History of Alberta

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The history of Alberta , one of the three Canadian prairie provinces , goes back to the end of the last ice age in terms of human settlement . The descendants of these earliest human inhabitants today belong to the tribes of the Assiniboine , Siksika (called black feet in colonial times) and Cree . In total, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada currently recognizes 48 tribes in the province. There are also numerous Métis , descendants of European immigrants and Indians.

Alberta and Canada

Many places, such as the capital Edmonton , which is also the second largest city in the province, go back to forts of the fur trading companies that increasingly dominated the region from the middle of the 18th century until the takeover by the emerging Canada. On the other hand, Calgary , the largest city, is based on a station of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police . In 1905 the province was established, whose economy was based on cattle breeding and grain cultivation, while the indigenous peoples , now in the minority, were relegated to reservations .

The crisis in regional agriculture from around 1914, exacerbated by the global economic crisis , produced an idiosyncratic party landscape for half a century (around 1921 to 1971). The dominance of the agricultural sector only changed with the industrialization spurt that the Second World War triggered and which was driven by the discovery of raw materials. Today the oil and gas industry, but also other raw material industries, predominate.

Prehistory and early history

First human traces, Clovis and Folsom

Upper Kananaskis Lake in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park , on the east side of the Rocky Mountains

There is still speculation about the first human settlement of the American continent from Northeast Asia (and possibly other areas). For example, David J. Metzler came to the conclusion that between 17,000 and 14,000 BC BC and between 12,000 and 10,000 BC An ice-free corridor from Alaska along the east side of the Rocky Mountains to the ice-free part of North America existed. But against the fact that humans wandered through, speaks that this narrow, extremely cold and dry strip would not have offered the prey of these early human inhabitants any habitable biotopes . Nor would the drought have allowed a plant-based diet. Another argument against this is that the sites in the south are older than those in the north. Today it is assumed that from around 10,000 BC The first inhabitants, named after the place where they were found Clovis , took perhaps half a millennium to a millennium to spread through North America. Whether there were other groups of immigrants who were not genetically related to the Paleo-Indians is disputed.

Rivers in Alberta

With the end of the last ice age around 10,000 BC The ice armor, which was over a kilometer thick, gradually withdrew from Alberta from south to north. 2000 years earlier, a narrow ice-free zone stretched along the east side of the Rocky Mountains and in the extreme south of Alberta. Mammoths , bison and horses moved north, their remains were found, for example, on the banks of the St. Mary River (9200 BC). At this time, human traces can be found in southern Alberta, which are counted as part of the Folsom culture and the Agate Basin culture , nomadic cultures mainly based on hunting . They may have been bison hunters, but few Folsom finds have been made in Alberta, such as at Vilna (about 150 km northeast of Edmonton ) and at James Pass in the Rocky Mountains. Finds at Lake Minnewanka near Banff , in the Drayton Valley and in the Peace River region as well as at Cardston indicate a different way of life. Apparently these first inhabitants hunted small horses in addition to other large game, using Clovis- type weapons . This group, in contrast to the Folsom people who lived more in the south and in the USA, lived further north, e.g. B. at the Vermilion Lakes (west of Banff ), where they may have been lured by herds of bighorn sheep that still exist today .

The weapons of human hunters are characterized by a special type of projectile point , which consisted of quartzite and siltstone or siltstone . A kind of grooving was made and the attachment to wooden or horn shafts was done with animal tendons. The Neolithic hunters may have been so successful that mammoths and horses disappeared, but this could also be due to drastic climate change. Grasslands and boreal forests spread further north and east in the centuries that followed. While Clovis and Folsom weapon types predominated in the south, a group of hunters existed in central Alberta at the same time who apparently did not use the lance-shaped tips of the south. In this region stood around 8000 BC. Already boreal forests.

It is unclear whether these hunter-gatherer groups specialized in a few animal species or hunted everything edible that they could get hold of. According to the consensus of the scientists, the former way of life would force a greater stockpiling, the latter a larger tail space. At least in the early phase of settlement, specialization was rather unlikely. It is only clear that with the disappearance of the megafauna , especially of the mammoth and mastodon , specialization began in smaller, but in large herds, on caribou and bison . Folsom groups, for example, would likely migrate up to 1,400 km per year in pursuit of their prey.

Archaic phase, approx. 8000 to 4000 BC Chr.

Between 8000 and 6000 BC Southern Alberta became increasingly drier, lakes became salty, forest fires can be detected, the tree line rose, even sand dunes covered later sites several meters high. This period, which totaled from about 7000 to 4000 BC. Chr., Is called Altithermal or Hypsithermal . This drought is likely to have driven the bison herds north and east or caused them to retreat to river valleys and refuges such as the Cypress Hills . They were followed by the human hunters.

Between 8500 and 7500 BC A distinction is made between two groups of finds, namely Agate Basin and Hell Gap . This phase, known as the Young Dryas , was characterized by hotter summers and colder winters, so much more extreme than the present. The glaciers continued to expand south. Similar to Cody , the group of finds of the following millennium (divided into Alberta , Scottsbluff and Eden ), the hunters and gatherers continued to live as nomads, but the younger groups now used projectile points with a broad shaft. The largest site is Lethbridge . The specialization in bison seems to have reached a first high point, at the same time the groups began to distinguish themselves noticeably - even if this can only be read from the remains of stone weapons.

