 when King Charles II of England granted the lands draining into Hudson's Bay to The Governor and Company of Adventurers Trading into Hudson's Bay (i.e., the Hudson's Bay Company). This area of land became known as "Rupert's Land" after King Charles' cousin, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who was the first governor of the company.[10]

The North-West Territories was divided into districts in 1870. The Provisional Districts of Alberta, Assiniboia, Athabasca, and Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories created in 1882. They were named provisional districts to distinguish them from the District of Keewatin which had a more autonomous relationship from the NWT administration. Due to the vastness of the NWT, it was divided into more administrative districts. 1895 saw the formation of the District of Franklin, District of Ungava and the District of Mackenzie which were all part of the NWT. By this date, the Provisional District of Athabasca had extended as far west as the first meridian.[1][2]

Immigration and settlement era edit

The settlements patterns were closely tied to the availability of transportation (especially railways) and the fertility of the soil. Ethnic groups tended to settle together, so they could build support networks for religion, language, customs, and finding marriage partners.[11]

 
Early sod house

Travel routes edit

When the surveyors for the railways came through, they at first proposed a route following the early telegraph line. However, a number of historic factors changed this route. Travel from Winnipeg through to Calgary was easier through the southern prairies rather than going upwards to Battleford and Edmonton. The southern route of the railway, went through the village of Pile O' Bones in 1882. By 1903, the influx of settlers via the railway increased the population to city status, and Pile O' Bones was now known as Regina. In 1905, when Saskatchewan became a province, Regina was named the capital city. Immigration was advertised in a massive campaign put forth by Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior in charge of immigration, (1896–1905)[12] who brought into being Canada's homestead act, the Dominion Lands Act in 1872. The railway brought life to settlements, which quickly grew to villages, and towns. Typically many small communities sprung up 10–12 miles apart a distance easily travelled by horse and cart in a day.

Immigration policy edit

Settlement policy, set by the federal government, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Hudson's Bay Company and associated land companies encouraged immigration. The key event was the decision to emulate the American Homestead Law by offering, at no cost, 160 acres of farmland to any man over 18 (or to a woman head of family) who settled there.[13] Dramatic advertising campaigns promoted the benefits of prairie living. Potential immigrants read leaflets information painted Canada as a veritable garden of Eden, and downplayed the need for agricultural expertise. Ads in The Nor'-West Farmer by the Commissioner of Immigration implied that western land held water, wood, gold, silver, iron, copper, and cheap coal for fuel, all of which were readily at hand. Reality was far harsher, especially for the first arrivals who lived in sod houses. However eastern money poured in and by 1913, long term mortgage loans to Saskatchewan farmers had reached $65 million.[14]

Ethnicity edit

The dominant groups comprised British settlers from eastern Canada and Britain, who comprised about 50% of the population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They played the leading role in establishing the basic institutions of plains society, economy, and government.[15] About a tenth of the people were Irish, with the more numerous Protestants integrating with English and Scottish Protestants, and the less numerous Catholics taking control of the Catholic Church in the province.[16]

Blocs and colonies edit

By 1930 there were 19 major ethno-religious bloc settlements in Saskatchewan, chiefly in the north-central region.[17] Seven were French, one German Catholic, two Mennonite, two Hutterite, three Ukrainian-Polish, one Russian Doukhobor, and two were Scandinavian. They differed greatly in size, from the small Hutterite colonies with a population of 75–150 each to St. Peter's Colony, which encompassed fifty-six townships (over two thousand square miles) and included about 9,500 Catholics of German descent.[18]

In the north-west of the provisional district of Saskatchewan, NWT, Interior Minister Clifton Sifton set up bloc colonies for 7400 Doukhobor settlers from Russia in 1899. Peter Verigin arrived in 1902 and became the leader. After their bizarre behaviour alienated public opinion (such as nude protest marches), the government in 1907 took away much of the land they had been awarded. Verigin led most of them to British Columbia.[19]

The French Counts of St Hubert established Rolanderie Ranch and a gentleman lifestyle at Whitewood in 1884. The Counts sought to establish a number of commercial ventures, including a chicory processing factory, a Gruyere cheese factory, a sugar beet venture, and a horse breeding operation. They occasionally socialized with the English colonial outpost of Cannington Manor. In the 1880s Edward Pierce tried to transplant early Victorian living at Cannington Manor in the 1880s, now preserved as Cannington Manor Provincial Park.

The Barr Colonists ventured north in 1903 and settled in Brittania now known as Lloydminster, Saskatchewan.

Germans edit

 
Canadians in 2006 with German ancestry are the majority in parts of the Prairie provinces (areas coloured in yellow); Ukrainian strongholds are in green, British in pink, First Nations in brown. See a more detailed map of Saskatchewan.

The German settlers came primarily from Russia, and after 1914 from German-American settlements in North and South Dakota.[20] They came not as large groups but as part of a chain of family members, where the first immigrants would find suitable locations and send for the others. They formed compact German-speaking communities built around their Catholic or Lutheran churches, and continuing old-world customs. They were farmers who grew wheat.[21] Arrivals from Russia, Bukovina, and Romanian Dobruja established their villages in a 40-mile-wide tract east of Regina.[22]

The Germans operated parochial schools primarily to maintain their religious faith; often they offered only an hour of German language instruction a week, but they always had extensive coverage of religion. Most German Catholic children by 1910 attended schools taught entirely in English.[23] In the 199x–1930[clarification needed] era, German Catholics generally voted for the Liberal ticket (rather than the Provincial Rights and Conservative tickets), seeing Liberals as more willing to protect religious minorities. Occasionally they voted for Conservatives or independent candidates who offered greater support for public funding of parochial schools.[24] Nazi Germany made a systematic effort to proselytize among Saskatchewan's Germans in the 1930s. Fewer that 1% endorsed their message, but some did migrate back to Germany before anti-Nazi sentiment became overwhelming in 1939.[25]

Ukrainians edit

 
St. George's Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, Saskatoon

In 1911, 22,300 Ukrainians lived in Saskatchewan, and 28,100 in 1921. Only Manitoba had larger numbers. The 107,000 Ukrainians in 1921, nationwide, grew to 530,000 in 1981, including 101,000 in Saskatchewan.[26][27]

Ukrainians—often called "Ruthenians" at the time—began arriving in numbers in the 1890s.[28][29] They came as farmers, and actively built churches. Their requests for Ukrainian language public schools were often rejected by local officials.[30]

Ukrainian men in 1914 were not Canadian citizens but were subjects of Austria-Hungary, an enemy nation. Many were unemployed. The government interned about 5,000 men, mostly those who were caught trying to cross the border into the U.S. (It was illegal for an enemy alien to leave the country). They were assigned work on federal and provincial public work projects as well as for the railways.[31]

Religiously the Ukrainians were split between two Catholic and two Orthodox denominations. One of the latter was the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada", established in 1918 with the goal of defending the interests of the people as a bulwark against discrimination and oppression of the sort that Ukrainians had just experienced.[32]

Since World War Two, Ukrainians have largely assimilated into Canadian culture.[33]

Assimilation and nativism edit

In the 1910–1930 era, the provincial department of education led systematic efforts to place English-speaking teachers in every school to Canadianize the ethnic groups through the use of the English language and the teaching of British values. He envisioned the role of the teacher to be an educator, missionary, and model Canadian citizen.[34][35]

The Ku Klux Klan moved north into the prairies in 1926, and was especially strong among British residents of Saskatchewan. It built on ethnic prejudices, but had few major successes. Its peak came in 1927–30 when it shaped the vocabulary used to discuss issues of language, sectarianism, immigration, and control of natural resources. It over and over again warned of "Catholic plots," but faded away when the Great Depression hit and the conspiracy-minded turned their attention to eastern cities and bankers.[36]

Families edit

Gender roles were sharply defined. Men were primarily responsible for breaking the land; planting and harvesting; building the house; buying, operating and repairing machinery; and handling finances. At first there were many single men on the prairie, or husbands whose wives were still back east, but they had a hard time. They realized the need for a wife. In 1901, there were 19,200 families, but this surged to 150,300 families only 15 years later. Wives played a central role in settlement of the prairie region. Their labour, skills, and ability to adapt to the harsh environment proved decisive in meeting the challenges. They prepared bannock, beans and bacon, mended clothes, raised children, cleaned, tended the garden, helped at harvest time and nursed everyone back to health. While prevailing patriarchal attitudes, legislation, and economic principles obscured women's contributions, the flexibility exhibited by farm women in performing productive and nonproductive labour was critical to the survival of family farms, and thus to the success of the wheat economy.[37]

Population history edit

When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, boosters and politicians proclaimed its destiny was to become Canada's most powerful province. Saskatchewan embarked on an ambitious province-building program based on its Anglo-Canadian culture and wheat production for the export market. Population quintupled from 91,000 in 1901 to 492,000 to 1911, thanks to heavy immigration of farmers from the U.S., Germany and Scandinavia. Efforts were made to assimilate the newcomers to British Canadian culture and values.[38]

The population reached 758,000 in 1921 and peaked at 922,000 in 1931. It lost population in the Great Depression and war years, dropping to 830,000 in 1951, then slowly climbed back up, holding steady at about one million since 1986.

The ethnic history of the province was reflected in the ancestry data in 2006. The largest ethnic groups were German (30.0%), followed by English (26.5%), Scottish (19.2%), Irish (15.3%), Ukrainian (13.6%), French (12.4%), First Nations (12.1%), Norwegians (7.2%), Polish (6.0%), Métis (4.4%), Dutch (3.7%), Russian (3.7%) and Swedish (3.5%). Some 18.1% of all respondents also identified their ethnicity as "Canadian".

 
Saskatchewan's population since 1901

The largest denominations in 2001 were the Roman Catholic Church with 286,815 (30%); the United Church of Canada with 187,450 (20%); and the Lutherans with 78,520 (8%). 148,535 (15.4%) responded "no religion".[39]

1905–1930 edit

Government structure edit

The provisional districts of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Athabaska of the North-West Territories amalgamated into the province of Saskatchewan in 1905. The boundaries consist of: on the west is the 4th Meridian [of the Dominion Land Survey], south 49th parallel US-Canada boundary line, to the north the North-West Territories-Saskatchewan boundary line, and just about on the 2nd Meridian on the eastern boundary with the province of Manitoba.[40]

The early government formed local improvement districts (later re-organized into rural municipalities) initially to protect against prairie fires, establish roads and bridges. As homesteads were established, and agricultural methods perfected the community, slowly evolved. With supplemental monetary resources rural municipalities could now develop and establish schools for education, churches, cemeteries, and health care for their residents.

Political history 1905–1919 edit

The long-term prosperity of the province depended on the world price of wheat, which headed steadily upward from the 1880s to 1920, then plunged down. Wheat output was increased by new strains, such as the "Marquis" strain which matured 8 days sooner and yielded 7 more bushels per acre than the previous standard, "Red Fife". The national output of wheat soared from 8 million bushels in 1896, to 26 million in 1901, reaching 151 million by 1921.

In the 1905 provincial elections, Liberals won 16 of 25 seats in Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan government bought out Bell Telephone Company in 1909, with the government owning the long-distance lines and left local service to small companies organized at the municipal level.[41] Premier Thomas Walter Scott preferred government assistance to outright ownership because he thought enterprises worked better if citizens had a stake in running them; he set up the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Company in 1911. Despite pressure from farm groups for direct government involvement in the grain handling business, the Scott government opted to loan money to a farmer-owned elevator company. Saskatchewan in 1909 provided bond guarantees to railway companies for the construction of branch lines, alleviating the concerns of farmers who had trouble getting their wheat to market by wagon.

Urban reform movements in Regina in the years just prior to the start of the First World War in 1914 depended on support from business and professional groups. City planning, reform of local government, and municipal ownership of utilities were more widely supported by these two groups, often through such organizations as the Board of Trade. Protestant church-related and other altruistic organizations generally supported social welfare and housing reforms, but they were usually less successful in getting their reforms enacted.[42]

The province responded to the First World War in 1914 with patriotic enthusiasm and enjoyed the resultant economic boom. The price of wheat tripled and acreage seeded doubled. The wartime spirit of sacrifice intensified social reform movements that had predated the war and now came to fruition. Saskatchewan gave women the right to vote in 1916 and at the end 1916 passed a referendum to prohibit the sale of alcohol.

Patriotism also created a demand for a common language—English—for everyone in the province. The war brought to the forefront a fear of ethnicities, and a survival instinct developed the need for a Canadian identity.

1919–1939 edit

The economic crash after the war created an angry agrarian protest movement. Prairie farmers had long considered themselves the victims of powerful corporations—grain companies, banks, and railways—all based in Toronto and Montreal. Attacks on industrialists and financiers blamed high tariffs designed to protect manufacturers at the expense of farmers. During the war farmers felt doubly betrayed. The federal government first promised to exempt their sons from compulsory military service, then cancelled the exemption. It imposed a ceiling on wheat prices when they were high, but removed the floor when they were low. The farmers' pent-up frustration led to the formation of the Progressive Party in several provinces; it sent 64 to Ottawa in the 1921 general election.

