Why is saskatchewan called saskatchewan

Our vast reserves of potash are expected to last for hundreds of years at current rates of production. Over 95 percent of the potash produced in Saskatchewan is used for fertilizer purposes. Animal: Saskatchewan designated the white-tailed deer our official animal in Here in our more northern latitudes, the white-tailed deer tends to be larger than its southern brethren, reaching heights of more than a metre 3.

Adults have a reddish-brown summer coat and a greyish-brown winter coat, with white underparts. The name comes from the white underside of the tail, which is raised like a flag when the deer is running or frightened. Sport: Curling was named Saskatchewan's official sport in , although many have considered it so for years. Once called the "roaring game" because of the thunderous noise made by corn brooms used to sweep rocks down the ice, curling has a rich history in the province.

The fabled Richardson brothers, curling out of Regina, won four Canadian and World men's championships between Another extraordinary rink from Regina, the Sandra Schmirler team, won three Canadian and World women's championships in the '90s, followed by the first ever women's Olympic gold medal in curling at A crest of a beaver and crown is placed above the shield. On either side of the shield are supporters: a lion and a deer.

FLAG: Horizontal bars of equal width with green above for the northern forests and yellow below for the southern grain region. The provincial shield of arms appears in the upper quarter on the staff side and a western red lily lies in the half farthest from the staff.

Saskatchewan, almost rectangular in shape, is located between the two other prairie provinces, with Manitoba to the east and Alberta to the west. Saskatchewan covers some , square miles , square kilometers. It is the only province formed entirely of man-made borders. The northern part of Saskatchewan lies on the Canadian Shield geologic formation which stretches across much of Canada. As a result, there are numerous lakes nearly , , rivers, bogs, and rocky outcroppings. About one-eighth of the entire province is covered with water.

The southern part of the province is relatively flat prairie, with occasional valleys created by erosion from the glacial era. The south is where most of the population lives. The highest point is at Cypress Hills, 4, feet 1, meters above sea level. Saskatoon, the largest city, is divided by the South Saskatchewan River.

Athabasca Provincial Park has sand dunes feet 30 meters high and semi-arid vegetation. Nowhere else in the world are dunes found so far north. The whole province enjoys a hot, dry summer. The town of Estevan in the southeast averages 2, hours of sunshine per year, more than any other city in Canada. Population by Age Group.

Top Cities with Populations over 10, Saskatchewan's southern plains were once covered by native prairie grass. Grass fires started by nature would often sweep over the plains. Western wheat grass, snowberry, and silver sage are common to Grasslands National Park, located in the extreme south. To the north, several types of berries and wildflowers, Labrador tea, and feather moss are commonly found under the aspens and black spruce trees of Prince Albert National Park.

The prairie sharp-tailed grouse, one of the province's most common native game birds, is the official bird of Saskatchewan. Other common bird species include the Hungarian partridge, ruffed grouse, and spruce grouse. Bison, eagles, osprey, white pelicans, beaver, elk, moose, and wolves inhabit Prince Albert National Park.

Golden eagles, pronghorn antelope, prairie rattlesnakes, sage grouse, prairie falcons, bobcats, and porcupines are found in Grasslands National Park. Endangered and threatened species include ferruginous hawks, short-horned lizards, and burrowing owls.

Lake trout, walleye, northern pike, and Arctic grayling are among 68 fish species in the province. In , the worst outbreak of avian botulism a fatal bacterial disease among birds in decades was reported at Saskatchewan's Old Wives Lake, where an estimated one million birds died 85 percent ducks.

Solid waste generation amounted to , tons in , or 1, pounds kilograms per person. Saskatchewan is actively participating in efforts to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

However, as of , Saskatchewan did not support the Kyoto Protocol emissions target set by the Canadian government. Saskatchewan's population of , is about 3 percent of the national population. Saskatchewan's population density is the lowest among the four provinces of western Canada. As of , 29 percent of all residents were under 19 years of age. The median age increased from That was still younger than the national average of Saskatoon had , residents, while Regina had , in Other large cities and their populations include Prince Albert, 34,; Moose Jaw, 32,; Lloydminster, 20,; and North Battleford, 17, Saskatchewan is the only province where the number of people of British or French background is smaller than the number of people from other ethnic groups.

Its Aboriginal Native Peoples population was , in , or Many other non-European peoples Chinese, blacks, Indians and other southern Asians, and Filipinos live in Saskatchewan as well.

In , Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan. However, the area is also important to wildlife. The airspace between Regina and Saskatoon is one of the busiest corridors for migrating ducks and geese in North America. Canadian Tourism Commission photo. Most Saskatchewaners are Christian. Close to half of the population, or , people, are Protestant.

About 1. Other faiths are also represented in smaller numbers, including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jews. About , Saskatchewaners report no religious affiliation. During the frontier era, waterways such as the Clearwater and Churchill Rivers became established fur-trade routes, as did the overland Carlton Trail.

At , miles , kilometers , Saskatchewan today has more road surface than any other province. In , registered road motor vehicles numbered , There were also 3, buses, 5, motorcycles and mopeds, and , trailers. Both Regina and Saskatoon have bus systems with more than buses in each fleet.

Saskatchewan currently has over miles 1, kilometers of railways under provincial jurisdiction. International airports are located at Regina and Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan is referred to as one of Canada's Prairie Provinces because its southern geography consists of extensive plains. The first European explorers and trappers to visit Saskatchewan found established settlements of Aboriginal, or native, peoples.

The Chipewyan Indians lived in the north, the nomadic Blackfoot roamed the eastern plains, and the Assiniboine inhabited the west. The territory of the Cree, who were long-time residents of the north, also extended southward to the plains. Around he followed the Saskatchewan River to the southern plains of Saskatchewan, which was especially good fur-trapping country.

Fur-trading companies and trading posts soon sprang up, becoming the foundation of many present-day settlements. For about years, the Hudson's Bay Company owned and oversaw the vast Northwest Territories, including Saskatchewan. Because these regions were perfect for farming and colonizing, the Government of Canada purchased the Territories in The passage of the Dominion Lands Act in encouraged families known as homesteaders to acquire, live on, and cultivate tracts of Saskatchewan farmland.

Another act was passed to help stimulate immigration, and the establishment of a new railway began bringing waves of settlers into these rich lands.

As more and more Europeans arrived in the area, the Native people began to worry that they would be pushed out and lose control of their land, their language, and their political rights. When it was all over, the Native peoples were forced to surrender to the Canadian government's forces. When the Territories became too large to manage, they were reorganized. Saskatchewan was established as a province in , with Regina as its capital.

The early years of the 20th century were prosperous ones for the new province. Between and , the population of the region grew from approximately 32, to , Furthermore, the price of wheat—the main crop grown by farmers on the plains—continued to climb during these years. After World War I , however, the people of Saskatchewan suddenly faced a bleak future.

The troupe was established in July to showcase song and dance of the native people from the Northern Plains region of Canada. Jobs were scarce and low-paying, and tariffs taxes on imported products kept prices for consumer goods high. Over the course of the s, grain prices recovered, and Canada as a whole experienced a period of rapid industrialization.

Improvements to railways and roads boosted commerce. Automobiles, telephones, electrical appliances, and other consumer goods became widely available. As in the United States, consumer confidence led to the rapid expansion of credit and greater business opportunities. The Great Depression, a period of severe economic downturn that began in , hit Saskatchewan and the other Prairie Provinces very hard.

In addition to the falling grain prices of the s, droughts and frequent crop failures devastated the economy of the province. Feeling that the federal government's grain policies did not meet their needs, Saskatchewan farmers began to look for a way to gain more control over the grain industry.

As a result, they created a cooperative organization called the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The Pool allowed wheat to be sold directly to foreign importers; all profits were then divided among the Pool's members. By , about 45, farmers were under contract to the Pool. As economic conditions in Saskatchewan worsened in the s, social welfare programs in the area expanded rapidly.

These harsh economic conditions frequently resulted in protests and demonstrations by unemployed workers, the most famous being the Regina Riot. World War II brought an end to the Depression, and in the s consumer spending and immigration to Canada increased rapidly. Urbanization spread quickly with the passage of the National Housing Act, which made it easier for ordinary people to purchase their own homes.

Unemployment insurance and other social welfare programs were also created following the war. Beginning in , epidemics of European diseases, such as smallpox , devastated the Aboriginal population, as did the introduction of alcohol. Not all exploration was motivated by profit. Men interested in the land and the environment entered the region a century behind the traders. The best known of the early observers were Sir John Franklin and Dr.