Testimony to a driven hunt technique: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

A technological innovation, the spear thrower (Atlatl), came around 5000 BC. In use. This increased the range of the hunters, but also their safety. Around this time, the hunters began to attach their stone projectile points sideways on the shaft, which was apparently perceived as more advantageous. In any case, after the hunt, the stones, some from local sites and some from far away, could be recovered - a blade found at Gardiner Lake Narrows near Fort McMurray showed that the stone came from a warehouse 1,600 km away came from the northwest. Among these stones were chalcedony and obsidian . The drought increased and apparently led to a sharp decline in population, but the region did not become deserted, as was at times believed. The first traces of so-called buffalo jumps can be found, a hunting technique based on rushing more or less large herds over a precipice. The places under the fall sometimes have layers of slaughter and disposal remains several meters thick.

Satellite image of over 50 km² Crater Lake in Oregon, which fills a caldera created by a volcanic eruption

Between 4800 and 4250 BC In BC Mount Mazama erupted in Oregon , the ashes of which separated the archaeological layers in the whole of central and southern Alberta from the later ones.

After-Mount-Mazama, from 4000 BC. Chr.

Until about 3500 BC A dry, warm phase extended in BC, which ensured the greatest expansion of the grassland at the expense of the forests. From 3000 BC BC storehouses can be proven. In these pit houses, bones placed in water were boiled with the help of glowing stones, probably to make pemmican .

Oxbow and McKean are the names of the sites that denote the subsequent epoch. Oxbow sites were found mainly on the two Wabasca Lakes, where Bigstone Cree now live, and as far as the Birch Mountains. The projectile tips received ear-shaped bulges on the back.

Around 2000 BC A new interglacial period began with cooler, wetter winters. Dried lakes filled with water again, and larger herds of buffalo crossed the area. The further development of the driven hunt is reflected in a large number of bone finds. From around 2200 BC In the south, tips of the McKean type appear in the south, along with Duncan or Hanna, for which it is not clear whether they were made by the same groups. Possibly they pushed the Oxbow people further north. At the Cactus Flower archaeological site near Medicine Hat , a tubular pipe was found that is around 4,700 years old, arguably the oldest evidence of smoking . Grave goods such as those in the Majorville Medicine Wheel and other sites indicate a shared religious tradition.

Pelican Lake to Avonlea, ca.1250 BC. Until approx. 1000 AD

The Pelican Lake phase (approx. 1250 BC to 500 AD) can be recognized by the fir tree-shaped projectile tips for the javelin. The first ceremonially significant places called Medicine Wheels are within reach . Some of them are sacred to this day. At this time, perhaps even earlier, the tipi was built , the walls of which were held to the ground by stone circles that were found in numerous places in southern Alberta. Perhaps the Pelican Lake culture, which existed up to the birth of Christ, goes back to the McKane culture. The Oxbow culture was possibly followed by the Besant culture, which already knew pottery and - around 200 AD - bow and arrow.

Around 1000 BC The trade of the Pelican Lake people also grew over great distances. Certain types of stone, some pre-machined, came from Oregon and North Dakota . Copper came from the Great Lakes area . Shell jewelry came from the Pacific and even the Gulf of Mexico . The culture of the moundbuilders in Ohio , Dakota and on the upper Mississippi extended far into Alberta. Volcanic glass, chalcedony and the teeth of grizzly bears were discovered no later than 100 BC. Asked about this by the comparatively dense populations of the south in the 3rd century BC and prompted collectors and hunters in Alberta to search for these goods - a pattern of economic behavior into which the fur traders who later came from Europe easily fitted themselves into.

Around 150/250 to 700/1000, two very different groups can be distinguished, the identification of which is the so-called Timber Ridged Side Notched Point , i.e. a laterally notched point reinforced with a wooden back. The southern group has close contacts to North Dakota and South Saskatchewan . The second group, who brought bows and arrows with them between 100 and 500 AD, which existed as early as 3000 BC. Appeared in North America, culturally differed significantly. It consisted of smaller nomadic groups, while in the south a cycle of seasonal migrations had prevailed, the centers of which were fixed villages. Sound remained rather rare until around 500. Pottery was also more familiar to the groups in central Saskatchewan and Manitoba than to the former group. This phase, named Avonlea after a site in Saskatchewan, is again divided into three phases. While the early Avonlea period was still without pottery and the bow and arrow took over (approx. 100 to 400), the use of clay pots developed increasingly in the middle phase, while in the later Avonlea phase trade increased noticeably (approx. 750 up to 1100).

Drainage area of ​​the Athabasca River

This phase is next to relatively uniform arrowheads, z. B. Besant on Lake Athabasca , characterized by the spread of driven hunting techniques known as the Buffalo Jump . In some places remains of the cut animals of up to 6 m in height were found. The seasonal migrations followed the buffalo herds in summer. The rather large hunting groups separated in winter and moved to the respective villages. Even if buffalo provided the lion's share of the food - the number of carcasses was demonstrably higher - the gathering and digging up of plants and hunting of smaller game, as well as elk, bears, etc. were not completely dispensed with. Numerous cooking areas can be proven. Apparently there were also dwellings specializing in the manufacture of vessels, perhaps a certain professional specialization.

Shifts in large ethnic groups (from approx. 750)

Which of the later ethnic groups go back to the Avonlea people is still debated. Around 750 the tribes that later belonged to the Athabasques moved southward. A culture of its own manifested itself in central and southern Alberta, which has a highly developed pottery. The carriers of this culture were probably the ancestors of the Blackfoot . The ancestors of the Cree in central Saskatchewan already exhibited other cultural forms, e.g. B. in pottery. During this time, the buffalo hunt intensified - driven hunt techniques such as in Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump west of Fort MacLeod ensured a rich meat offer.