Eager to control the price of wheat, 46,000 farmers joined in 1923–24 to set up the "Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers"—the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool—that bought nearly everyone's wheat and held it in elevators for the best price. The pool collapsed financially in 1931 and the federal government had to cover the losses; the co-op continued as a network of elevators owned by the farmers. It advanced the reform agenda for agricultural development, with full-time district representatives, or fieldmen, who promoted education, demonstrations of farm equipment, community picnics and rallies, and cooperative insurance, among other programs.[43]

The Roaring Twenties saw ethnic tensions and unprecedented prosperity. Bootlegging activities, gangsters such as Al Capone, and the underground trade of whisky smuggling used the caves around Cypress Hills, and the Soo Line Railroad which ended in Moose Jaw, the "Sin City of the north", or "Little Chicago". The Bronfman family became rich during Prohibition by shipping liquor into the United States, where it was illegal. Under the leadership of brothers Sam and Harry, the family based most of its operations out of Yorkton and Regina, while maintaining a warehouse in Moose Jaw.[44][45]

The Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association worked with the provincial Liberals and kept them in office until 1929, when a Conservative-led coalition was elected for a term. As wheat prices recovered the late 1920s were golden years. By 1927 Saskatchewan ranked first among the provinces in the production of wheat, oats, rye, and flax, and in sundry other areas. Most important, it ranked first in per capita wealth. With a population of 922,000 in 1931 ranked third in size, behind only Ontario and Quebec.

The Great Depression hit the prairies hard, especially when combined with the drought of the Dirty Thirties. The world market for wheat collapsed and per capita money income fell 75%. Thousands emigrated away from the family homestead as it could no longer support the family nor the community. Relief expenditures in the province in 1937 exceeded $40 million, dwarfing the entire 1939 provincial budget of $23 million. The hard-pressed government imposed a new 2% sales tax to cover the promissory notes that had been given to teachers in lieu of salaries.

In 1930, Saskatoon initiated a series of "work for wages" schemes designed to provide the unemployed with unskilled manual jobs. Financed from municipal, provincial, and federal sources, but operated by the city, the projects kept unemployment to manageable levels at first. Before 1932, most experts saw the depression as a temporary anomaly, a short-term emergency requiring no more than short-term emergency measures. By 1932 the depression was getting much worse with no end in sight. By spring 1932, the federal and provincial governments, short of revenue, were forced to abandon expensive public works in favour of the cheaper, more efficient direct relief of giving out cash and foot baskets.[46] Radical activism in the cities led to the Estevan Riot and the Regina Riot.

Finally prosperity returned after 1939, as farm prices rose and Saskatchewan plunged into the war effort.

Social structure, 1940s–1950s edit

As late as 1940, the province was heavily rural, dotted with many small service villages and towns. Two thirds of the people lived on farms. A tenth lived in towns or villages of more than 1,000 population. Another 15% lived in four small cities: Regina, the capital, with a population of 58,000; Moose Jaw, forty miles west of Regina, with 20,000; Saskatoon, the home of the university, with 43,000; and Prince Albert in the north, with 13,000. The cities were merely larger versions of the country towns; they were primarily trading centres serving rural areas. Railroads, wholesale trade and retail trade employed most of the urban workers.[47]

Little economic decision-making power was concentrated in the cities. The small urban upper-middle class was composed of professionals and branch managers of national banks and corporations or heads of small local manufacturing or trading organizations. The banks were mostly branch offices with headquarters far to the east; the leading stores were branches of national chains, especially Eaton's, Simpson's, the Hudson's Bay Company. To the farmer and urbanite alike, the names symbolize the world of eastern business that controls their fate, and became the target of political fears.[47]

A pervasive social and economic equality characterized the rural areas. Sharp variations existed between the rich south and the poor north. Farmers in districts of good soil were generally wealthier; large farms of 640 acres (2.6 km2) to 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) dominated the rich Regina plains and in the Rosetown district west of Saskatoon; small farms of 160 acres (0.65 km2) to 320 acres (1.3 km2) typified the poor-soil regions of the north with small outputs even in years with good weather. Within the province the average assessment per acre of land varied from an index of 9 for the poorest rural municipality to 76 for the wealthiest. Within any one rural community, however, variations in the value of land are small, for the great majority of farms have the same conditions of soil and rainfall. Differences in income did exist within individual rural communities, but they were not large enough to result in the emergence of distinct social classes. There were few hired hands, and tenant farmers were mostly men under age 40 who expected to eventually buy or inherit land.[48]

Mechanization after 1945 thus changed the face of Saskatchewan. Combines and mechanized farming were now available, farms became larger, and more folk moved into urban centres. The one-room school house closed down to make way for the more industrial or consolidated school in town which provided more resources for more technological development. Growth and improvements in technology paved the way for the contemporary society of Saskatchewan.

Tommy Douglas and CCF edit

A new political movement emerged, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF); its 1933 manifesto promised to eradicate capitalism and put in place a "full program of socialized planning which will lead to the establishment in Canada of the Co-operative Commonwealth." Tommy Douglas (1904–86), a Baptist minister from working class origins, led the CCF to power in 1944 and kept it in power to 1961. Douglas headed the first socialist government elected in Canada, and is recognized as the father of socialized medicine and the leader who put democratic socialism in the mainstream of Canadian politics.[49]

The Saskatchewan CCF won in June 1944 with a "Pocket Platform" calling for home ownership and debt reduction; increased old age pensions, mothers' allowances, and disability care; public medical, dental, and hospital services; equal education; free speech, and religion; collective bargaining; and the encouragement of economic co-operatives. The CCF, while rhetorically socialist, did not nationalize banking or industry; it sought a mixed economy, including public, private, and cooperative sectors, with a strong role for private ownership in innovation and competition, however with new controls. For example, In its first term the CCF passed a farm security act preventing banks and mortgage companies from foreclosing on family farms.

The CCF government also introduced the most pro-labour trade union act in North America. Saskatchewan became the first province to allow civil servants to organize unions (1944), the first to enshrine a bill of rights prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, colour, or creed (1947), the first to implement compulsory government automobile insurance (1946), and the first to institute a hospital insurance plan (1947).

The CCF was committed to efficiency-oriented planning. Douglas set up an Economic Advisory and Planning Board (EAPB), a cabinet committee with a supporting secretariat, charged with planning economic development strategies for the province and evaluating overall policies and programs. The EAPB evolved into two new agencies: the Budget Bureau and the Government Finance Office. The former was the secretariat for the Treasury Board, the committee of cabinet in charge of allocating budgetary expenditures. In addition, the Budget Bureau had an Organization and Methods unit, which surveyed the operations of various government departments and made recommendations on how they could be managed more effectively. Budgeting became more than the mechanical exercise of allocating money; it became the meeting point of the decision-making process, where all the Douglas government's diverse priorities were integrated.

The CCF set up eleven small Crown corporations including power and telephone utilities, bus and airline companies, and ventures into sodium sulfate mining, a woolen mill, and a shoe factory. By 1949, most of the non-utility corporations had been unable to turn a profit and ceased operations.[50]

Prosperity returned after 1945, and the population increased gradually. More dramatic was the movement from farms to towns and cities as farming became more mechanized and capital intensive. Increased production of oil, gas, and uranium, and the beginnings of a potash industry helped diversify the economy beyond just wheat.

Native policies edit

Douglas brought First Nations delegates together in 1946 to form a single organization to represent Indian interests. Three existing organizations merged into the Union of Saskatchewan Indians, which later became the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN). Douglas's EAPB prepared an in-depth analysis of the demographic, social, and economic challenges facing the First Nation population. In the 21st century the FSIN is a strong policy-making and program-delivery organization, arguably one of the most effective of its kind in Canada.[51]

CCF initiatives included encouraging northern aboriginals to trade their semi-nomadic lifestyles for lives in urban settings. The establishment of Kinoosao on Reindeer Lake provides an example of how CCF planners established new villages; community development processes excluded local people. Yet, in spite of considerable resistance, various incentives and coercive measures resulted in the movement of nearly all northerners to permanent settlements.

Socialized medicine edit

In 1959, Douglas promised universal medical care insurance, based on pre-payment, quality service and government administration, and through a scheme acceptable to both doctors and patients. The election of 1960 was fought on this issue; the doctors campaigning against it, but the CCF won.

The CCF comprised two contradictory traditions – a group aligned with a rational, bureaucratic, statist approach to government and a faction dedicated to the populist ideals of democratic participation. The struggle between these two sometimes overlapping factions ended, at least temporarily, with the resignation of Douglas and the succession of Woodrow S. Lloyd (1913–72) as premier in November 1961. Lloyd's statist approach to government dominated the CCF and its policies during the critical period of the introduction of a province-wide system of state-sponsored medical insurance. No referendum or local control through community clinics was permitted in the implementation of the medical insurance plan (in part due to doctors' opposition to community clinics). The plan was presented to the public not for its approval but for its acceptance. The CCF did consider community involvement necessary. After twenty years in office, a centrist-bureaucratic ideology dominated the party and the anti-statist decentralist in the Saskatchewan CCF was in retreat.[52]

The Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Bill became law in November 1961, and the medical society announced doctors would refuse to participate, complaining that it would bring regimentation and would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. The doctors even went on strike for a few weeks in July 1962, but returned when new legislation allowed them to practise outside the system. Eventually the Saskatchewan plan was so popular that in 1968 the federal government extended it nationwide.[53]

Douglas became leader of the federal New Democratic Party (formed by a merger of the CCF and organized labour). The party was unsuccessful in its first election, the federal election of 1962, due to the backlash against the CCF's medical care program and to Canadians' general historic reluctance to vote for progressive change.

In the 1964 Saskatchewan provincial election, the Liberal party, led by Ross Thatcher (1917–71), swept to victory, ending 20 years of CCF government. The Liberals had launched a strong party membership drive and engaged in vigorous campaigning on a platform demanding more private enterprise and industrial development; it promised substantial tax cuts. The CCF's internal factionalism, together with lingering reaction to the medical care crisis of 1962 and the separate school issue, contributed to the CCF defeat.

The impact of the Douglas government on the rest of the country was profound, both in public policy and the bureaucratic machinery devised to implement it. After the defeat in 1964, the former administration's influence continued to ripple out from Regina, as senior civil servants left the province and became influential elsewhere.[54]

Recent history edit

NDP government 1971–1982 edit

Thatcher and his Liberals were re-elected in 1967, but were defeated in a landslide by Allan E. Blakeney (1925–2011)[55] and the NDP in 1971. The NDP was re-elected in 1975, as the long-dormant Progressive Conservative party made a comeback.

Blakeney's government practised state-led economic intervention in the economy. The farmers were a high priority, as globalization began transforming agriculture, weakening the traditional family farm through consolidation, mechanization, and corporatization. The NDP promised a "revitalized rural Saskatchewan," and Blakeney's introduced programs to stabilize crop prices, retain transportation links, and modernize rural life. Looking back he lamented his lack of success: "We were, it seems, King Canute trying to hold back the tide."[56]

The NDP decided to nationalize the potash industry in 1976–78 by buying out 45% of the mining interests. The government created a Crown corporation in the potash industry in an attempt to further diversify the province's agrarian economy and threatened expropriation of private potash mines within the province. Blakeney pointed out that the sums paid for these mines were slightly in excess of their appraised "book" value. However, the mere threat of expropriation created a political firestorm that involved even the U.S. government.[57] By 1979 the Crown Investments Corporation, the holding company for the crowns, had assets of $3.5 billion and revenues of over $1 billion.[55]

Blakeney also created a state-owned oil and gas corporation (SaskOil) to handle oil exploration and production. The private oil industry had essentially abandoned Saskatchewan following the NDP's imposition of high royalty rate policy of the early 1970s. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's policies (to centralize control of natural resources in Ottawa) outraged Blakeney, and he moved closer to Alberta's position of open hostility. Blakeney joined Alberta Progressive Conservative Premier Peter Lougheed in a fight for provincial rights over minerals, oil and gas.[58]

Nationalization was the central issue in the 1978 elections; the NDP held its own but the Liberals were wiped out and the Progressive Conservative party grew. Prosperity was at hand, with good prices for wheat and expansion of oil and uranium. The NDP spent resource revenues to build on the social welfare legacy of the CCF. It introduced a guaranteed income supplement for senior citizens, a family income plan for the working poor, a children's dental service, and a prescription drug plan.

