Editing Saskatchewan (section)

=== 19th century ===
In 1803, the [[Louisiana Purchase]] transferred from France to the United States part of what is now [[Alberta]] and Saskatchewan. In 1818, the U.S. ceded the area to Britain. Most of what is now Saskatchewan was part of [[Rupert's Land]] and controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, which claimed rights to all watersheds flowing into [[Hudson Bay]], including the [[Saskatchewan River]], [[Churchill River (Hudson Bay)|Churchill]], [[Assiniboine River|Assiniboine]], [[Souris River|Souris]], and [[Qu'Appelle River]] systems.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, scientific expeditions led by [[John Palliser]] and [[Henry Youle Hind]] explored the prairie region of the province.

In 1870, Canada acquired the Hudson's Bay Company's territories and formed the [[North-West Territories]] to administer the vast territory between [[British Columbia]] and [[Manitoba]]. The Crown also entered into a series of [[Numbered Treaties|numbered treaties]] with the indigenous peoples of the area, which serve as the basis of the relationship between [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]], as they are called today, and the Crown. Since the late twentieth century, land losses and inequities as a result of those treaties have been subject to negotiation for settlement between the [[First Nations in Saskatchewan]] and the federal government, in collaboration with provincial governments.

In 1876, following their defeat of United States Army forces at the [[Battle of the Little Bighorn]] in [[Montana Territory]] in the United States, the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] Chief [[Sitting Bull]] led several thousand of his people to [[Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan|Wood Mountain]]. Survivors and descendants founded Wood Mountain Reserve in 1914.

The North-West Mounted Police set up several posts and forts across Saskatchewan, including [[Fort Walsh]] in the Cypress Hills, and [[Wood Mountain Regional Park|Wood Mountain]] Post in south-central Saskatchewan near the United States border.
[[File:Battle of Batoche Print by Seargent Grundy.jpg|thumb|The 1885 [[Battle of Batoche]] was a battle during the [[North-West Rebellion]]. 1885 illustration by Sergeant Grundy]]
Many [[Métis (people)|Métis]] people, who had not been signatories to a treaty, had moved to the [[Southbranch Settlement]] and [[Prince Albert, Saskatchewan|Prince Albert]] district north of present-day Saskatoon following the [[Red River Rebellion]] in Manitoba in 1870. In the early 1880s, the Canadian government refused to hear the Métis' grievances, which stemmed from land-use issues. Finally, in 1885, the Métis, led by [[Louis Riel]], staged the [[North-West Rebellion]] and declared a provisional government. They were defeated by a Canadian militia brought to the [[Canadian prairies]] by the new Canadian Pacific Railway. Riel, who surrendered and was convicted of treason in a packed Regina courtroom, was hanged on November 16, 1885. Since then, the government has recognized the Métis as an aboriginal people with status rights and provided them with various benefits.

==== European settlements ====
The national policy set by the federal government, the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]], the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] and associated land companies encouraged immigration. The ''[[Dominion Lands Act]]'' of 1872 permitted settlers to acquire one-quarter of a square mile of land to homestead and offered an additional quarter upon establishing a homestead. In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police began providing police services. In 1876, the ''North-West Territories Act'' provided for appointment, by the Ottawa, of a Lieutenant Governor and a Council to assist him.<ref>{{cite book |author=Howard A. Leeson |title=Saskatchewan Politics: Into the Twenty-first Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qb4hnmKhTEoC&pg=PA116 |year=2001 |publisher=U of Regina Press |page=116 |isbn=978-0-88977-131-4 |access-date=March 27, 2018 |archive-date=September 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923200915/https://books.google.com/books?id=qb4hnmKhTEoC&pg=PA116 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Ad to attract Immigrants to wheat belt in 1898.jpg|thumb|An ad to attract immigrants to [[Western Canada]], 1898]]
Highly optimistic advertising campaigns promoted the benefits of prairie living. Potential immigrants read leaflets that described Canada as a favourable place to live 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. The reality was far harsher, especially for the first arrivals who lived in [[sod house]]s. However eastern money poured in and by 1913, long term mortgage loans to Saskatchewan farmers had reached $65 million.<ref>Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, "Canada's Most Wanted: Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies." ''Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology'' 2000 37(2): 223–238; W. T. Easterbrook, ''Farm Credit in Canada'' 1938.</ref>

The dominant groups comprised British settlers from eastern Canada and Britain, who comprised about half 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.<ref>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</ref>