Between about 1650 and 1730/40, a Sioux- speaking culture dominated, possibly with strong connections to the villages of North Dakota, southern Alberta. Perhaps they represent a first group of tribes displaced by the Iroquois , similar to the Sioux tribes of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota further south. Escape from smallpox epidemics is also possible. Around 1740 they built a fortress at a ford through the Bow River , 120 km east of Calgary , known as the Cluny Fortified Village - the site was still being dug in June 2008. In contrast to the tipi villages that dominated the region for several millennia, this village consisted of a palisade fence 120 meters in diameter and eleven pits five meters in diameter, the function of which is unknown. These type of villages are otherwise known from central Missouri, 1,500 miles further south. But neither the oversized, hardly defendable gaps in the palisades nor the unusually built pits can be explained by this. The bone finds from the village, which are otherwise rare in Alberta, again point to southern relatives, as does the Knife River Flint . What is completely missing are the typical Missouri harvesting tools. Probably all of this points to relics of a soil-building way of life that was in transition to a nomadic one. They must also have brought the first horses here. The stone finds indicate trade contacts with Medicine Hat in British Columbia, Wyoming and Montana . In 2007, goods from Europe were even found, even though no Europeans had entered the region. They were tiny glass beads . In the tradition of the Siksika one remembers the peaceful visit of a Sioux group, which could at least explain the openness of the double picket fence.

However, a joint Blackfoot and Cree force slowed the Sioux's northward expansion. A severe smallpox epidemic hit them so badly that they completely disappeared from Alberta. The “ little ice age ” around 1700 will also have made it difficult for them to survive.

European long-range effects, Mississippi culture

In addition to the mass migrations triggered by the Iroquois, smallpox epidemics in particular occurred as long-range effects of the Europeans who had not yet come into direct contact with the tribes of Alberta, such as the Sioux mentioned. But the lifestyle also changed. Driven hunting techniques were abandoned between 1600 and 1700, when rifles appeared as hunting weapons and horses emerged in the late 17th century. This culture is called Women's Buffalo Jump after another locality . In addition, the largest city north of Mexico , Cahokia on the Mississippi, gave long-distance trade a strong impetus.

One of the most important sites is writing-on-stone , that is to say, because there are numerous stone carvings and paintings that go back at least 500 years, a few thousand and more. The Siksika avoided the site, or at least rarely camped there. In addition to symbols, the works show weapons, especially bows and arrows, and the prey animals. The horse found its entrance here after around 1730. Dotted lines now indicate gunfire, lines indicate arrows that have been shot. Instead the shields disappeared.

Fur companies, missionaries (around 1750 to 1870)

In the area of ​​the later province of Alberta, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) received the monopoly for the fur trade in 1670 . It formed part of Rupert's land , the largest monopoly ever assigned to a private company, but French fur traders contested this position. After the end of New France, they were followed by French traders from Montreal who had come together in the North West Company .

The listed building, built around 1880, is the successor building to the Manoir de Niverville in
Trois-Rivières, where Boucher de Niverville lived

The first French explorer was probably Joseph Bouchier de Niverville (1715-1804) in 1751, who had been sent to explore by Pierre Gaultier de la Vérendrye , the French explorer, before his death (1749). More precisely, it was the ten men Bouchier de Niverville had sent ahead to build Fort La Jonquiere. The first English explorer we know of reached the area in 1754. Anthony Hendey (also Hendry) spent the winter of 1754/1755 with the Blackfoot and visited the area of Red Deer and Edmonton . His account of the Siksika who kept horses met with disbelief.

The first British fort was built 50 km from the mouth of the Athabasca River in 1778 by Peter Pond , a trader who worked for the North West Company . This company was in fierce competition with HBC, with which it was merged in 1821. But from 1815 to 1820 the two societies fought a bitter war in the Red River Colony in Manitoba, known as the Pemmican War .

Fort Edmonton, painting by Paul Kane , was created between 1849 and 1856
Sarcee man and woman in front of their tipi, after 1903

In addition to Hendey, David Thompson , Alexander MacKenzie and George Simpson toured the region. For several decades the so-called Peddlers , independent, often French fur traders with good contacts to the Indians, were much more successful than the HBC. This tried through forts to bring the area under their control. The first permanent fort was Fort Chipewyan , which MacKenzie founded in 1788, but possibly Fort Vermilion , which was founded that same year. The first permanent settlement was Edmonton , founded in 1795 by the HBC. Peter Fidler , who traveled from Hudson Bay to northwest Alberta from 1792 to 1793 , reported the names and places of settlement of the residents for the first time in his journal. So he called the Sarcee (today Tsuu T'ina) near the Battle River , the Snake River around the Bow River and the "Muddy River Indians" or Piikani on the Highwood River and the Kootenay near the Oldman River .

In contrast to many other tribes in the northwest, the Blackfoot did not settle in the vicinity of the forts, because the existing trade structures brought them the coveted goods of the Europeans even without this spatial proximity. But they also brought the first smallpox epidemic from 1780 to 1782, which killed an unknown but large number of Indians. Equally disastrous was the flu that hit Saskatchewan, the Athabasca, and the Peace Rivers in 1835. These epidemics caused the fur trade to collapse for years because the surviving Indians avoided contact.

Robert Terrill Rundle and his wife Mary Wolverson, around 1860
Reconstructed Rundles cabin in Fort Edmonton Park in the provincial capital

Around 1800 the Métis shifted their settlement focus to the region of the later Manitoba and Alberta. More groups moved further west when bison populations collapsed in Manitoba. The Métis were of the utmost importance in supplying the forts with pemmican. They became ranchers after the herds were almost completely eradicated. At the same time, they had become small farmers based on the French model.