Since 1982 edit

Voters went to the polls in 1982 as the economy started slipping, with falling prices for wheat, oil, potash, and uranium. The NDP was routed after a dozen years in power, dropping from 45 seats to 9 while the Progressive Conservative Party took all the other 55 seats. The new premier was 37-year-old economist Grant Devine (1944– ),[59] who won with a simple populist message: the people should share in the wealth of the province rather than watch it contribute to the expansion of the 24 Crown corporations. The new government ended the 20% tax on gasoline and lower interest rates on mortgages. It was re-elected in 1986 and began selling off crown corporations. The government said the companies would operate more profitably as private businesses. The opposition NDP warned that the sales would result in loss of control over the province's key economic sectors.

After taking over balanced books in 1982, the Progressive Conservatives spent liberally on a number of voter-friendly initiatives, including tax rebates and mortgage subsidies, as well as investing millions in several money-losing megaprojects. The provincial deficit peaked at $1.2 billion in 1986–87, and the accumulated debt rose from $3.5 billion to $15 billion. The Progressive Conservatives, based in rural areas and small towns, lost many rural voters after pushing through the unpopular U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1989. As a result, the NDP was returned to power in 1991.

Scandals involving top officials ruined the Progressive Conservative party, which suspended operations in 1997;[60] conservative voters moved to the new Saskatchewan party at the provincial level,[61] and to the Reform Party of Canada at the national level. The NDP won re-election in 1995 and 1999, and (in coalition with the Liberals) again in 2003. Lorne Calvert (1952– ), an ordained minister,[62] served as NDP premier 2001–2007.

Brad Wall (1965– )[63] became premier as his centre-right Saskatchewan Party took over from the NDP after a landslide victory in the November 2007 election. The landslide grew after 4 years of solid economic management, nearly wiping out the NDP (losing 11 of 20 seats) in the 2011 election in which NDP party leader Dwain Lingenfelter even failed to retain his own seat (what was once considered a "safe seat" for the NDP, Regina-Elphinstone). Lingenfelter resigned immediately, and the party elected Cam Broten as leader in 2013. He was first elected as an MLA in 2007 and re-elected in 2011. He was elected as Leader of Saskatchewan's New Democrats on March 9, 2013

Social and economic trends edit

In 2005 two-thirds of the province's population lived in urban areas, there was a diverse economic base, and citizens enjoyed a rich cultural life. The economic future based on high-priced oil and wheat looks bright. Saskatchewan is the ninth biggest supplier of oil to the U.S., shipping them more than Kuwait. The province has 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable conventional oil and an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of potential oil sands reserves (which create troublesome high carbon emissions when processed).[64]

The rural towns have evolved from a very large number of widely dispersed grain delivery points in 1900, through a period of expansion over the first thirty years of the 20th century, to a pattern of relatively concentrated population and businesses in an urban-based economy by 2000. Mechanization, especially the rapid replacement of horses by tractors after 1945, meant one family could operate a much larger farm, so some farmers bought out their neighbors, who then moved to town along with the surplus children. The rural economy diversified far beyond its exclusively agricultural base, with service employment in education and medicine important, as well as small-scale factories. Better highways, along with cell phones and internet coverage encouraged a concentration in fewer, larger centres, which drew customers and clients from a wide radius. Most rural communities declined continuously over the second half of the 20th century, but some grew in population, expanded their economic base, and experienced an increase in their market areas for a limited range of goods and services. These communities also became centres of employment for their own and surrounding (farm and nonfarm) population.[65]

The Wheat Pool continues in operation as Viterra, having taken over Agricore United (based in Manitoba) in 2007. With soaring wheat prices, Viterra's revenues in the first quarter (three months) of 2008 reached $1.3 billion, triple the total the year before.[66]

Military history edit

Military history of Saskatchewan includes the early conflicts between conflicting First Nations. Prior to European settlement many battles were fought between the Blackfoot, Atsina, Cree, Assiniboine, Saulteaux, Sioux, and Dene. Many place names hearken back to these early conflicts such as the Battle River: so named due to Cree-Blackfoot fighting in the area. The Blackfoot Confederacy, and Atsina or Gros Ventre were pushed out of Saskatchewan following decades of warfare with the Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine. In the boreal forest conflicts raged between the Woods Cree and Dene or Chipewyan up until the late 19th century.

The creation of the Métis added a new dimension to conflicts in what is now Saskatchewan. In addition to violence related to the fur trade between the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company (which ended with the merger of the two in 1821), the Métis took part in battles with the Sioux and Gros Ventre across the plains. The last battles fought in Saskatchewan, and the last battles fought in what is now Canada occurred in 1885 during the North-West Rebellion. Although small by global standards this short war had a profound effect on Canadian French-English relations, and was a defining moment in the history of the West and the Métis.[67]

Since Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, its people have contributed heavily to wars fought by the Canadian state. Saskatchewan Regiments were raised for the second Boer War, First World War, Second World War, and Korean War. In addition many Saskatchewan citizens have served in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and in the Afghan War.

Some current Saskatchewan regiments in the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Forces include the North Saskatchewan, and the Royal Regina Rifles.

Inland waterways edit

Travel by boat and canoe along the waterways of what is now Saskatchewan was historically an important mode of transport. During the early fur trading era from the 17th century through to the 19th century, travel to the inland of North America could be facilitated by waterways as there were no roads nor railways at this time. The First Nations and French fur traders from the East relied on birch bark canoes to traverse the main rivers, and the English fur trader from the Hudson's Bay Company travelled by York boat.[68]

During the late 19th century steamboats were used to navigate immigrants and goods along the Saskatchewan River. This only continued until 1896 when the last steamboat ceased operations. The ice flows of the winter months and the shallow sand bars made this form of navigation impractical. The most notable highlight of the steamboat era was the impact steamboats made upon the North-West Rebellion.[69]

Since this time the main use of travel by boat are the 13 seasonal ferries which are still operational and started use in Saskatchewan in the late 19th century. Barges are used to transport freight on the larger northern lakes, Wollaston and Athabasca for the northern mining industry.[70]

Archontology of Saskatchewan edit

Archontology is the study of historical Saskatchewan offices and important positions in various organizations and societies. This list cannot be comprehensive but rather an introduction to those who have contributed to the shaping of Saskatchewan. There are a few who are highlighted through the events of history, who have helped to mould and build Saskatchewan as it is today.

see also Category:People from Saskatchewan

Louis Riel – (October 22, 1844 – November 16, 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies.[citation needed]

Honourable Sir Frederick William Alpin Gordon Haultain K.B., November 25, 1857 – January 30, 1942. Sir Frederick W. A. G. Haultain, Chief Justice of Saskatchewan, and Commissioner of Education, who developed the early school system on the rugged frontier.[citation needed]

The Right Reverend George Lloud MA DD, Bishop of the Diocese of Saskatchewan (January 6, 1861, leader of the British Barr Colony, and founder of Emmanuel College, Saskatoon.[71]

Edgar Dewdney moved the NWT capital from Battleford to Regina.[citation needed]

Reverend James Nisbet, (September 8, 1823 – September 30, 1874) settled in the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan area and was founder of First Presbyterian Church (1872) where English and Cree Sunday School services were provided.

William Richard Motherwell who was Saskatchewan's first minister of agriculture as well as federal minister of agriculture for the Mackenzie King administration.[citation needed]

Thomas Clement Douglas, PC, CC, SOM, MA, LL.D (hc) (October 20, 1904 – February 24, 1986) was a leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1942 and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961, who led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public medicare to Canada.[citation needed]

John George Diefenbaker, CH, PC, QC, BA, MA, LL.B, LL.D, DCL, FRSC, FRSA, D.Litt, DSL, (18 September 1895 – 16 August 1979) was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada (1957–1963).[citation needed]

Art history edit

Art history of Saskatchewan is complex and diverse as it follows the changes and social context of art in this prairie province. Petroglyphs are the earliest studied artforms which are located in archaeological sites of Saskatchewan. As early as the 17th century, explorers depicted the early North West in both written, painted and drawn artforms. Frederick Verner, W.G.R. Hind, Peter Rindisbacher, Edward Roper and Paul Kane are some of the earliest artists. Followed by William Kurelek, C. W. Jefferys, Robert Hurley and Dorothy Knowles. Margaret Laurence, W.O. Mitchell, Nellie McClung captured the prairie spirit in words.

In the 1920s, the Group of Seven formed a group of Canadian landscape painters, made up of Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, Frederick Varley, A. J. Casson, Edwin Holgate, LeMoine Fitzgerald and Tom Thomson. Augustus Kenderdine, landscape painter started art instruction at Murray Point on Emma Lake. Imagery changed of the grasslands shown in the early drawings where the wild west was a romantic adventure of first nation and Buffalo. The prairie scenery then highlighted building a Nation, a prairie utopia, through to the realism of the settlement experience.[72]

Paul Kane, (September 3, 1810 – February 20, 1871) was an Irish-Canadian painter, famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and other Native Americans in the Oregon Country.[citation needed]

Henry Youle Hind (1 June 1823 – 8 August 1908), Canadian geologist and explorer detailed his travels in both images and these writings Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 and Reports of Progress on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition.[citation needed]

Count Imhoff (1865–1939) painted magnificent religious murals within churches at St. Walburg, Muenster, St. Benedict, Bruno, Denzil, Reward, St. Leo, Humboldt, Paradise Hill, North Battleford etc.[73]

Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943) is a noted Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.

William Ormond Mitchell PC, OC, D.Litt., (W.O. Mitchell) (March 13, 1914 – February 25, 1998) born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan was an author of novels, short stories, and plays such as Who Has Seen The Wind.[citation needed]

Joe Fafard B.S.A, M.F.A. (born September 2, 1942) is a Canadian sculptor also taught sculpture at the University of Saskatchewan.