John Richardson , between and , and John Palliser in — Previously, the Northwest had been viewed as a desolate wasteland, unsuited for settlement. The reports produced by the Palliser and Hind expeditions refuted this long-held belief and helped to encourage European settlement and agricultural development in the region. In , in order to facilitate westward expansion and, hopefully, avoid the type of conflicts occurring in the United States, the Canadian government began negotiating treaties with Aboriginal peoples in the Northwest to extinguish their title to the land and establish reserves for Aboriginal settlement.

Aboriginal leaders signed these treaties to maintain as much of their traditional way of life as possible while adapting to the challenges they faced resulting from the encroachment by European settlers and the devastating collapse of the buffalo population. Aboriginal leaders insisted on making grants of farm implements and animals part of the treaties. Although traditionally nomadic, they sought to take up agriculture as they could no longer rely on the buffalo as their principal food source.

Their efforts, however, were undermined by maladministration by the Canadian government. Using the nearly-completed Canadian Pacific Railway , the government was able to send troops to the Northwest and quickly put down both uprisings. Aboriginal leaders Big Bear , Poundmaker and One Arrow were sentenced to prison, and the government implemented more restrictive measures to subjugate Aboriginal populations.

Also during this time, in , Parliament passed the first Dominion Lands Act , a provision for homesteaders and an act to stimulate immigration. In —83 the first railway lines crossed the area in a southern route through Regina and Moose Jaw. The prerequisites for European immigration and settlement were therefore all in place well before The impact of their combined influence shows dramatically in the statistics.

In the population of the area was 32,, half of whom were British and 44 per cent were Aboriginal. Just over 25 years later, in , the population was ,, half of which was still British, and the Aboriginal population had dropped to 2.

Many of the immigrants who came during this period were eastern Europeans, especially Ukrainians , whom Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton regarded as the ideal candidates to settle the West. The British had by then consolidated their hold on familiar political institutions; the principles of responsible government , which held the Cabinet responsible to a majority of the legislature, were settled in Provincial status, first sought in , came in , and with it the relevant apparatus of parliamentary government.

See also Saskatchewan and Confederation. The province's size and shape were important; although many leading Prairie politicians favoured one large western province, the federal authorities always insisted that the western plains were too large to be made into a single constitutional entity. Depending on where one settled its northern boundary, such a province could have been the largest in Canada, a potential economic threat to the central heartland.

In any event, in the federal government retained jurisdiction over crown lands in Saskatchewan. Settlement proceeded in a generally northwesterly direction, most of the arable area being occupied by the s. The pattern of settlement itself profoundly affected the nature of Saskatchewan society. Identifiable groups of immigrants, varying from English people desiring to set up a temperance colony to Doukhobors escaping persecution with the aid of Leo Tolstoy and the Society of Friends see Quakers , established communities, which in the s still reflected their origins.

Time, social mobility and intermarriage have blurred the lines separating the original settlements, but at the time many parts of the province were still discernibly French and German, Ukrainian and Scandinavian, Hutterite and Mennonite. Leading up to the First World War , there were a number of indications the province was well on its way to establishing stability.

In , the Saskatchewan Legislative building opened in Regina. Saskatoon began constructing the University of Saskatchewan in the same year and Prince Albert became home to the federal penitentiary.

Roads, hospitals, schools, and courts were also built in this period. Agriculture dominated the economy beyond the interwar years and shaped the lives of those who settled in the province. Wheat was the most important crop grown in Saskatchewan. In the face of falling prices, farmers organized and formed the Saskatchewan Co-operative Wheat Producers Ltd. Throughout the s, the province has endeavoured to diversify agriculture to include cattle and hogs.

Towards the end of the 20th century, small family farms have been replaced by the agri-business model. Immigration en masse into Saskatchewan had ended, at least temporarily, by the s, although a high turnover in the population did not stop. The province's modern history is marked by the steady departure of people from Saskatchewan, especially in rural parts of the province.

Sometimes, as in the two World Wars, thousands left over a short period to enlist or to work in war industries, and many did not return. Economically, the most significant single event of Saskatchewan's modern history was the transfer of jurisdiction over crown lands to the province in Had this transfer not taken place, the province would still have become a great agricultural producer and contributor to the Second World War effort.

However, with it, the province not only had access to lucrative sources of taxation, but also new sources of power which affected its influence within Canada in the s and after, giving it a formidable voice in national affairs. The experience of the Depression created an environment that was especially conducive to the idea of a big government that would intervene to manage the economy and alleviate social problems.