The first missionaries appeared in the 1840s, including Robert Rundle , a Methodist who toured the region between 1840 and 1848, who founded Rundle's Mission in 1847 . However, the first missionary to set up a mission station was Jean-Baptiste Thibault . In 1842 his Catholic mission station was established on Lac Claire . In 1868 the associated village of St. Albert was established . Missionary efforts led by the Catholic Church did not begin until 1864; they were followed by the Anglican Church .

Rebellions, treaties, attempts at assimilation (1869 to 1899)

Shortly after the Hudson's Bay Company handed Rupert's land over to the British colonial power in 1869 , the region became part of the newly founded Canada. On the one hand, the region now belonged to the Northwest Territories , on the other hand, the North West Mounted Police was created , a force with police tasks, which, however, occasionally took on military tasks. In addition, there was the task of preventing illegal immigration from the United States . That turned out to be a difficult task, because the alcohol dealers in particular did good business with the Indians. These, however, sparked disputes that ultimately culminated in the Cypress Hills massacre of 20 Nakota in 1873 , in which drunken traders and their métiers shot around. The Mounties had to take military action against Fort Whoop-Up near today's Lethbridge . 275 men of the troop founded in 1873 marched in July 1874 in the so-called March west to Alberta. There they built their headquarters Fort MacLeod . In 1875 Fort Walsh and Fort Calgary were built .

Camp the Cree south of Vermillion, 1871

Starting in 1871, the government concluded the so-called Numbered Treaties with the Indians , eleven contracts that are still valid today and with which the indigenous people in large parts of the country were forced into reservations . At the same time, a settlement program was pushed ahead in order to use the vast area for agriculture. The Indians were deprived of their livelihood by mass killing of the buffalo herds, which provided the food for many tribes. This in turn drove the tribes into serious clashes with one another, which culminated in the Battle of the Belly River between Blackfoot and Cree in 1870 . It was the last battle between Indian confederations in Canada.

In 1862, the Hospice St Joseph, Alberta's first residential school , was established on Lac La Biche. These schools served the assimilation of the Indian children, similar to the enforcement of farming activities among the adults, as Edgar Dewdney , who was primarily responsible for the vast north-west regions, had in mind. With the founding of Canada in 1867 and the acquisition of the northwest by the Hudson's Bay Company, the area became something of a border region. The Indians should be grouped into reservations and adapted to the lifestyle of the white majority. The North West Mounted Police were maintained to monitor resettlements and soon also to suppress rebellions . The Indian Act of 1876 created the legal framework for this approach. For Alberta, the Numbered Treaties, especially No. 6 (Fort Carlton 1876), No. 7 (Blackfoot Crossing, 1877) and No. 8 ( Lesser Slave Lake , 1899), to which the Indians obey , were of great importance had to because hunger forced them to. The buffalo herds finally disappeared in 1878 towards Montana, but they were almost completely wiped out there too.

The francophone Métis, from whom an important part of their livelihood, the buffalo, had been deprived, demanded a province of their own in the newly created Canada. For a long time, they saw the HBC's immigration policy as the greatest threat, which also threatened its second economic mainstay, agriculture. The Canadian government apparently continued this policy, and so the Red River Rebellion occurred in 1869 and the much bloodier Northwest Rebellion in 1885 . In 1870 the Manitoba Act still took into account the demands of the Métis, so that the rebellion ended bloodlessly, but the Métis, which have since evaded further west to Saskatchewan, especially around Batoche , continued to try to maintain their own province. The initially successful Métis rebellion collapsed with the Battle of Batoche , and the Cree under Big Bear also had to give in. Some of their warriors, like Wandering Spirit , were executed, as was the metis leader Louis Riel .

Treaties with indigenous peoples, immigration policies and the creation of the province

Louise Caroline Alberta , fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Lieutenant Governor from 1878 to 1883 (1870). The province was named after her.
John Campbell, Lieutenant Governor from 1878 to 1883, husband of Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, 1880

In 1882 the government divided the vast area into the north and west. This is how the districts of Alberta, Saskatchewan , Assiniboia and Athabasca came into being . In the 1890s Alberta was merged with Athabasca, and a small part of Assiniboia was added, the lion's share of which went to Saskatchewan. The infrastructural connection of the region was tremendously accelerated by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway , whose trains stopped in Calgary. This laid the foundation for increased immigration, because the settlers' products could now also be marketed in the rest of Canada. Above all, the cattle breeding begun in 1876, which could use the same soil that the buffalo herds had grazed, formed the most important basis of the settlement activities.

After the Métis in the Red River District had resisted the oppression of settlers in 1869/70 and then migrated westwards, the Northwest Rebellion broke out there in 1885 . The Métis defended themselves against the threat to their livelihood, because on the one hand the buffalo was practically exterminated, on the other hand large-scale cattle farms began to displace their products from the markets with greater efficiency. The free allocation of land that they wanted to take over from the USA also threatened the settlement and way of life established by the Métis in Manitoba. Here the railroad lines and the vast possessions of the Hudson's Bay Company were open to speculation. Since the value of the land, which was always the same size, diverged very strongly, inside information was of inestimable value, information that the Métis could hardly access due to a lack of government and corporate contacts. So they felt they were being cheated and put up a fight. They fought several battles against militias and government troops. The Indians in the vast area were also extremely concerned at the time, as they were starving, also because of the disappearance of the buffalo. General Strange raised troops from Calgary, but most of all troops were concentrated in the east. In 1885 the Frog Lake massacre broke out in the far east of what would later become the province of Alberta . But finally the numerically weak groups of the Indians and the Métis had to give up.