See also edit

Footnotes edit

  1. ^ a b Fung, Professor of Geography, University of Saskatchewan., Dr. K.I.; RICHARDS, J. Howard. "Evolution-boundaries-1882: (1969). Atlas of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon: Modern Press". Retrieved 2007-10-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ a b . Archived from the original on 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  3. ^ a b Sask Gen Web SGW First Nations Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots, URL accessed 26 November 2006
  4. ^ Saskatchewan Gen Web Project – SGW – Canadian Migrations Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots URL accessed April 12, 2007
  5. ^ a b , URL accessed 26 November 2006
  6. ^ a b Human History of Northern Saskatchewan 2005-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, URL accessed 26 November 2006
  7. ^ Grade Four Social Studies Heritage Explorers, Fur Traders, Early Immigrants, and Treaties[permanent dead link], URL accessed 26 November 2006
  8. ^ LAC, MG26, A, vol. 104, "Petition des Metis de la rivier Qu'Appelle, 1874" pp. 41996-41999.
  9. ^ SABS, Department of Agriculture (Saskatchewan), Lands Branch Files, Ag II, southwest quarter of section 20 (river-front lots 21 and 22), township 42-1-3, Dumont's Declaration.
  10. ^ "Centre for Rupert's Land Studies". University of Winnipeg. Retrieved 2008-01-12.[dead link]
  11. ^ W. A. Mackintosh, Prairie Settlement, the Geographical Setting (Toronto, 1934). p 81
  12. ^ Impressions 250 Years of Printing in the Lives of Canadians 2006-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, URL accessed 26 November 2006
  13. ^ W. T. Easterbrook, Farm Credit in Canada (1938).
  14. ^ Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, "Canada's Most Wanted: Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 2000 37(2): 223–238
  15. ^ Peter Bush, Western Challenge: The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission on the Prairies and North, 1885–1925. (2000); Marjory Harper, "Probing the Pioneer Questionnaires: British Settlement in Saskatchewan, 1887–1914." Saskatchewan History 2000 52(2): 28–46. ISSN 0036-4908
  16. ^ Michael Cottrell, "The Irish in Saskatchewan, 1850–1930: a Study of Intergenerational Ethnicity." Prairie Forum 1999 24(2): 185–209
  17. ^ Alan Anderson, "Ethnic Bloc Settlements," Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan online 2011-11-27 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Howard Palmer, The Settlement of the West (U. of Calgary Press, 1977) p. 191.
  19. ^ Bill Waiser, Saskatchewan pp 72-74
  20. ^ Heinz Lehmann and Gerhard P. Bassler, The German Canadians, 1750–1937: immigration, settlement & culture (1986)
  21. ^ Jessica Clark and Thomas D. Isern, "Germans from Russia in Saskatchewan: An Oral History," American Review of Canadian Studies, Spring 2010, Vol. 40 Issue 1, pp 71–85
  22. ^ Adam Giesinger, "The Germans from Russia Who Pioneered in Saskatchewan," Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Summer 1984, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp 1–14
  23. ^ Clinton O. White, "Pre-World War I Saskatchewan German Catholic thought concerning the perpetuation of their language and religion," Canadian Ethnic Studies, 1994, Vol. 26 Issue 2, pp 15–30
  24. ^ Clinton O. White, "The Politics of Elementary Schools in a German-American Roman Catholic Settlement in Canada's Province of Saskatchewan, 1903–1925," Great Plains Research, September 1997, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp 251–272
  25. ^ Jonathan F. Wagner, "The Deutscher Bund Canada in Saskatchewan," Saskatchewan History, May 1978, Vol. 31 Issue 2, pp 41–50
  26. ^ Frances Swyripa, and John Herd Thompson, eds., Loyalties in Conflict: Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War (1983) p 71
  27. ^ Rhonda L. Hinther and Jim Mochoruk, eds., Re-Imagining Ukrainian-Canadians: History, Politics, and Identity (2010)
  28. ^ Orest Martynowich, Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Period, 1891–1924 (1991)
  29. ^ Stella Hryniuk and Lubomyr Y. Luciuk, Canada's Ukrainians: Changing Perspectives, 1891–1991 (1991)
  30. ^ J.C. Jaenen, "Ruthenian Schools in Western Canada 1897–1919," Paedagogica Historica, June 1970, Vol. 10 Issue 3, pp 517–541
  31. ^ Frances Swyripa and John Herd Thompson, eds. Loyalties in Conflict: Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War (1983) p 4
  32. ^ Myroslaw Tataryn, "Harvesting Heritage Seeds in Prairie Soil: The Role of Ukrainskyi holos in the Formation of the Identity of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada," Historical Studies, 2005, Vol. 71, pp 94–109
  33. ^ Alan B. Anderson, "Ukrainian Ethnicity: Generations And Change In Rural Saskatchewan" in Jean Elliott,Two Nations, Many Cultures: Ethnic Groups in Canada (1979), pp 250–269
  34. ^ Caroline Melis, "J. T. M. Anderson, Director of Education among New-Canadians and the Policy of the Department of Education: 1918–1923," Saskatchewan History, February 1980, Vol. 33 Issue 1, pp 1–12
  35. ^ David C. Jones, "'So Petty, so Middle Europe, so Foreign'—Ruthenians and Canadianization," History of Education Review 1987, Vol. 16 Issue 1, pp 13–30
  36. ^ William Calderwood, "Religious Reactions to the Ku Klux Klan in Saskatchewan," Saskatchewan History, October 1973, Vol. 26 Issue 3, pp 103–114
  37. ^ Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, "Canada's Most Wanted: Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 2000 37(2): 223–238; E. Rowles, "Bannock, beans and bacon: An investigation of pioneer diet." Saskatchewan History, 1952. Vol. V, No 1, pp. 1–16.
  38. ^ James M. Pitsula, "Disparate Duo" Beaver 2005 85(4): 14–24.
  39. ^ "Religions in Canada". 2.statcan.ca. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  40. ^ Adamson, J (September 1, 2005). "Saskatchewan Gen Web Map Resources". Rootsweb. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  41. ^ Ronald S. Love, "'A Harebrained Plan': Saskatchewan and the Formation of a Provincial Telephone Policy, 1906–1912." Saskatchewan History 2005 57(1): 15–33.
  42. ^ Girard Hengen, "A Case Study in Urban Reform: Regina Before the First World War." Saskatchewan History 1988 41(1): 19–34
  43. ^ Ian Macpherson, "Missionaries of Rural Development: the Fieldmen of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, 1925–1965." Agricultural History 1986 60(2): 73–96. ISSN 0002-1482; also see Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
  44. ^ Kathy Morrell, "The Bronfman Family and the Yorkton Courts," Saskatchewan History, Spring 2010, Vol. 62 Issue 1, pp 16–40
  45. ^ John Larsen and Maurice Richard Libby, Moose Jaw: people, places, history (2001) p. 78
  46. ^ Eric J. Strikwerda, "From Short-term Emergency to Long-term Crisis: Public Works Projects in Saskatoon, 1929–1932." Prairie Forum 2001 26(2): 169–186. ISSN 0317-6282
  47. ^ a b Lipset, Agrarian Socialism (1971 edition) pp 49–50
  48. ^ Lipset, Agrarian Socialism (1971 edition) pp 51–52
  49. ^ A. W. Johnson, Dream No Little Dreams: A Biography of the Douglas Government of Saskatchewan, 1944–1961 (2004); Lipset, Agrarian Socialism
  50. ^ Weidlich, John (Mar 22, 2011). "FEATURE: Provincial budgets of bygone days". CBC. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  51. ^ F. Laurie Barron, Walking in Indian Moccasins: The Native Policies of Tommy Douglas and the CCF (1997)
  52. ^ Keith Brownsey, "Policy, Bureaucracy and Personality: Woodrow Lloyd and the Introduction of Medicare in Saskatchewan." Prairie Forum 1998 23(2): 197–210; Brett Quiring, "The Social and Political Philosophy of Woodrow S. Lloyd." Saskatchewan History 2004 56(1): 5–20.
  53. ^ On the medical leaders who made the plan work in Saskatchewan, see Bill Waiser and Stuart Houston, Tommy's Team: The People Behind the Douglas Years (2010).
  54. ^ Johnson, Dream No Little Dreams (2004)
  55. ^ a b See Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
  56. ^ Allan Blakeney, An Honourable Calling: Political Memoirs (2008) pp. 5, 125
  57. ^ Blakeney, An Honourable Calling: Political Memoirs pp. 156–62
  58. ^ Blakeney, An Honourable Calling: Political Memoirs p. 5
  59. ^ Pitsula, James M. (2006). . uofrpress.ca. Canadian Plains Research Centre, University Of Regina. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  60. ^ Brian Bergman; Dale Eisler. "Saskatchewan tories in fraud scandal". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 30, 2019.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  61. ^ Quiring, Brett (2006). . uofrpress.ca. Canadian Plains Research Centre, University Of Regina. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  62. ^ Praud, Jocelyne (2006). . uofrpress.ca. Canadian Plains Research Centre, University Of Regina. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  63. ^ Stoffel, Holden (2006). . uofrpress.ca. Canadian Plains Research Centre, University Of Regina. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  64. ^ Luiza Ch. Savage, "Fuelling up a New Future," Maclean's March 24, 2008
  65. ^ M. Rose Olfert and Jack C. Stabler, "Rural Communities of the Saskatchewan Prairie Landscape." Prairie Forum 2000 25(1): 123–138. ISSN 0317-6282
  66. ^ See Bloomberg Businessweek, "VITERRA INC (VT:Toronto)"
  67. ^ Mein, Stewart. "The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan: Military History of Saskatchewan". Retrieved 2007-04-24.
  68. ^ Foster, John E.; Canadian Encyclopedia (2007). . Historica Foundation of Canada. Archived from the original on July 7, 2006. Retrieved October 31, 2007.
  69. ^ Ivanochko, Bob (2006). . The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Canadian Plains Research Centre, University Of Regina. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  70. ^ Cousins, Brian; Coneghan, Daria (2006). . The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Canadian Plains Research Centre, University Of Regina. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  71. ^ Adamson, J (July 25, 2005). "Pioneers & Prominent People of Saskatchewan: SGW Transcription Project". Retrieved 2007-04-24.
  72. ^ Francis, R. Douglas (1989). Images of the West Changing Perceptions of the Prairies 1690–1960 Responses to the Canadian Prairies. Western Producer Books. ISBN 978-0-88833-274-5.
  73. ^ "Virtual Saskatchewan – Count Imhoff". 1997–2007. Retrieved 2007-04-24.

Bibliography edit

  • University of Regina Library – Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2005
  • Anderson, A.B. Settling Saskatchewan (University of Regina Press, 2013).
  • Archer, John H. Saskatchewan: A History. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1980. 422 pp.
  • Barnhart, Gordon L., ed. Saskatchewan Premiers of the Twentieth Century. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2004. 418 pp.
  • Boswell, Randy, and Lynn McAuley Province with a heart: celebrating 100 years in Saskatchewan CanWest Books, 2005 ISBN 0-9736719-0-4; popular history
  • Danysk, Cecilia. Hired hands: labour and the development of prairie agriculture, 1880–1930 McClelland & Stewart, 1995 ISBN 0-7710-2552-1
  • Friesen, Gerald. The Canadian Prairies: A History (2nd ed. 1987)
  • Pitsula, James M. For All We Have and Are: Regina and the Experience of the Great War (2008) online review
  • Porter, Jene M. Perspectives of Saskatchewan University of Manitoba Press, 2008 ISBN 978-0-88755-183-3
  • Richards, J. Howard and K.I. Fung, eds. Atlas of Saskatchewan (1969)
  • Thompson, John Herd. The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 1914-1918 (1978)
  • Waiser, Bill. Saskatchewan: A New History Fifth House (2005), ISBN 1-894856-75-9
  • Waiser, Bill. A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan before 1905 (Fifth House Publishers, 2016), w
  • Whitcomb, Dr. Ed. A Short History of Saskatchewan. (Ottawa: From Sea To Sea Enterprises, 2005). ISBN 0-9694667-3-0

Historiography edit

  • Waiser, Bill. "Teaching the West and Confederation: A Saskatchewan Perspective." Canadian Historical Review 98.4 (2017): 742–764.
  • Wardhaugh, Robert Alexander, Alison Calder History, literature, and the writing of the Canadian Prairies University of Manitoba Press, 2005 ISBN 0-88755-682-5

Primary sources edit

  • Smith, D.E. ed. Building a Province: A History of Saskatchewan in Documents (Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1992)

External links edit

  • Sask History Online An online digitization project showcasing Saskatchewan's vibrant history with an extensive amount of historical photographs, documents, etc.
  • Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan
  • Saskatchewan and Its People
  • Virtual Saskatchewan – Accomplished People from Saskatchewan
  • Saskatchewan Gen Web Project – SGW – Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots
  • Atlas of Saskatchewan Boundary Evolution and Ethnic Bloc Settlement Maps
  • Online Historical Map Digitization Project- showing settlement development on the railways in various years
  • Saskatchewan History of the Province (German)
  • Saskatchewan War Experience[permanent dead link] a digital project with hundreds of photos and documents pertaining to the experience of Saskatchewan citizens in times of war.

