Editing Saskatchewan (section)

==== 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>