In 1890 Chief Crowfoot died , who had tried to achieve better conditions for his tribe, the Siksika, including through treaty number 7. From 1889, attempts were intensified to turn the Indians into farmers. But at the same time they were not allowed to purchase agricultural machinery, had to make their own tools, and every purchase or sale of agricultural products or cattle required the approval of the Indian agent .

Part of a Ukrainian village, Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village

In the years after the uprisings, however, the government heavily encouraged immigration from eastern Canada and Great Britain, and soon also from Scandinavia , Germany and the Ukraine . The immigrants often settled in separate places, which still strongly segment Alberta's village landscape to this day.

Alberta's first parliament opens in Edmonton on March 15, 1906

The first farmers came to the region from 1874 to 1880, but it was not until the construction of the Trans-Canadian Railroad in 1883 that the transport technology was available for a surge in immigration. The land was divided into one square mile settler sites and between 1901 and 1905 alone, at the height of immigration, 40,000 contracts were signed.

Frank Oliver, founder of Edmonton Bulletin, a newspaper that appeared from 1880 to 1951

The population - there were only around 14,500 non-indigenous settlers in 1891 - grew rapidly and the natives became a minority. On September 1, 1905, the area was made a province, as was Saskatchewan. Sir Frederick Haultain , the district's premier, had pushed for a huge province called Buffalo , which would include Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alexander Cameron Rutherford became the first prime minister of the province. He and Frank Oliver, founders of the influential Edmonton Bulletin , got Edmonton to be the provincial capital, not Calgary.

In 1911 the original inhabitants, the Indians, Métis and Inuit , no longer made up 5% of the population. Nevertheless, more than 12,000 members of these First Nations , Métis and Inuit fought in the First and Second World Wars and in the Korean War .

Agricultural and World Economic Crisis, UFA (1914 to 1939)

Legislative Assembly Building and Fort Edmonton, 1914

Alberta's farmers preferred wheat , but the Red Fife variety couldn't always cope with the drought. In 1907, for example, the Marquis variety was successfully bred and matured more quickly. In addition, there were steam-powered tractors and plows that made it possible to work huge areas. Their operation soon required specialized migrant workers and a high investment of capital. Every summer with too little rain could affect the economy of the entire province. However, diversification was only possible to a limited extent under the conditions there. Alberta supplied practically only grain and cattle, which made the region extremely dependent on prices and customs policies.

Men wore respiratory protection while at work to protect themselves from the Spanish flu, autumn 1918

That changed a little in 1914 when oil was found in the Turner Valley near Calgary. But after the First World War , Alberta was gripped by a severe agricultural crisis, which was again accompanied by pronounced drought. Then there was the Spanish flu , which killed around 50,000 people in Canada. Breathing masks had to be worn for months. This emergency manifested itself on the political level in the success of a hitherto unknown party, the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), which broke the supremacy of the Alberta Liberal Party in 1921 . The latter had also been lost in 1917, Prime Minister Arthur Sifton , as he had become Minister of Customs in the federal government. The UFA put the government until 1934, first under the leadership of Charles Stewart (until 1921), then under Herbert Greenfield (until 1925), finally under John Edward Brownlee and Richard Gavin Reid .

John Edward Brownlee (1884–1961), Alberta's Prime Minister from 1925 to 1934

In 1923 the UFA set up a grain fund and abolished alcohol prohibition . John Edward Brownlee, who had long played an important role within the UFA, followed Greenfield as Prime Minister in 1925 and the UFA won the election in 1926. In 1929 the provincial government gained control of raw materials from the federal government, a right that the older, eastern provinces had already received in 1867. During these years, the UFA assumed increasingly conservative traits and with this program achieved a final election victory in 1930.

From 1922 to 1929 the province's economy recovered, but in 1930 it was drawn into the world economic crisis . Then there were again extremely dry, dusty years (see. Dust Bowl ) that have remained as "Dirty Thirties" in memory, and plagues, like the locusts (more precisely Caelifera (grasshoppers)). As a result, an extensive rural exodus began in the few cities, which in turn caused local wages to fall. Now attempts were made to correct mistakes, and above all to keep the moisture in the soil through hedges, soil cover and adapted cultivation methods, but also to reduce soil erosion.

The Métis founded the Association des Métis de l'Alberta or Métis Nations of Alberta Association in 1932 . In 1938 they achieved that with the Métis Population Betterment Act from now on land was reserved for their settlements.

Social Credit Party and World War II (1934 to 1946)

In 1934 Alberta voted out the UFA and opted again for a little-known party, the Social Credit Party of Alberta, under the leadership of the Christian fundamentalist William Aberhart . She promised to tackle the economic problems with new concepts. However, Lieutenant Governor John Campbell Bowen refused to ratify bills in 1937 designed to bring the provincial government under control of the banks, a requirement for issuing certificates of wealth to provincial citizens. The attempt to bring the newspapers under control by attempting to force counter-statements in the interests of the government at any time also failed. Despite the crisis that lasted until 1939, the party won nine elections in a row and was in government until 1971. Aberhart died unexpectedly in 1943, followed by Ernest Manning (1943 to 1968) for two and a half decades .