history, saskatchewan, encompasses, study, past, human, events, activities, canadian, province, saskatchewan, middle, canada, three, prairie, provinces, archaeological, studies, give, some, clues, history, lifestyles, palaeo, indian, taltheilei, shield, archai. History of Saskatchewan encompasses the study of past human events and activities of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan the middle of Canada s three prairie provinces Archaeological studies give some clues as to the history and lifestyles of the Palaeo Indian Taltheilei and Shield Archaic traditions who were the first occupants of the prehistoric era of this geographical area They evolved into the history of the First Nations people who kept their history alive in oral tradition The First Nation bands that were a part of this area were the Chipewyan Cree Saulteaux Assiniboine Atsina and Sioux 3 Map of Canada showing Rupert s Land boundaries by 1870 Map of Canada showing boundaries of the North West Territories which was divided into provisional districts 1870 The Provisional Districts of Alberta Assiniboia Athabasca and Saskatchewan were Districts of the North West Territories created in 1882 They were named provisional districts to distinguish them from the District of Keewatin which had a more autonomous relationship from the NWT administration 1882 districts are superimposed over the 1881 map Due to the vastness of the North West Territories it was divided into more administrative districts 1895 saw the formation of the District of Franklin District of Ungava and the District of Mackenzie which were all part of the NWT By this date the Provisional District of Athabasca had extended as far east as the first meridian 1 2 Map of Canada showing provincial and territorial boundaries set out April 1 1999Henry Kelsey 1667 1724 was the first European an Englishman to visit this area and arrived in 1690 4 Other European explorers also soon arrived followed by fur traders such as the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson s Bay Hudson s Bay Company and North West Company Clifford Sifton Minister of the Interior in charge of immigration 1896 1905 induced a variety of agriculturally inclined European emigrants to Canada to settle prairie land around the transcontinental railway The political boundaries of this area have changed several times evolving through Rupert s Land Provisional Districts of the North West Territories and finally a province Saskatchewan has been a province of Canada since 1905 Contents 1 Natural history 2 Pre European 3 Early explorers 4 Fur trade era 5 The North West Rebellion 6 Political boundaries 7 Immigration and settlement era 7 1 Travel routes 7 2 Immigration policy 7 3 Ethnicity 7 3 1 Blocs and colonies 7 3 2 Germans 7 3 3 Ukrainians 7 3 4 Assimilation and nativism 7 4 Families 8 Population history 9 1905 1930 9 1 Government structure 9 2 Political history 1905 1919 9 3 1919 1939 9 4 Social structure 1940s 1950s 10 Tommy Douglas and CCF 10 1 Native policies 10 2 Socialized medicine 11 Recent history 11 1 NDP government 1971 1982 11 2 Since 1982 12 Social and economic trends 13 Military history 14 Inland waterways 15 Archontology of Saskatchewan 16 Art history 17 See also 18 Footnotes 19 Bibliography 19 1 Historiography 19 2 Primary sources 20 External linksNatural history editThe history of this plains area actually began 2 000 2 100 million years ago wherein there were two continents separated by an ocean The Churchill Continent which would be Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the Superior Continent which would comprise Manitoba and Ontario 1 830 1 800 million years ago these two land masses collided The Northern shield area and western Rockies formed higher land from the collision 5 The lower lands of today s parkland were covered by a shallow sea even in the Palaeozoic Era It was not until the Cretaceous Period 144 66 million years ago that the inland sea began to drain Here we begin to find the paleontological artifacts of various dinosaur species The ice age of the Quaternary Period totally again re shaped and re shifted the landscape of Saskatchewan occurring 2 million years ago 5 Following these geological changes to this area and the formation of the continent of North America as we know it pre history to the history of contemporary day can begin Pre European editFor information on early pre history see Saskatchewan Archaeological Society For information on the earliest inhabitants see Chipewyan Cree Algonquian peoples Assiniboine and Atsina Archaeologists divide the time frame to study ancient findings into contemporary which would be from the 20th century on Protohistoric archaeology from 1620 to contemporary and Prehistoric archaeology is the study before early exploration to the area The prehistoric archaeology studies the findings and further classifies them according to traditions followed by the ancient peoples Palaeo Indian Tradition of the Agate Basin finds date to as early as c 6000 BC Taltheilei Tradition c 500 BC and Shield Archaic tradition c 4000 BC 6 The Athapaskans Dene or Chipewyan First Nation lived in the shield area and were caribou hunters Their early archaeological history is documented around 1615 6 Samuel Hearne was one of the first early explorers to make contact with the Dene Algonkian or Woodland Cree Kristinaux lived above the treeline whereas plains Cree lived in the open parkland area Prairie buffalo hunters pre dominated in southern Saskatchewan and were mainly of the first nation Siouan or Assiniboine Nakota Atsina or Dakota Sioux were living on the outskirts of the area now known as Saskatchewan 3 Early explorers editSome early explorers who made inroads to the West are Louis de la Corne Chevalier de la Corne Peter Fidler Samuel Hearne Anthony Henday Henry Kelsey Pierre La Verendrye Peter Pond John Palliser David Thompson Philip Turnor 7 Fur trade era edit nbsp First Nations trading furs for goods from fur traders In May 1670 King Charles II of England declared sovereignty over the lands which drained into the Hudson Bay watershed and granted those lands to the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson s Bay which later became the Hudson s Bay Company HBC The lands became known as Rupert s Land after the founder of the company In 1774 Cumberland House the company s first trading post was erected Travelling inland were the French Canadian voyageurs of the North West Company arriving from Eastern Canada and from 1740 to about 1820 the Cree peoples were migrating westward as well coming into contact with the Haaninin and Siksika nations already inhabiting the Saskatchewan river basins as they continued their role as intermediaries in the fur trade Canadian European and American fur traders set up forts and trading posts and continued commerce with the indigenous people however conflicts between the local Haaninin and the incoming Cree and Assiniboine were exacerbated because of the preference Europeans showed toward trading with the latter indigenous groups over the locals culminating in attacks in 1794 against both North West Company and Hudson s Bay Company forts nbsp The North West Territory shewing British Columbia Vancouver Island Red River and Saskatchewan Settlements for the Canadian Almanac 1870 Local indigenous peoples including the Metis Haaninin and Siksika were accustomed to the buffalo hunt however some Metis had arrived from the Red River Valley in the 1840s 60 precisely because the hunt was declining in that region a sign of things to come further west When Manitoba was established in 1870 many Metis were disappointed with what they felt was a disenfranchisement of their laws and way of life in the new province and migrated into the Saskatchewan River basin establishing a settlement there and electing Gabriel Dumont as the first president of the council of St Laurent in 1872 charged with governing the annual buffalo hunts and other local laws In 1875 local Metis hunters led by an HBC employee broke the hunting laws established by this council to protect the buffalo by hunting ahead of the main caravan A fine was imposed by the local council on the hunters who appealed to the local magistrate Lawrence Clarke Clarke was in fact an officer of the HBC so in siding with the hunters he appealed for assistance from the North West Mounted Police who sent fifty officers to intimidate and undermine the authority of the local councils in favour of the HBC Soon after the seat of the government of the North West Territories was transferred to Battleford and a North West Mounted Police fort was established at Duck Lake In 1876 a treaty was concluded between the Government of Canada and the local Cree peoples Treaty 6 and though restrictions on the buffalo hunt and land ownership were tabled by some they ultimately failed to materialize in the written version of the treaty See also Saskatchewan River fur tradeThe North West Rebellion editMain article North West Rebellion In 1877 at the first council meeting in the new seat of government in Battleford many of the laws of the previous council of St Laurent were adopted to protect the buffalo 8 however these hunting restrictions did not apply to non Metis indigenous people as per the arrangement of Treaty 6 nor were they an effective means to reduce hunting by and for American markets According to Gabriel Dumont the leader of the South Saskatchewan River caravan bison had become extinct in the region by 1878 9 In the late 1870s and early 1880s several appeals were made by Metis people to be better represented in government The treaties established with aboriginal groups in the area gave a sense of voice at that time and territorial government was dominated by the euro Canadian minority referring to themselves as white in contrast to the Metis majority in many regions In April 1883 a local council voted against a proposition to send a delegation to Ottawa to demand their rights and instead supported an effort to bring Louis Riel back to Canada Before the arrival of Louis Riel a petition was sent from Bishop Gardin to Prime Minister Macdonald that presented all of the grievances and demands of the Metis in the South Saskatchewan river basin including the establishment of the province of Saskatchewan proper surveying of the traditional river lots of the Metis and the appointment of Riel as a member of the Territorial Council or Canadian Senate Louis Riel arrived in Saskatchewan in July 1884 A feast day was established on September 24 later moved to July 24 along with the establishment of a patron saint of the Metis and Riel met with many councils and individuals before declaring the establishment of the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan on March 19 1885 On March 26 Gabriel Dumont adjunct general of this provisional government captured Duck Lake with a small army forcing back the North West Mounted Police thus began the North West Rebellion Political boundaries editRupert s Land became the first western area under English control in 1670 when King Charles II of England granted the lands draining into Hudson s Bay to The Governor and Company of Adventurers Trading into Hudson s Bay i e the Hudson s Bay Company This area of land became known as Rupert s Land after King Charles cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine who was the first governor of the company 10 The North West Territories was divided into districts in 1870 The Provisional Districts of Alberta Assiniboia Athabasca and Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories created in 1882 They were named provisional districts to distinguish them from the District of Keewatin which had a more autonomous relationship from the NWT administration Due to the vastness of the NWT it was divided into more administrative districts 1895 saw the formation of the District of Franklin District of Ungava and the District of Mackenzie which were all part of the NWT By this date the Provisional District of Athabasca had extended as far west as the first meridian 1 2 Immigration and settlement era editFurther information History of immigration to Canada Western Canada and Category Ethnic groups in Canada The settlements patterns were closely tied to the availability of transportation especially railways and the fertility of the soil Ethnic groups tended to settle together so they could build support networks for religion language customs and finding marriage partners 11 nbsp Early sod houseTravel routes edit When the surveyors for the railways came through they at first proposed a route following the early telegraph line However a number of historic factors changed this route Travel from Winnipeg through to Calgary was easier through the southern prairies rather than going upwards to Battleford and Edmonton The southern route of the railway went through the village of Pile O Bones in 1882 By 1903 the influx of settlers via the railway increased the population to city status and Pile O Bones was now known as Regina In 1905 when Saskatchewan became a province Regina was named the capital city Immigration was advertised in a massive campaign put forth by Clifford Sifton Minister of the Interior in charge of immigration 1896 1905 12 who brought into being Canada s homestead act the Dominion Lands Act in 1872 The railway brought life to settlements which quickly grew to villages and towns Typically many small communities sprung up 10 12 miles apart a distance easily travelled by horse and cart in a day Immigration policy edit Settlement policy set by the federal government the Canadian Pacific Railway the Hudson s Bay Company and associated land companies encouraged immigration The key event was the decision to emulate the American Homestead Law by offering at no cost 160 acres of farmland to any man over 18 or to a woman head of family who settled there 13 Dramatic advertising campaigns promoted the benefits of prairie living Potential immigrants read leaflets information painted Canada as a veritable garden of Eden and downplayed the need for agricultural expertise Ads in The Nor West Farmer by the Commissioner of Immigration implied that western land held water wood gold silver iron copper and cheap coal for fuel all of which were readily at hand Reality was far harsher especially for the first arrivals who lived in sod houses However eastern money poured in and by 1913 long term mortgage loans to Saskatchewan farmers had reached 65 million 14 Ethnicity edit The dominant groups comprised British settlers from eastern Canada and Britain who comprised about 50 of the population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries They played the leading role in establishing the basic institutions of plains society economy and government 15 About a tenth of the people were Irish with the more numerous Protestants integrating with English and Scottish Protestants and the less numerous Catholics taking control of the Catholic Church in the province 16 Blocs and colonies edit By 1930 there were 19 major ethno religious bloc settlements in Saskatchewan chiefly in the north central region 17 Seven were French one German Catholic two Mennonite two Hutterite three Ukrainian Polish one Russian Doukhobor and two were Scandinavian They differed greatly in size from the small Hutterite colonies with a population of 75 150 each to St Peter s Colony which encompassed fifty six townships over two thousand square miles and included about 9 500 Catholics of German descent 18 In the north west of the provisional district of Saskatchewan NWT Interior Minister Clifton Sifton set up bloc colonies for 7400 Doukhobor settlers from Russia in 1899 Peter Verigin arrived in 1902 and became the leader After their bizarre behaviour alienated public opinion such as nude protest marches the government in 1907 took away much of the land they had been awarded Verigin led most of them to British Columbia 19 The French Counts of St Hubert established Rolanderie Ranch and a gentleman lifestyle at Whitewood in 1884 The Counts sought to establish a number of commercial ventures including a chicory processing factory a Gruyere cheese factory a sugar beet venture and a horse breeding operation They occasionally socialized with the English colonial outpost of Cannington Manor In the 1880s Edward Pierce tried to transplant early Victorian living at Cannington Manor in the 1880s now preserved as Cannington Manor Provincial Park The Barr Colonists ventured north in 1903 and settled in Brittania now known as Lloydminster Saskatchewan Germans edit nbsp Canadians in 2006 with German ancestry are the majority in parts of the Prairie provinces areas coloured in yellow Ukrainian strongholds are in green British in pink First Nations in brown See a more detailed map of Saskatchewan The