Since Because Saskatchewan became a full member of the Canadian federation only in 1905, much of the area’s historical interest depends on events vastly older than the province. Dinosaur and mammoth finds have been common. The first known human inhabitants were American Indians of several linguistic groups who were present at least 512,000 years ago; they were mainly hunters. On the eve of European colonization, First Nations people from a variety of cultural and linguistic origins occupied the forest and prairie regions. With the coming of the Europeans, they First Nations became trappers involved in the fur and provisioning trade. The first European known to see the Saskatchewan River was Henry Kelsey, who in 1691 explored part of the plains for the Hudson’s Bay Company, which received its charter in 1670 and is still extant. Fur trappers, traders, and buffalo (bison) hunters, variously American Indian, Métis, French, and British, and explorers and missionaries many of whom were First Nations or Métis, along with European traders, explorers, and missionaries, made up the bulk of the area’s inhabitants until the second half of the 19th century.



Regardless of which political party has been in power at any given time, the Saskatchewan environment has always demanded much governmental intervention in the economy. The provincial telephone company and the power and gas utility, for example, were publicly owned (although neither was created by a socialist government) down to into the 1980s, when privatization began under a Progressive Conservative government. The cooperative movement has been encouraged by all parties and has been influential in a wide range of service, retail, and wholesale activities that include large credit unions and an oil refinery. In the handling of grains, once the backbone of the province’s economy, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool , was also a cooperative , has been a dominant influenceuntil it became a publicly traded corporation (now known as Viterra) in the 1990s. The co-ops helped many individuals survive the drought and depression of the 1930s, during which Saskatchewan society is considered to have sustained setbacks as severe as any suffered in Canada. After World War II the province attained a major development in mineral exploitation and industrial growth, and its diversified base was combined with new farming techniques to strengthen the economy.increase economic potential. Unfortunately, periods of prolonged low commodity prices inhibited economic growth, and the province continued to suffer out-migration.