Ernest Manning, Alberta Prime Minister from 1943 to 1968, when he took office

Under pressure from the federal government and court rulings, Manning had to forego his original economic plans and also moderated the fundamentalist groups in the party. Nevertheless, it was considered the most conservative party in the country. The entry into the Second World War brought the regional economy new sales opportunities. While the unemployed during the Great Depression had considerably improved the infrastructure, road construction, dams and railways (e.g. the Athabasca Northern Railway ), agricultural products were now going via Montreal to Great Britain. Calgary and Edmonton became boomtowns for the war industry. Internment camps near Wainwright and in Kananaskis Country also provided vital labor, including German prisoners of war.

Post-war period and raw materials boom (since 1945)

In 1947 oil was discovered near Leduc near Edmonton. As early as 1954, industry employed more people than agriculture as a whole and also brought more sales and profits. The resulting labor shortage was compensated by a new wave of immigration, the increased tax revenue allowed the expansion of the health care system, infrastructure and public services. In Calgary and Edmonton, where barely 25% of the population had lived in 1945, every second resident of the province lived by 1966. This urbanization of the population also ended rural evangelical dominance, and so the Social Credit Party lost an absolute majority in 1971 and ultimately the 1973 election.

Meanwhile, the raw materials industry continued to boom. From 1960 onwards, abundant bitumen and natural gas were discovered in addition to oil discoveries , while coal reserves became less important. From 1967 coal was therefore increasingly exported abroad, especially to Japan . Bitumen has been processed in our own refineries since 1967 and 1978. Although industry in Alberta grew rapidly, the extraction of raw materials had only replaced agribusiness as a monoculture. In addition, there was energy production, which was subject to monopolies. Their privatization only started in 2001.

In the course of the 1970s, in addition to primary production, the financial economy in Calgary grew, and tourism also grew strongly. The national and provincial parks, the most important of which are probably the Banff , Elk Island and Jasper National Parks and the cross-border Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park , but also the Dinosaur Provincial Park , made a significant contribution to this . Then there is the Wood Buffalo National Park , where the endangered wood bison ( Bison bison athabascae ) found a refuge. The founding of Athabasca University in 1970 took account of the increasing importance of distance learning. The province now has 18 museums.

The Social Credit Party was replaced in 1971 by the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta under Peter Lougheed (Premier from 1971 to 1985), which has been in government ever since. During the oil crisis, the province got into a heated dispute with Ottawa because Lougheed's government tried to make a profit from the drastically increased prices, while Ottawa tried to counter the price increases with export bans and price fixing. There was also a dispute over whether federal or provincial taxes had to be paid first. The falling prices in the next few years softened the ultimately insoluble conflict of interests. Alberta no longer simply left it to the exploration companies to dig up the natural resources and pay taxes to the province for them, but instead established control over the production, marketing and prices of the oil industry. When world market prices for raw materials stagnated - Lougheed had foreseen this and founded the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund to diversify the economy - Alberta got into difficulties with its insufficient income, which Prime Minister Don Getty (1985-1992) could do little to counter. In addition, the province again came into conflict with the federal government, for example in 1979, but especially in 1981, when Alberta cut oil exports to the eastern provinces by 5 and 10% (March and June). It was finally agreed that Alberta should deliver oil at a maximum of three quarters of the world market price, but that exports to the USA should remain duty-free - a regulation that came into effect in 1986. In addition, it was stipulated that 30.2% of the oil revenues would remain in the province and 25.5% would flow into the federal treasury.

The 1988 Winter Olympics took place in Calgary and the surrounding area . Since the sharp rise in oil prices , the mining of the Athabasca oil sands in the northeast of the province (around Fort McMurray ) has been intensified. This brought the government under Ralph Klein (1992 to 2006) a certain stabilization, which also made it much easier to balance the budget. In addition, there was increased income from state-controlled gambling. But falling income, plus import bans on the part of the USA because of the BSE cattle epidemic , forced the prime minister, who was accused of an authoritarian leadership style, to resign in 2006 in favor of Ed Stelmach . Stelmach won the election on March 3, 2008, but the turnout was lower than it had been in half a century.

Alberta had benefited for years from the rising oil price, which was over 140 US dollars per barrel in 2008, but production collapsed in early 2009 because it is particularly expensive in the oil sands. It is only considered profitable from around 70 dollars, but the oil price fell to below 40. For example, the construction of a mine near Fort Hills with an investment volume of around 19 billion dollars was canceled. The total volume of exploration investments has been reduced from 125 billion to 40 billion. Of the 2.75 million barrels of crude oil extracted daily in Alberta, 1.2 million came from oil sands. In August 2009, the governments of Canada and the USA reached an agreement with the personal permission of President Obama to build a 1,600 km pipeline from Hardisty to Superior in Wisconsin , and lawsuits against the “dirtiest oil in the world” are pending by environmental groups and indigenous peoples' associations. In August 2011, there were two-week protests by environmental groups outside the White House, during which more than 800 participants were arrested. But the government denied the environmental damage caused by the pipeline construction, which should be completed in 2013.

Indian policy

When a royal visit came to the Stoney in 1939, they reinforced their land claims with the image of Queen Victoria , with whom they had signed their treaties.
Senator James Gladstone on a combine on the Kainai reservation north of Cardston

In 1927 it was forbidden for the Indians to form political organizations. Nevertheless , the League of Indians of Alberta (LIA) came into being in 1933, mainly through members of the Cree and the Stoney . Six years later, the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) was created as a spin-off from the League of Indians in Western Canada, which was dissolved in 1942 . But during the Second World War it was not possible to involve other Indian groups in Alberta. On the contrary, groups from southwest Alberta founded the Blood Indian Local Association . This reflected old contrasts between Cree and Blood .