German settlers came primarily from Russia and after 1914 from German American settlements in North and South Dakota 20 They came not as large groups but as part of a chain of family members where the first immigrants would find suitable locations and send for the others They formed compact German speaking communities built around their Catholic or Lutheran churches and continuing old world customs They were farmers who grew wheat 21 Arrivals from Russia Bukovina and Romanian Dobruja established their villages in a 40 mile wide tract east of Regina 22 The Germans operated parochial schools primarily to maintain their religious faith often they offered only an hour of German language instruction a week but they always had extensive coverage of religion Most German Catholic children by 1910 attended schools taught entirely in English 23 In the 199x 1930 clarification needed era German Catholics generally voted for the Liberal ticket rather than the Provincial Rights and Conservative tickets seeing Liberals as more willing to protect religious minorities Occasionally they voted for Conservatives or independent candidates who offered greater support for public funding of parochial schools 24 Nazi Germany made a systematic effort to proselytize among Saskatchewan s Germans in the 1930s Fewer that 1 endorsed their message but some did migrate back to Germany before anti Nazi sentiment became overwhelming in 1939 25 Ukrainians edit nbsp St George s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral SaskatoonIn 1911 22 300 Ukrainians lived in Saskatchewan and 28 100 in 1921 Only Manitoba had larger numbers The 107 000 Ukrainians in 1921 nationwide grew to 530 000 in 1981 including 101 000 in Saskatchewan 26 27 Ukrainians often called Ruthenians at the time began arriving in numbers in the 1890s 28 29 They came as farmers and actively built churches Their requests for Ukrainian language public schools were often rejected by local officials 30 Ukrainian men in 1914 were not Canadian citizens but were subjects of Austria Hungary an enemy nation Many were unemployed The government interned about 5 000 men mostly those who were caught trying to cross the border into the U S It was illegal for an enemy alien to leave the country They were assigned work on federal and provincial public work projects as well as for the railways 31 Religiously the Ukrainians were split between two Catholic and two Orthodox denominations One of the latter was the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada established in 1918 with the goal of defending the interests of the people as a bulwark against discrimination and oppression of the sort that Ukrainians had just experienced 32 Since World War Two Ukrainians have largely assimilated into Canadian culture 33 Assimilation and nativism edit In the 1910 1930 era the provincial department of education led systematic efforts to place English speaking teachers in every school to Canadianize the ethnic groups through the use of the English language and the teaching of British values He envisioned the role of the teacher to be an educator missionary and model Canadian citizen 34 35 The Ku Klux Klan moved north into the prairies in 1926 and was especially strong among British residents of Saskatchewan It built on ethnic prejudices but had few major successes Its peak came in 1927 30 when it shaped the vocabulary used to discuss issues of language sectarianism immigration and control of natural resources It over and over again warned of Catholic plots but faded away when the Great Depression hit and the conspiracy minded turned their attention to eastern cities and bankers 36 Families edit Gender roles were sharply defined Men were primarily responsible for breaking the land planting and harvesting building the house buying operating and repairing machinery and handling finances At first there were many single men on the prairie or husbands whose wives were still back east but they had a hard time They realized the need for a wife In 1901 there were 19 200 families but this surged to 150 300 families only 15 years later Wives played a central role in settlement of the prairie region Their labour skills and ability to adapt to the harsh environment proved decisive in meeting the challenges They prepared bannock beans and bacon mended clothes raised children cleaned tended the garden helped at harvest time and nursed everyone back to health While prevailing patriarchal attitudes legislation and economic principles obscured women s contributions the flexibility exhibited by farm women in performing productive and nonproductive labour was critical to the survival of family farms and thus to the success of the wheat economy 37 Population history editMain article Demographics of Saskatchewan When Saskatchewan became a province in 1905 boosters and politicians proclaimed its destiny was to become Canada s most powerful province Saskatchewan embarked on an ambitious province building program based on its Anglo Canadian culture and wheat production for the export market Population quintupled from 91 000 in 1901 to 492 000 to 1911 thanks to heavy immigration of farmers from the U S Germany and Scandinavia Efforts were made to assimilate the newcomers to British Canadian culture and values 38 The population reached 758 000 in 1921 and peaked at 922 000 in 1931 It lost population in the Great Depression and war years dropping to 830 000 in 1951 then slowly climbed back up holding steady at about one million since 1986 The ethnic history of the province was reflected in the ancestry data in 2006 The largest ethnic groups were German 30 0 followed by English 26 5 Scottish 19 2 Irish 15 3 Ukrainian 13 6 French 12 4 First Nations 12 1 Norwegians 7 2 Polish 6 0 Metis 4 4 Dutch 3 7 Russian 3 7 and Swedish 3 5 Some 18 1 of all respondents also identified their ethnicity as Canadian nbsp Saskatchewan s population since 1901The largest denominations in 2001 were the Roman Catholic Church with 286 815 30 the United Church of Canada with 187 450 20 and the Lutherans with 78 520 8 148 535 15 4 responded no religion 39 1905 1930 editGovernment structure edit The provisional districts of Assiniboia Saskatchewan and Athabaska of the North West Territories amalgamated into the province of Saskatchewan in 1905 The boundaries consist of on the west is the 4th Meridian of the Dominion Land Survey south 49th parallel US Canada boundary line to the north the North West Territories Saskatchewan boundary line and just about on the 2nd Meridian on the eastern boundary with the province of Manitoba 40 The early government formed local improvement districts later re organized into rural municipalities initially to protect against prairie fires establish roads and bridges As homesteads were established and agricultural methods perfected the community slowly evolved With supplemental monetary resources rural municipalities could now develop and establish schools for education churches cemeteries and health care for their residents Political history 1905 1919 edit The long term prosperity of the province depended on the world price of wheat which headed steadily upward from the 1880s to 1920 then plunged down Wheat output was increased by new strains such as the Marquis strain which matured 8 days sooner and yielded 7 more bushels per acre than the previous standard Red Fife The national output of wheat soared from 8 million bushels in 1896 to 26 million in 1901 reaching 151 million by 1921 In the 1905 provincial elections Liberals won 16 of 25 seats in Saskatchewan The Saskatchewan government bought out Bell Telephone Company in 1909 with the government owning the long distance lines and left local service to small companies organized at the municipal level 41 Premier Thomas Walter Scott preferred government assistance to outright ownership because he thought enterprises worked better if citizens had a stake in running them he set up the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Company in 1911 Despite pressure from farm groups for direct government involvement in the grain handling business the Scott government opted to loan money to a farmer owned elevator company Saskatchewan in 1909 provided bond guarantees to railway companies for the construction of branch lines alleviating the concerns of farmers who had trouble getting their wheat to market by wagon Urban reform movements in Regina in the years just prior to the start of the First World War in 1914 depended on support from business and professional groups City planning reform of local government and municipal ownership of utilities were more widely supported by these two groups often through such organizations as the Board of Trade Protestant church related and other altruistic organizations generally supported social welfare and housing reforms but they were usually less successful in getting their reforms enacted 42 The province responded to the First World War in 1914 with patriotic enthusiasm and enjoyed the resultant economic boom The price of wheat tripled and acreage seeded doubled The wartime spirit of sacrifice intensified social reform movements that had predated the war and now came to fruition Saskatchewan gave women the right to vote in 1916 and at the end 1916 passed a referendum to prohibit the sale of alcohol Patriotism also created a demand for a common language English for everyone in the province The war brought to the forefront a fear of ethnicities and a survival instinct developed the need for a Canadian identity 1919 1939 edit The economic crash after the war created an angry agrarian protest movement Prairie farmers had long considered themselves the victims of powerful corporations grain companies banks and railways all based in Toronto and Montreal Attacks on industrialists and financiers blamed high tariffs designed to protect manufacturers at the expense of farmers During the war farmers felt doubly betrayed The federal government first promised to exempt their sons from compulsory military service then cancelled the exemption It imposed a ceiling on wheat prices when they were high but removed the floor when they were low The farmers pent up frustration led to the formation of the Progressive Party in several provinces it sent 64 to Ottawa in the 1921 general election Eager to control the price of wheat 46 000 farmers joined in 1923 24 to set up the Saskatchewan Co operative Wheat Producers the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool that bought nearly everyone s wheat and held it in elevators for the best price The pool collapsed financially in 1931 and the federal government had to cover the losses the co op continued as a network of elevators owned by the farmers It advanced the reform agenda for agricultural development with full time district representatives or fieldmen who promoted education demonstrations of farm equipment community picnics and rallies and cooperative insurance among other programs 43 The Roaring Twenties saw ethnic tensions and unprecedented prosperity Bootlegging activities gangsters such as Al Capone and the underground trade of whisky smuggling used the caves around Cypress Hills and the Soo Line Railroad which ended in Moose Jaw the Sin City of the north or Little Chicago The Bronfman family became rich during Prohibition by shipping liquor into the United States where it was illegal Under the leadership of brothers Sam and Harry the family based most of its operations out of Yorkton and Regina while maintaining a warehouse in Moose Jaw 44 45 The Saskatchewan Grain Growers Association worked with the provincial Liberals and kept them in office until 1929 when a Conservative led coalition was elected for a term As wheat prices recovered the late 1920s were golden years By 1927 Saskatchewan ranked first among the provinces in the production of wheat oats rye and flax and in sundry other areas Most important it ranked first in per capita wealth With a population of 922 000 in 1931 ranked third in size behind only Ontario and Quebec The Great Depression hit the prairies hard especially when combined with the drought of the Dirty Thirties The world market for wheat collapsed and per capita money income fell 75 Thousands emigrated away from the family homestead as it could no longer support the family nor the community Relief expenditures in the province in 1937 exceeded 40 million dwarfing the entire 1939 provincial budget of 23 million The hard pressed government imposed a new 2 sales tax to cover the promissory notes that had been given to teachers in lieu of salaries In 1930 Saskatoon initiated a series of work for wages schemes designed to provide the unemployed with unskilled manual jobs Financed from municipal provincial and federal sources but operated by the city the projects kept unemployment to manageable levels at first Before 1932 most experts saw the depression as a temporary anomaly a short term emergency requiring no more than short term emergency measures By 1932 the depression was getting much worse with no end in sight By spring 1932 the federal and provincial governments short of revenue were forced to abandon expensive public works in favour of the cheaper more efficient direct relief of giving out cash and foot baskets 46 Radical activism in the cities led to the Estevan Riot and the Regina Riot Finally prosperity returned after 1939 as farm prices rose and Saskatchewan plunged into the war effort Social structure 1940s 1950s edit As late as 1940 the province was heavily rural dotted with many small service villages and towns Two thirds of the people lived on farms A tenth lived in towns or villages of more than 1 000 population Another 15 lived in four small cities Regina the capital with a population of 58 000 Moose Jaw forty miles west of Regina with 20 000 Saskatoon the home of the university with 43 000 and Prince Albert in the north with 13 000 The cities were merely larger versions of the country towns they were primarily trading centres serving rural areas Railroads wholesale trade and retail trade employed most of the urban workers 47 Little economic decision making power was concentrated in the cities The small urban upper middle class was composed of professionals and branch managers of national banks and corporations or heads of small local manufacturing or trading organizations The banks were mostly branch offices with headquarters far to the east the leading stores were branches of national chains especially Eaton s Simpson s the Hudson s Bay Company To the farmer and urbanite alike the names symbolize the world of eastern business that controls their fate and became the target of political fears 47 A pervasive social and economic equality characterized the rural areas Sharp variations existed between the rich south and the poor north Farmers in districts of good soil were generally wealthier large farms of 640 acres 2 6 km2 to 1 200 acres 4 9 km2 dominated the rich Regina plains and in the Rosetown district west of Saskatoon small farms of 160 acres 0 65 km2 to 320 acres 1 3 km2 typified the poor soil regions of the north with small outputs even in years with good weather Within the province the average assessment per acre of land varied from an index of 9 for the poorest rural municipality to 76 for the wealthiest Within any one rural community however variations in the value of land are small for the great majority of farms have the same conditions of soil and rainfall Differences in income did exist within individual rural communities but they were not large enough to result in the emergence of distinct social classes There were few hired hands and tenant farmers were mostly men under age 40 who expected to eventually buy or inherit land 48 Mechanization after 1945 thus changed the face of Saskatchewan Combines and mechanized farming were now available farms became larger and more folk moved into urban centres The one room school house closed down to make way for the more industrial or consolidated school in town which provided more resources for more technological development Growth and improvements in technology paved the way for the contemporary society of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas and CCF editA new political movement emerged the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation CCF its 1933 manifesto promised to eradicate capitalism and put in place a full program of socialized planning which will lead to the establishment in Canada of the Co operative Commonwealth Tommy Douglas 1904 86 a Baptist minister from working class origins led the CCF to power in 1944 and kept it in power to 1961 Douglas headed the first socialist government elected in Canada and is recognized as the father of socialized medicine and the leader who put democratic socialism