The History

The Aboriginal people, whose ancestors are thought to have crossed the Bering Sea from Asia thousands of years ago, were the first people to live in what is now Alberta. The Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan, Cree, Gros Ventre, Sarcee, Kootenay, Beaver and Slavey peoples, speaking a variety of Athapaskan and Algonquian languages, were the sole inhabitants of what was then a vast wilderness territory.

The early Albertans, particularly the woodland peoples of the central and northern regions, became valuable partners of the European fur traders who arrived in the 18th century. The first European explorer to reach what is now Alberta was Anthony Henday, in 1754. Peter Pond, of the North West Company, established the first fur-trading post in the area in 1778.

The Hudson's Bay Company gradually extended its control throughout a huge expanse of northern North America known as Rupert's Land and the North West Territory, including the region occupied by present-day Alberta. From that time, the region was fought over by the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, each of which built competing fur- trading posts. The

rivalry ended only in 1821, when the two companies merged.

Expeditions led by Henry Youle Hind and John Palliser found parts of the region to have exceptionally good land for farming, especially the fertile belt north of the Palliser Triangle, a particularly arid zone. As a result of these findings, the British decided not to renew the licence of the Hudson's Bay Company and, in 1870, the North West Territory was acquired by the Dominion of Canada and administered from the newly formed province of Manitoba.

Upon completion of the railway in 1886, the population started to grow quickly. Other factors that helped swell the population were the discovery of new strains of wheat particularly suited to the climate of the Canadian Prairies, the lack of new farmland in the United States, and the end of an economic depression throughout North America.

On September 1, 1905, Alberta, named for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, became a province of Canada with Edmonton as its capital city. The province of Alberta was created by joining the District of Alberta with parts of the districts of Athabasca, Assiniboia and Saskatchewan.