The CCF championed democratic socialism and made way for co-operation, public ownership of industries and universal health care in the province.

The CCF also spearheaded initiatives to integrate and modernize northern parts of the province. Unfortunately, efforts to improve health care facilities, for example, only heightened unemployment and poverty.

Aboriginal peoples were adversely affected by these measures. Once Europeans established settlements, agriculture overtook hunting and trapping. Wheat, once the plains were settled, was a large factor in Canada's international dealings.

This relationship is especially true of wheat farming, cattle ranching and the extraction of fossil fuels. The province's economy since the drought and Depression decade of the s has shown an impressive capacity for diversification in both agricultural and non-agricultural production. In recent years, the province has seen a surge in the transportation sector as well as in development and construction. Commonly the province has had little control over the transportation of its own products, or the financing of it, and this situation did not change as wheat was supplemented by natural gas, petroleum and potash.

A high percentage of the consumer goods used in Saskatchewan, on the other hand, from canned food to automobiles and farm implements, are imported. A recurring feeling among sections of the population is that the province's economy is the victim of outside forces that are not always benign. This feeling provides one reason for the remarkable success of the Co-operative Movement in Saskatchewan, through which citizens have banded together to satisfy numerous economic needs.

Co-operatives are found in virtually every segment of the retailing and distributing trades, and in many service industries. In , the province had 1, co-operatives with , active members. Co-operative associations in Saskatchewan represent 14 per cent of the national total.

Although non-agricultural production constitutes over half of Saskatchewan's annual output, agriculture remains the largest single industry.

The settled era began almost exclusively as a farm economy, with nearly , ha of wheat planted in the year of the province's creation, yielding 26 million bushels. With the exception of setbacks during the Great Depression when drought reduced all rural activities and the Second World War when some overseas markets for wheat almost disappeared , wheat acreage has grown steadily throughout the province's history and now tops 5 million hectares annually.

The province is also a leader in the growth of canola , rye , oats , barley , flax , forage crops and pasturage for livestock. Beginning in the s the development of mining in Saskatchewan was almost as spectacular, though not as conspicuous, as that of agricultural settlement half a century earlier. By the s mining ranked second to agriculture as a contributor to the province's production. A major part of this shift was the increase in fuel production, mainly crude petroleum.

In , the first commercial oil well was discovered in Lloydminster. In , Saskatchewan produced Saskatchewan also produces a relatively significant amount of natural gas — 5. The mining of uranium began after and by the s one large mine had already been, in economic terms, worked out, but remarkably rich deposits remained elsewhere.

The province was once the largest uranium producing-region in the world. The company generates electricity from a mix of different stations: seven hydroelectric , five natural gas, three coal-fired and two wind. Coal provides the province with more than 50 per cent of its electricity. In light of this high percentage and rising concern about climate change burning coal produces CO 2 , a contributor to global warming , Saskatchewan is pioneering carbon capture and storage CCS technology.

Forestry is not one of Saskatchewan's largest industries, although where it exists, primarily in the middle third of the province, it is of great local significance. The rapid opening of the Prairies for settlement created a demand for building materials, not just for farm buildings but also for railway ties and telegraph poles; and the closer settlement moved to the northern forest, the more local wood could be used.

Pulpwood, which uses smaller growth than lumber, was cut for export as early as the s, but the province's first pulp mill was not built until the s with substantial assistance from the government. Saskatchewan wood is used for softwood lumber, pulp, plywood and engineered wood products. Despite the industry being relatively small, its activities are nonetheless sufficient enough that Aboriginal leaders frequently express concern over the damage caused to wildlife habitat.

Fisheries rank well below forestry as a contributor to the province's economy, ranking with wildlife trapping and fur farming. The fish caught are namely walleye , whitefish , lake trout and pike.

Much of the commercial fishing activity is in the north, while in the south, a fairly common sight is the rainbow trout dugout, a licensed artificial pond in which individual farmers raise fish for their own use or for profit. Saskatchewan is not generally considered a manufacturing centre. Most manufactured goods are exported to other parts of Canada. Saskatchewan's industrial economy has always been affected by the relatively small provincial market.

What the province produces well it produces in enormous quantities. The Saskatchewan internal market is in many ways more economically served by imports.