in the mainstream of Canadian politics 49 The Saskatchewan CCF won in June 1944 with a Pocket Platform calling for home ownership and debt reduction increased old age pensions mothers allowances and disability care public medical dental and hospital services equal education free speech and religion collective bargaining and the encouragement of economic co operatives The CCF while rhetorically socialist did not nationalize banking or industry it sought a mixed economy including public private and cooperative sectors with a strong role for private ownership in innovation and competition however with new controls For example In its first term the CCF passed a farm security act preventing banks and mortgage companies from foreclosing on family farms The CCF government also introduced the most pro labour trade union act in North America Saskatchewan became the first province to allow civil servants to organize unions 1944 the first to enshrine a bill of rights prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race colour or creed 1947 the first to implement compulsory government automobile insurance 1946 and the first to institute a hospital insurance plan 1947 The CCF was committed to efficiency oriented planning Douglas set up an Economic Advisory and Planning Board EAPB a cabinet committee with a supporting secretariat charged with planning economic development strategies for the province and evaluating overall policies and programs The EAPB evolved into two new agencies the Budget Bureau and the Government Finance Office The former was the secretariat for the Treasury Board the committee of cabinet in charge of allocating budgetary expenditures In addition the Budget Bureau had an Organization and Methods unit which surveyed the operations of various government departments and made recommendations on how they could be managed more effectively Budgeting became more than the mechanical exercise of allocating money it became the meeting point of the decision making process where all the Douglas government s diverse priorities were integrated The CCF set up eleven small Crown corporations including power and telephone utilities bus and airline companies and ventures into sodium sulfate mining a woolen mill and a shoe factory By 1949 most of the non utility corporations had been unable to turn a profit and ceased operations 50 Prosperity returned after 1945 and the population increased gradually More dramatic was the movement from farms to towns and cities as farming became more mechanized and capital intensive Increased production of oil gas and uranium and the beginnings of a potash industry helped diversify the economy beyond just wheat Native policies edit Douglas brought First Nations delegates together in 1946 to form a single organization to represent Indian interests Three existing organizations merged into the Union of Saskatchewan Indians which later became the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations FSIN Douglas s EAPB prepared an in depth analysis of the demographic social and economic challenges facing the First Nation population In the 21st century the FSIN is a strong policy making and program delivery organization arguably one of the most effective of its kind in Canada 51 CCF initiatives included encouraging northern aboriginals to trade their semi nomadic lifestyles for lives in urban settings The establishment of Kinoosao on Reindeer Lake provides an example of how CCF planners established new villages community development processes excluded local people Yet in spite of considerable resistance various incentives and coercive measures resulted in the movement of nearly all northerners to permanent settlements Socialized medicine edit In 1959 Douglas promised universal medical care insurance based on pre payment quality service and government administration and through a scheme acceptable to both doctors and patients The election of 1960 was fought on this issue the doctors campaigning against it but the CCF won The CCF comprised two contradictory traditions a group aligned with a rational bureaucratic statist approach to government and a faction dedicated to the populist ideals of democratic participation The struggle between these two sometimes overlapping factions ended at least temporarily with the resignation of Douglas and the succession of Woodrow S Lloyd 1913 72 as premier in November 1961 Lloyd s statist approach to government dominated the CCF and its policies during the critical period of the introduction of a province wide system of state sponsored medical insurance No referendum or local control through community clinics was permitted in the implementation of the medical insurance plan in part due to doctors opposition to community clinics The plan was presented to the public not for its approval but for its acceptance The CCF did consider community involvement necessary After twenty years in office a centrist bureaucratic ideology dominated the party and the anti statist decentralist in the Saskatchewan CCF was in retreat 52 The Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Bill became law in November 1961 and the medical society announced doctors would refuse to participate complaining that it would bring regimentation and would interfere with the doctor patient relationship The doctors even went on strike for a few weeks in July 1962 but returned when new legislation allowed them to practise outside the system Eventually the Saskatchewan plan was so popular that in 1968 the federal government extended it nationwide 53 Douglas became leader of the federal New Democratic Party formed by a merger of the CCF and organized labour The party was unsuccessful in its first election the federal election of 1962 due to the backlash against the CCF s medical care program and to Canadians general historic reluctance to vote for progressive change In the 1964 Saskatchewan provincial election the Liberal party led by Ross Thatcher 1917 71 swept to victory ending 20 years of CCF government The Liberals had launched a strong party membership drive and engaged in vigorous campaigning on a platform demanding more private enterprise and industrial development it promised substantial tax cuts The CCF s internal factionalism together with lingering reaction to the medical care crisis of 1962 and the separate school issue contributed to the CCF defeat The impact of the Douglas government on the rest of the country was profound both in public policy and the bureaucratic machinery devised to implement it After the defeat in 1964 the former administration s influence continued to ripple out from Regina as senior civil servants left the province and became influential elsewhere 54 Recent history editNDP government 1971 1982 edit Thatcher and his Liberals were re elected in 1967 but were defeated in a landslide by Allan E Blakeney 1925 2011 55 and the NDP in 1971 The NDP was re elected in 1975 as the long dormant Progressive Conservative party made a comeback Blakeney s government practised state led economic intervention in the economy The farmers were a high priority as globalization began transforming agriculture weakening the traditional family farm through consolidation mechanization and corporatization The NDP promised a revitalized rural Saskatchewan and Blakeney s introduced programs to stabilize crop prices retain transportation links and modernize rural life Looking back he lamented his lack of success We were it seems King Canute trying to hold back the tide 56 The NDP decided to nationalize the potash industry in 1976 78 by buying out 45 of the mining interests The government created a Crown corporation in the potash industry in an attempt to further diversify the province s agrarian economy and threatened expropriation of private potash mines within the province Blakeney pointed out that the sums paid for these mines were slightly in excess of their appraised book value However the mere threat of expropriation created a political firestorm that involved even the U S government 57 By 1979 the Crown Investments Corporation the holding company for the crowns had assets of 3 5 billion and revenues of over 1 billion 55 Blakeney also created a state owned oil and gas corporation SaskOil to handle oil exploration and production The private oil industry had essentially abandoned Saskatchewan following the NDP s imposition of high royalty rate policy of the early 1970s Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau s policies to centralize control of natural resources in Ottawa outraged Blakeney and he moved closer to Alberta s position of open hostility Blakeney joined Alberta Progressive Conservative Premier Peter Lougheed in a fight for provincial rights over minerals oil and gas 58 Nationalization was the central issue in the 1978 elections the NDP held its own but the Liberals were wiped out and the Progressive Conservative party grew Prosperity was at hand with good prices for wheat and expansion of oil and uranium The NDP spent resource revenues to build on the social welfare legacy of the CCF It introduced a guaranteed income supplement for senior citizens a family income plan for the working poor a children s dental service and a prescription drug plan Since 1982 edit Voters went to the polls in 1982 as the economy started slipping with falling prices for wheat oil potash and uranium The NDP was routed after a dozen years in power dropping from 45 seats to 9 while the Progressive Conservative Party took all the other 55 seats The new premier was 37 year old economist Grant Devine 1944 59 who won with a simple populist message the people should share in the wealth of the province rather than watch it contribute to the expansion of the 24 Crown corporations The new government ended the 20 tax on gasoline and lower interest rates on mortgages It was re elected in 1986 and began selling off crown corporations The government said the companies would operate more profitably as private businesses The opposition NDP warned that the sales would result in loss of control over the province s key economic sectors After taking over balanced books in 1982 the Progressive Conservatives spent liberally on a number of voter friendly initiatives including tax rebates and mortgage subsidies as well as investing millions in several money losing megaprojects The provincial deficit peaked at 1 2 billion in 1986 87 and the accumulated debt rose from 3 5 billion to 15 billion The Progressive Conservatives based in rural areas and small towns lost many rural voters after pushing through the unpopular U S Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1989 As a result the NDP was returned to power in 1991 Scandals involving top officials ruined the Progressive Conservative party which suspended operations in 1997 60 conservative voters moved to the new Saskatchewan party at the provincial level 61 and to the Reform Party of Canada at the national level The NDP won re election in 1995 and 1999 and in coalition with the Liberals again in 2003 Lorne Calvert 1952 an ordained minister 62 served as NDP premier 2001 2007 Brad Wall 1965 63 became premier as his centre right Saskatchewan Party took over from the NDP after a landslide victory in the November 2007 election The landslide grew after 4 years of solid economic management nearly wiping out the NDP losing 11 of 20 seats in the 2011 election in which NDP party leader Dwain Lingenfelter even failed to retain his own seat what was once considered a safe seat for the NDP Regina Elphinstone Lingenfelter resigned immediately and the party elected Cam Broten as leader in 2013 He was first elected as an MLA in 2007 and re elected in 2011 He was elected as Leader of Saskatchewan s New Democrats on March 9 2013Social and economic trends editIn 2005 two thirds of the province s population lived in urban areas there was a diverse economic base and citizens enjoyed a rich cultural life The economic future based on high priced oil and wheat looks bright Saskatchewan is the ninth biggest supplier of oil to the U S shipping them more than Kuwait The province has 1 2 billion barrels of recoverable conventional oil and an estimated 1 5 billion barrels of potential oil sands reserves which create troublesome high carbon emissions when processed 64 The rural towns have evolved from a very large number of widely dispersed grain delivery points in 1900 through a period of expansion over the first thirty years of the 20th century to a pattern of relatively concentrated population and businesses in an urban based economy by 2000 Mechanization especially the rapid replacement of horses by tractors after 1945 meant one family could operate a much larger farm so some farmers bought out their neighbors who then moved to town along with the surplus children The rural economy diversified far beyond its exclusively agricultural base with service employment in education and medicine important as well as small scale factories Better highways along with cell phones and internet coverage encouraged a concentration in fewer larger centres which drew customers and clients from a wide radius Most rural communities declined continuously over the second half of the 20th century but some grew in population expanded their economic base and experienced an increase in their market areas for a limited range of goods and services These communities also became centres of employment for their own and surrounding farm and nonfarm population 65 The Wheat Pool continues in operation as Viterra having taken over Agricore United based in Manitoba in 2007 With soaring wheat prices Viterra s revenues in the first quarter three months of 2008 reached 1 3 billion triple the total the year before 66 Military history editMilitary history of Saskatchewan includes the early conflicts between conflicting First Nations Prior to European settlement many battles were fought between the Blackfoot Atsina Cree Assiniboine Saulteaux Sioux and Dene Many place names hearken back to these early conflicts such as the Battle River so named due to Cree Blackfoot fighting in the area The Blackfoot Confederacy and Atsina or Gros Ventre were pushed out of Saskatchewan following decades of warfare with the Cree Saulteaux and Assiniboine In the boreal forest conflicts raged between the Woods Cree and Dene or Chipewyan up until the late 19th century The creation of the Metis added a new dimension to conflicts in what is now Saskatchewan In addition to violence related to the fur trade between the North West Company and Hudson s Bay Company which ended with the merger of the two in 1821 the Metis took part in battles with the Sioux and Gros Ventre across the plains The last battles fought in Saskatchewan and the last battles fought in what is now Canada occurred in 1885 during the North West Rebellion Although small by global standards this short war had a profound effect on Canadian French English relations and was a defining moment in the history of the West and the Metis 67 Since Saskatchewan became a province in 1905 its people have contributed heavily to wars fought by the Canadian state Saskatchewan Regiments were raised for the second Boer War First World War Second World War and Korean War In addition many Saskatchewan citizens have served in United Nations peacekeeping operations and in the Afghan War Some current Saskatchewan regiments in the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Forces include the North Saskatchewan and the Royal Regina Rifles Inland waterways editFurther information Canadian canoe routes and Portages in North America Travel by boat and canoe along the waterways of what is now Saskatchewan was historically an important mode of transport During the early fur trading era from the 17th century through to the 19th century travel to the inland of North America could be facilitated by waterways as there were no roads nor railways at this time The First Nations and French fur traders from the East relied on birch bark canoes to traverse the main rivers and the English fur trader from the Hudson s Bay Company travelled by York boat 68 During the late 19th century steamboats were used to navigate immigrants and goods along the Saskatchewan River This only continued until 1896 when the last steamboat ceased operations The ice flows of the winter months and the shallow sand bars made this form of navigation impractical The most notable highlight of the steamboat era was the impact steamboats made upon the North West Rebellion 69 Since this time the main use of travel by boat are the 13 seasonal ferries which are still operational and started use in Saskatchewan in the late 19th century Barges are used to transport freight on the larger northern lakes Wollaston and Athabasca for the northern mining industry 70 Archontology