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Before 1905
 What
is now Alberta was occupied by several tribes of hunters
11,500 years ago who were pursuing game. It is believed
these early hunters came to North America across a land
bridge that stretched from the area we know today as
Siberia, or they may have traveled south along a water
route or on a coastal plain that is now covered by the
Pacific Ocean.
The region continued to offer prosperity to those who
occupied it. As the centuries passed, more tribes made the region their home, and
it became a rich source for those in the fur trade.
Early missionaries and settlers traveled west as treaties were signed with
the First Nations people that populated the territory.
As railroads that opened the west were constructed, an
influx of people arrived to ranch and establish homesteads.
The territory called Rupert's Land,
which included the region that became Alberta
and Saskatchewan, was transferred to Canada from the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1870. A new government was
established at Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1875 for
the Northwest Territories, which at the time comprised
the areas we know today as Alberta, Saskatchewan, the
Yukon Territory and Nunavut.
It took until 1897 for the Territorial government to be fully elected and accountable to those who had elected them. Soon after, the
Territorial government demanded that they receive full provincial status.
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Heritage Community Foundation Presents
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