James Gladstone , himself a member of the Cree, who was accepted by the Blood, became the mediator . In 1946 he became director of the IAA and sat it from 1950–53 and 1956–57. His goal was initially to secure the contractual rights from the numbered treaties , then education and help against impoverishment. The lifting of the alcohol ban for Indians, the possibility for Indians to lose their status, but above all the division and individualization of reservations remained controversial. Cattle breeding required large contiguous areas, which generally belonged to the tribe as a whole, and thus should not be dismembered.

In 1951, however, the thrust of the Indian law of 1878 was changed. The Indian culture was no longer to be fought explicitly, and attempts at assimilation were given up. The law also prevented the division of land, but still denied the Indians the right to vote . In addition, some tribes, such as the Samson Cree in Hobbema (between Edmonton and Red Deer) in 1956, lost their status as recognized Indians (status indians) as a result of the new version - although this decision was reversed again in 1957. James Gladstone entered the Senate of Canada in 1958 , becoming the first senator from a native family (see First Nations History ). In 1960 the Indians were given the right to vote nationwide.

When in 1969 a struggle for the special status began, which was to lead to the assimilation and the abolition of the reservations, as demanded by Jean Chrétien , the IAA in 1970 set up the basic program Citizens Plus . During the constitutional conflict of 1982 (see constitutional law of 1982 ), the IAA organized a demonstration in Edmonton, in which 6,000 Indians took part. The fight against the Meech Lake Accord was similarly successful from 1987 to 1990 , but the Blackfoot affected could not prevail in the disputes over the construction of the dam on the Oldman River (1990-92).

In the following years, the Indians of Canada increasingly took control of the schools again, and since the late 1980s, parts of the health system.

In 1998 the government embarked on a policy of reconciliation and in June 2008 apologized for its role in relation to residential schools , just as the Protestant churches involved had previously done. However, this did not prevent the provincial government from cutting the ILO's state funds, which makes the organization dependent on donations.

See also

literature

With regard to early history, the article is essentially based on the most recent contributions from the University of Calgary and the Royal Alberta Museum as well as the Glenbow Museum (see web links), plus the work of Berry and Brink. The phase beginning with the fur trade, however, is based on the websites of the Heritage Community Foundation and the Maverick page of the Glenbow Museum as well as on the Alberta Online Encyclopedia and the Canadian Encyclopedia. Then there is Palmer and Palmer: Alberta. A new history .

  • Susan Berry and Jack Brink, Aboriginal Cultures in Alberta: Five Hundred Generations, Eds .: The Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton: Syncrude 2004
  • Olga Chorny: Edmonton: A City in Transition , Edmonton: Choralin Enterprises 1987
  • DJ Goa (Ed.): The Ukrainian Religious Experience: Tradition and the Canadian Cultural Context , The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Edmonton 1989
  • Howard Palmer and Tamara Palmer: Alberta: A New History , Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers 1990, ISBN 0-88830-340-8 (now also available online: Alberta, a new history .)
  • Donald B. Smith, Calgary's Grand Story : The Making of a Prairie Metropolis from the Viewpoint of Two Heritage Buildings, Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2005

further reading

  • Alberta in the 20th century: A journalistic history of the province in eleven volumes , United Western 1999 and CanMedia imprint 2005
  • Walter H. Johns, A History of the University of Alberta, 1908–1969 , Edmonton: University of Alberta Press 1981