of Saskatchewan editArchontology is the study of historical Saskatchewan offices and important positions in various organizations and societies This list cannot be comprehensive but rather an introduction to those who have contributed to the shaping of Saskatchewan There are a few who are highlighted through the events of history who have helped to mould and build Saskatchewan as it is today see also Category People from SaskatchewanLouis Riel October 22 1844 November 16 1885 was a Canadian politician a founder of the province of Manitoba and leader of the Metis people of the Canadian prairies citation needed Honourable Sir Frederick William Alpin Gordon Haultain K B November 25 1857 January 30 1942 Sir Frederick W A G Haultain Chief Justice of Saskatchewan and Commissioner of Education who developed the early school system on the rugged frontier citation needed The Right Reverend George Lloud MA DD Bishop of the Diocese of Saskatchewan January 6 1861 leader of the British Barr Colony and founder of Emmanuel College Saskatoon 71 Edgar Dewdney moved the NWT capital from Battleford to Regina citation needed Reverend James Nisbet September 8 1823 September 30 1874 settled in the Prince Albert Saskatchewan area and was founder of First Presbyterian Church 1872 where English and Cree Sunday School services were provided William Richard Motherwell who was Saskatchewan s first minister of agriculture as well as federal minister of agriculture for the Mackenzie King administration citation needed Thomas Clement Douglas PC CC SOM MA LL D hc October 20 1904 February 24 1986 was a leader of the Saskatchewan Co operative Commonwealth Federation CCF from 1942 and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 who led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public medicare to Canada citation needed John George Diefenbaker CH PC QC BA MA LL B LL D DCL FRSC FRSA D Litt DSL 18 September 1895 16 August 1979 was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada 1957 1963 citation needed Art history editArt history of Saskatchewan is complex and diverse as it follows the changes and social context of art in this prairie province Petroglyphs are the earliest studied artforms which are located in archaeological sites of Saskatchewan As early as the 17th century explorers depicted the early North West in both written painted and drawn artforms Frederick Verner W G R Hind Peter Rindisbacher Edward Roper and Paul Kane are some of the earliest artists Followed by William Kurelek C W Jefferys Robert Hurley and Dorothy Knowles Margaret Laurence W O Mitchell Nellie McClung captured the prairie spirit in words In the 1920s the Group of Seven formed a group of Canadian landscape painters made up of Franklin Carmichael Lawren Harris A Y Jackson Frank Johnston Arthur Lismer J E H MacDonald Frederick Varley A J Casson Edwin Holgate LeMoine Fitzgerald and Tom Thomson Augustus Kenderdine landscape painter started art instruction at Murray Point on Emma Lake Imagery changed of the grasslands shown in the early drawings where the wild west was a romantic adventure of first nation and Buffalo The prairie scenery then highlighted building a Nation a prairie utopia through to the realism of the settlement experience 72 Paul Kane September 3 1810 February 20 1871 was an Irish Canadian painter famous for his paintings of First Nations peoples in the Canadian West and other Native Americans in the Oregon Country citation needed Henry Youle Hind 1 June 1823 8 August 1908 Canadian geologist and explorer detailed his travels in both images and these writings Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 and Reports of Progress on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition citation needed Count Imhoff 1865 1939 painted magnificent religious murals within churches at St Walburg Muenster St Benedict Bruno Denzil Reward St Leo Humboldt Paradise Hill North Battleford etc 73 Joni Mitchell CC born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7 1943 is a noted Canadian musician songwriter and painter William Ormond Mitchell PC OC D Litt W O Mitchell March 13 1914 February 25 1998 born in Weyburn Saskatchewan was an author of novels short stories and plays such as Who Has Seen The Wind citation needed Joe Fafard B S A M F A born September 2 1942 is a Canadian sculptor also taught sculpture at the University of Saskatchewan See also edit nbsp Canada portalHarris Saskatchewan Ruby rush of 1914 Natural Resources Acts Politics of Saskatchewan Qu Appelle Saskatchewan capital for a day List of National Historic Sites of Canada in SaskatchewanFootnotes edit a b Fung Professor of Geography University of Saskatchewan Dr K I RICHARDS J Howard Evolution boundaries 1882 1969 Atlas of Saskatchewan Saskatoon Modern Press Retrieved 2007 10 12 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link a b The Atlas of Canada Territorial Evolution 1895 Archived from the original on 2007 10 10 Retrieved 2007 10 12 a b Sask Gen Web SGW First Nations Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots URL accessed 26 November 2006 Saskatchewan Gen Web Project SGW Canadian Migrations Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots URL accessed April 12 2007 a b TIME TUNNEL Royal Saskatchewan Museum URL accessed 26 November 2006 a b Human History of Northern Saskatchewan Archived 2005 07 20 at the Wayback Machine URL accessed 26 November 2006 Grade Four Social Studies Heritage Explorers Fur Traders Early Immigrants and Treaties permanent dead link URL accessed 26 November 2006 LAC MG26 A vol 104 Petition des Metis de la rivier Qu Appelle 1874 pp 41996 41999 SABS Department of Agriculture Saskatchewan Lands Branch Files Ag II southwest quarter of section 20 river front lots 21 and 22 township 42 1 3 Dumont s Declaration Centre for Rupert s Land Studies University of Winnipeg Retrieved 2008 01 12 dead link W A Mackintosh Prairie Settlement the Geographical Setting Toronto 1934 p 81 Impressions 250 Years of Printing in the Lives of Canadians Archived 2006 10 13 at the Wayback Machine URL accessed 26 November 2006 W T Easterbrook Farm Credit in Canada 1938 Sandra Rollings Magnusson Canada s Most Wanted Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 2000 37 2 223 238 Peter Bush Western Challenge The Presbyterian Church in Canada s Mission on the Prairies and North 1885 1925 2000 Marjory Harper Probing the Pioneer Questionnaires British Settlement in Saskatchewan 1887 1914 Saskatchewan History 2000 52 2 28 46 ISSN 0036 4908 Michael Cottrell The Irish in Saskatchewan 1850 1930 a Study of Intergenerational Ethnicity Prairie Forum 1999 24 2 185 209 Alan Anderson Ethnic Bloc Settlements Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan online Archived 2011 11 27 at the Wayback Machine Howard Palmer The Settlement of the West U of Calgary Press 1977 p 191 Bill Waiser Saskatchewan pp 72 74 Heinz Lehmann and Gerhard P Bassler The German Canadians 1750 1937 immigration settlement amp culture 1986 Jessica Clark and Thomas D Isern Germans from Russia in Saskatchewan An Oral History American Review of Canadian Studies Spring 2010 Vol 40 Issue 1 pp 71 85 Adam Giesinger The Germans from Russia Who Pioneered in Saskatchewan Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Summer 1984 Vol 7 Issue 2 pp 1 14 Clinton O White Pre World War I Saskatchewan German Catholic thought concerning the perpetuation of their language and religion Canadian Ethnic Studies 1994 Vol 26 Issue 2 pp 15 30 Clinton O White The Politics of Elementary Schools in a German American Roman Catholic Settlement in Canada s Province of Saskatchewan 1903 1925 Great Plains Research September 1997 Vol 7 Issue 2 pp 251 272 Jonathan F Wagner The Deutscher Bund Canada in Saskatchewan Saskatchewan History May 1978 Vol 31 Issue 2 pp 41 50 Frances Swyripa and John Herd Thompson eds Loyalties in Conflict Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War 1983 p 71 Rhonda L Hinther and Jim Mochoruk eds Re Imagining Ukrainian Canadians History Politics and Identity 2010 Orest Martynowich Ukrainians in Canada The Formative Period 1891 1924 1991 Stella Hryniuk and Lubomyr Y Luciuk Canada s Ukrainians Changing Perspectives 1891 1991 1991 J C Jaenen Ruthenian Schools in Western Canada 1897 1919 Paedagogica Historica June 1970 Vol 10 Issue 3 pp 517 541 Frances Swyripa and John Herd Thompson eds Loyalties in Conflict Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War 1983 p 4 Myroslaw Tataryn Harvesting Heritage Seeds in Prairie Soil The Role of Ukrainskyi holos in the Formation of the Identity of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada Historical Studies 2005 Vol 71 pp 94 109 Alan B Anderson Ukrainian Ethnicity Generations And Change In Rural Saskatchewan in Jean Elliott Two Nations Many Cultures Ethnic Groups in Canada 1979 pp 250 269 Caroline Melis J T M Anderson Director of Education among New Canadians and the Policy of the Department of Education 1918 1923 Saskatchewan History February 1980 Vol 33 Issue 1 pp 1 12 David C Jones So Petty so Middle Europe so Foreign Ruthenians and Canadianization History of Education Review 1987 Vol 16 Issue 1 pp 13 30 William Calderwood Religious Reactions to the Ku Klux Klan in Saskatchewan Saskatchewan History October 1973 Vol 26 Issue 3 pp 103 114 Sandra Rollings Magnusson Canada s Most Wanted Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 2000 37 2 223 238 E Rowles Bannock beans and bacon An investigation of pioneer diet Saskatchewan History 1952 Vol V No 1 pp 1 16 James M Pitsula Disparate Duo Beaver 2005 85 4 14 24 Religions in Canada 2 statcan ca Retrieved 2011 02 23 Adamson J September 1 2005 Saskatchewan Gen Web Map Resources Rootsweb Retrieved 2007 10 31 Ronald S Love A Harebrained Plan Saskatchewan and the Formation of a Provincial Telephone Policy 1906 1912 Saskatchewan History 2005 57 1 15 33 Girard Hengen A Case Study in Urban Reform Regina Before the First World War Saskatchewan History 1988 41 1 19 34 Ian Macpherson Missionaries of Rural Development the Fieldmen of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool 1925 1965 Agricultural History 1986 60 2 73 96 ISSN 0002 1482 also see Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan Kathy Morrell The Bronfman Family and the Yorkton Courts Saskatchewan History Spring 2010 Vol 62 Issue 1 pp 16 40 John Larsen and Maurice Richard Libby Moose Jaw people places history 2001 p 78 Eric J Strikwerda From Short term Emergency to Long term Crisis Public Works Projects in Saskatoon 1929 1932 Prairie Forum 2001 26 2 169 186 ISSN 0317 6282 a b Lipset Agrarian Socialism 1971 edition pp 49 50 Lipset Agrarian Socialism 1971 edition pp 51 52 A W Johnson Dream No Little Dreams A Biography of the Douglas Government of Saskatchewan 1944 1961 2004 Lipset Agrarian Socialism Weidlich John Mar 22 2011 FEATURE Provincial budgets of bygone days CBC Retrieved 5 March 2015 F Laurie Barron Walking in Indian Moccasins The Native Policies of Tommy Douglas and the CCF 1997 Keith Brownsey Policy Bureaucracy and Personality Woodrow Lloyd and the Introduction of Medicare in Saskatchewan Prairie Forum 1998 23 2 197 210 Brett Quiring The Social and Political Philosophy of Woodrow S Lloyd Saskatchewan History 2004 56 1 5 20 On the medical leaders who made the plan work in Saskatchewan see Bill Waiser and Stuart Houston Tommy s Team The People Behind the Douglas Years 2010 Johnson Dream No Little Dreams 2004 a b See Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan Allan Blakeney An Honourable Calling Political Memoirs 2008 pp 5 125 Blakeney An Honourable Calling Political Memoirs pp 156 62 Blakeney An Honourable Calling Political Memoirs p 5 Pitsula James M 2006 Devine Grant 1944 uofrpress ca Canadian Plains Research Centre University Of Regina Archived from the original on March 18 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Brian Bergman Dale Eisler Saskatchewan tories in fraud scandal The Canadian Encyclopedia Retrieved August 30 2019 a href Template Cite encyclopedia html title Template Cite encyclopedia cite encyclopedia a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Quiring Brett 2006 Saskatchewan Party uofrpress ca Canadian Plains Research Centre University Of Regina Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Praud Jocelyne 2006 Calvert Lorne Albert 1952 uofrpress ca Canadian Plains Research Centre University Of Regina Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Stoffel Holden 2006 Wall Brad 1965 uofrpress ca Canadian Plains Research Centre University Of Regina Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Luiza Ch Savage Fuelling up a New Future Maclean s March 24 2008 M Rose Olfert and Jack C Stabler Rural Communities of the Saskatchewan Prairie Landscape Prairie Forum 2000 25 1 123 138 ISSN 0317 6282 See Bloomberg Businessweek VITERRA INC VT Toronto Mein Stewart The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan Military History of Saskatchewan Retrieved 2007 04 24 Foster John E Canadian Encyclopedia 2007 York Boat Historica Foundation of Canada Archived from the original on July 7 2006 Retrieved October 31 2007 Ivanochko Bob 2006 Steamboats The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan Canadian Plains Research Centre University Of Regina Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Cousins Brian Coneghan Daria 2006 Ferries and Barges The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan Canadian Plains Research Centre University Of Regina Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved November 20 2017 Adamson J July 25 2005 Pioneers amp Prominent People of Saskatchewan SGW Transcription Project Retrieved 2007 04 24 Francis R Douglas 1989 Images of the West Changing Perceptions of the Prairies 1690 1960 Responses to the Canadian Prairies Western Producer Books ISBN 978 0 88833 274 5 Virtual Saskatchewan Count Imhoff 1997 2007 Retrieved 2007 04 24 Bibliography editMain article Bibliography of Saskatchewan history Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan University of Regina Library Canadian Plains Research Centre 2005 Anderson A B Settling Saskatchewan University of Regina Press 2013 Archer John H Saskatchewan A History Saskatoon Western Producer Prairie Books 1980 422 pp Barnhart Gordon L ed Saskatchewan Premiers of the Twentieth Century Regina Canadian Plains Research Centre 2004 418 pp Boswell Randy and Lynn McAuley Province with a heart celebrating 100 years in Saskatchewan CanWest Books 2005 ISBN 0 9736719 0 4 popular history Danysk Cecilia Hired hands labour and the development of prairie agriculture 1880 1930 McClelland amp Stewart 1995 ISBN 0 7710 2552 1 Friesen Gerald The Canadian Prairies A History 2nd ed 1987 Pitsula James M For All We Have and Are Regina and the Experience of the Great War 2008 online review Porter Jene M Perspectives of Saskatchewan University of Manitoba Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 88755 183 3 Richards J Howard and K I Fung eds Atlas of Saskatchewan 1969 Thompson John Herd The Harvests of War The Prairie West 1914 1918 1978 Waiser Bill Saskatchewan A New History Fifth House 2005 ISBN 1 894856 75 9 Waiser Bill A World We Have Lost Saskatchewan before 1905 Fifth House Publishers 2016 w Whitcomb Dr Ed A Short History of Saskatchewan Ottawa From Sea To Sea Enterprises 2005 ISBN 0 9694667 3 0Historiography edit Waiser Bill Teaching the West and Confederation A Saskatchewan Perspective Canadian Historical Review 98 4 2017 742 764 Wardhaugh Robert Alexander Alison Calder History literature and the writing of the Canadian Prairies University of Manitoba Press 2005 ISBN 0 88755 682 5Primary sources edit Smith D E ed Building a Province A History of Saskatchewan in Documents Saskatoon Fifth House 1992 External links editSask History Online An online digitization project showcasing Saskatchewan s vibrant history with an extensive amount of historical photographs documents etc Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan Saskatchewan and Its People Virtual Saskatchewan Accomplished People from Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Settlement Experience Saskatchewan Gen Web Project SGW Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots Atlas of Saskatchewan Boundary Evolution and Ethnic Bloc Settlement Maps Online Historical Map Digitization Project showing settlement development on the railways in various years Saskatchewan History of the Province German Saskatchewan War Experience permanent dead link a digital project with hundreds of photos and documents pertaining to the experience of Saskatchewan citizens in times of war Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title History of Saskatchewan amp oldid 1190370166, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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