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The flag of Saskatchewan: The current flag of Saskatchewan, Canada, which has the proportions 2:1, was adopted in 1969. The flag has a green upper half which represents the northern section of the province and its primarily forested lands. The left side in the green half also contains Saskatchewan's shield of arms.
The lower half of gold represents the southern section of the province and its primarily grain growing areas. On the right side overlapping both green and gold halves is the western red lily, the provincial floral emblem.
Prior to the adoption of the current flag, the province could have unofficially used a Blue Ensign defaced with the provincial coat of arms, but there is no evidence that such a flag was ever sewn.
Saskatchewan is the middle province of Canada's three prairie provinces. It has an area of 651,900 km² (251,700 mi²) and a population of 985,386 (Saskatchewanians) as of July 1, 2006. Most of its population lives in the southern half of the province. The largest city is Saskatoon with a population of 235,800 (July 1, 2005), followed by the province's capital, Regina (population: 199,000, July 1, 2005). Other major cities (in order of size) include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, and North Battleford. See also List of communities in Saskatchewan.
The province's name comes from the Saskatchewan River, whose name comes from its Cree designation: kisiskaciwani-sipiy, meaning "swift flowing river".
Saskatchewan is (approximately) a quadrilateral bounded on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the American states of Montana and North Dakota. Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features. It is also one of only two provinces that are completely land-locked. Saskatchewan contains two major natural regions: the Canadian Shield in the north and the Interior Plains in the south. Northern Saskatchewan is mostly covered by boreal forest except for The Lake Athabasca Sand Dunes, the largest active sand dunes in the world north of 58°, adjacent to the southern shore of Lake Athabasca. Southern Saskatchewan contains another area with sand dunes known as the "Great Sand Hills" covering over 300 square kilometers. The Cypress Hills, located in the southwestern corner of Saskatchewan is an area of the province that remained unglaciated during during the last glaciation period. The province's highest point, 1,468 metres (4,816') is located in the Cypress Hills. The lowest point, 213 metres (700') is the shore of Lake Athabasca in the far north. The province has nine distinct drainage basins made up of various rivers and watersheds draining into the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, and Gulf of Mexico.
Prior to European settlement, Saskatchewan was populated by various indigenous peoples of North America including members of the Athabaskan, Algonquian, Cree and Sioux tribes. The first European to enter Saskatchewan was Henry Kelsey in 1690, who travelled up the Saskatchewan River in hopes of trading fur with the province's indigenous peoples. The first permanent European settlement was a Hudson's Bay Company post at Cumberland House founded by Samuel Hearne in 1774.
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 the 1870s, the Government of Canada formed the Northwest Territories to administer the vast territory between British Columbia and Manitoba. The government also entered into a series of numbered treaties with the indigenous peoples of the area, which serve as the basis of the relationship between "First Nations", as they are called today, and the Crown. Soon after, the First Nations were forced onto reserves.
Settlement of the province started to take off as the Canadian Pacific Railway was built in the early 1880s, and the Canadian government divided up the land by the Dominion Land Survey and gave free land to any willing settlers.
The North West Mounted Police set up several posts and forts across Saskatchewan including Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills, and Wood Mountain Post in south central Saskatchewan near the American border.
In 1876, following the Battle of Little Bighorn Lakota chief Sitting Bull led several thousand of his people to Wood Mountain. Wood Mountain Reserve was founded in 1914.
Many Métis people, who had not been signatories to a treaty, had moved to the Saskatchewan Rivers 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 prairies by the new Canadian Pacific Railway. Riel surrendered and was convicted of treason in a packed Regina courtroom. He was hanged on November 16, 1885.
As more settlers came to the prairies on the railway, the population grew, and Saskatchewan became a province on September 1, 1905; inauguration day was held September 4.
The Homestead Act permitted settlers to acquire ¼ mi² of land to homestead and offered an additional quarter upon establishing a homestead. Immigration peaked in 1910 and in spite of the initial difficulties of frontier life, distance from towns, sod homes, and backbreaking labour, a prosperous agrarian society was established.
In 1913, the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association was established as Saskatchewan's first agricultural organization. (See Logo Here) Three objectives were laid out at the founding convention in 1913 have served as a guide: to watch over legislation; to forward the interests of the Stock Growers in every honorable and legitimate way; and to suggest to parliament legislation to meet changing conditions and requirements.
Early in the century, the Ku Klux Klan became a popular organization in Saskatchewan. The province had the distinction of having the largest per capita membership in the KKK of any political jurisdiction in North America. At one time the Mayor of Regina was a member of the KKK and the local hospital openly refused to treat non-whites.
In 1970, the first annual Canadian Western Agribition was held in Regina.
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