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ List of First Nations. Government of Canada - Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada , March 28, 2017, accessed March 26, 2018 .
  2. ^ David J. Meltzer : Why Don't We Know When the First People Came to North America? , in: American Antiquity 54 (1989) 471-490, p. 483.
  3. When human remains were discovered at the Stalker site (also known as the Taber Child site ) in central Alberta in 1961 , it was initially thought to be 18,000 to 60,000 years old, but later investigations showed that the finds were between 2000 and 1000 v. (See Brian Kooyman, Jane Kelley: Archeology on the Edge. New Perspectives from the Northern Plains , University of Calgary Press 2004, p. 64, ISBN 1-55238-138-2 ).
  4. ↑ On this: Paul McNeill u. a .: Late Pleistocene Geology and Fauna of the Wally's Beach Site (DhPg-8) Alberta, Canada , in: Brian Kooyman, Jane Kelley: Archeology on the Edge. New Perspectives from the Northern Plains, University of Calgary Press 2004, pp. 79-94, ISBN 1-55238-138-2
  5. See Royal Alberta Museum: Archeology: Research: James Pass, 2006 .
  6. ^ See Alberta Online Encyclopedia, Site Profile: Lake Minnewanka .
  7. Daryl W. Fedje, James M. White, Michael C. Wilson, D. Erle Nelson, John S. Vogel and John R. Southon: Vermilion Lakes Site: Adaptations and Environments in the Canadian Rockies during the Latest Pleistocene and Early Holocene , in: American Antiquity 60/1 (1995) 81-108.
  8. ^ Daniel S. Amick, Regional Patterns of Folsom Mobility in the American Southwest, in: World Archeology: Hunter-Gatherer Land Use, Ed. Peter Rowley-Conwy 23 (1996), p. 419.
  9. For the determination of dry phases in Alberta cf. AB Beaudoin: On the Identification and Characterization of Drought and Aridity in Postglacial Paleoenvironmental Records from the Northern Great Plains , in: Géographie physique et Quaternaire 56 (2002) 229-246.
  10. See AB Beaudoin and GA Oetelaar: The Day the Dry Snow Fell: The Record of a 7627-year-old Disaster, in: Alberta Formed, Alberta Transformed, Vol. 1, Ed. M. Payne, DG Wetherell, C. Kavanaugh, Calgary: University of Alberta Press and University of Calgary Press 2006, pp. 37-53.
  11. ↑ The main locations here are the Vermilion Lakes near Banff and the Gardiner Lake Narrows in the Birch Mountains near Fort McMurray .
  12. Eden Points occur mainly in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana (Jimmilee Miller: Eden Points , website of Minnesota State University, 1999).
  13. See GA Oetelaar and AB Beaudoin: Darkened Skies and Sparkling Grasses: The Potential Impact of the Mazama Ash Fall on the Northwestern Plains, in: Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 50, No. 195 (2005) 285-305.
  14. ^ John H. Brumley: The Cactus Flower site and the McKean complex in Alberta , PhD, University of Calgary 1975.
  15. General information on Medicine Wheels cf. J. Rod Vickers: Archeology: Frequently-Asked Questions. What is a Medicine Wheel? , Website of the Royal Alberta Museum ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , originally published in: Alberta Past 8 (3): 6-7, Winter 1992-1993. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royalalbertamuseum.ca
  16. See What is a Medicine Wheel? Article on the website of the Royal Alberta Museum ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.royalalbertamuseum.ca
  17. ↑ It is estimated that the number of these stone circles in southern Alberta alone is likely to be around one million (Michael C. Wilson, Editing the Cultural Landscape. A Taphonomic Perspective on the Destruction of Aboriginal Sites on the Northwestern Plains, in: Brian Kooyman, Jane Kelley: Archeology on the Edge. New Perspectives from the Northern Plains, University of Calgary Press 2004, pp. 53-78, here: p. 64, ISBN 1-55238-138-2 ) Large-scale agriculture has the mostly eliminated.
  18. See The Avonlea Period, Timeframe, Environment and Subsistence .
  19. See for example Jack Brink and Bob Dawe: Final Report of the 1985 and 1986 Field Season at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alberta, Calgary 1989.
  20. ^ John H. Brumley: Cluny Archaeological Site ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  21. See press release of the University of Calgary v. June 18, 2008 .
  22. See Site Profile: Writing-On-Stone in: Alberta Online Encyclopedia.
  23. See Canadian Biography Online, Boucher de Niverville, Joseph .
  24. ^ John Blue: Alberta. Past and Present. Historical and Biographical , Vol. 1, Chicago 1924, p. 16.
  25. See Clifford Wilson: Art. Henday (Hendey, Hendry), in: Dictionary of Canadian Biography online 2000
  26. Government of Alberta ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - About Alberta - History @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gov.ab.ca
  27. ^ John Blue: Alberta. Past and Present. Historical and Biographical , Vol. 1, Chicago 1924, p. 19.
  28. ^ In addition, the excavation report by Robert S. Kidd: Archaeological Investigations at the Probable Site of the First Fort Edmonton or Fort Augustus, 1795 to Early 1800s , Calgary 1987.
  29. On the smallpox epidemic of 1837/38: Arthur Ray: Smallpox: The Epidemic of 1837-38 , in: Beaver: Magazine of the North, Fall 1975, pp. 8-13.
  30. Maurice FV Doll, Robert S. Kidd and John P. Day examined their situation at the end of the 19th century: The Buffalo Lake Métis Site: A Late Nineteenth Century Settlement in the Parkland of Central Alberta , Calgary 1988, 410 pp.
  31. Cf. Government of Alberta - About Alberta - History ( Memento of the original of April 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gov.ab.ca
  32. Today the river is called Oldman River , the battle took place in the area of ​​what is now the city of Lethbridge . The Indian Battle Park is located there today .
  33. ^ Library and Archives Canada: Canadian Confederation ( Memento June 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  34. Crowfoot's name was Isapo-Muxika (approx. 1830 to 1890). For his biography cf. Hugh A. Dempsey: ISAPO-MUXIKA (Crowfoot) , in: Canadian Biography online .
  35. Cf. Agriculture in Alberta: The History of Agriculture in Alberta, 2002 ( Memento of March 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  36. Cf. The Turner Valley Oil Era: 1913-1946 ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Contribution from the University of Calgary and the Glenbow Museum. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ucalgary.ca
  37. 34,000 prisoners of war were interned in Canada during the war. There were four camps in Alberta alone, Kananaskis, Medicine Hat, Wainwright and Lethbridge, and the latter held 12,500 men. An exhibition on this topic opened in the Galt Museum on May 10, 2008 ( For you the war is over. Second World War POW Experiences ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet Checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.galtmuseum.com
  38. On this phase of the raw material boom cf. Post-Leduc Oil and Gas Exploration and Development ( September 28, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive ), a contribution from the University of Calgary, 1997.
  39. ^ Based on : The Energy Crisis and Constitutional Debates Between Alberta and the Federal Government, 1997 ( Memento of December 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  40. See Low voter turnout in Alberta election being questioned , in: CBC News, March 5, 2008 ( Memento of December 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  41. Canada: The Oil Sands Industry Treads the Brakes, in: Die Presse, January 14, 2009
  42. The construction is to take place through the Chippewa National Forest, and cross the area of ​​the Leech Lake Band without the approval of the tribe. From: US State Department OKs Pipeline From Canada's Oil Sands, in: Environment News Service, August 21, 2009 and US approves Alberta Clipper pipeline project , in: The Globe and Mail, August 20, 2009.
  43. ^ Obama administration backs oil pipeline from Alberta to Texas , in: The Guardian, August 26, 2011.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 15, 2008 in this version .