Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a province in Western Canada. It is bordered to the west by Alberta, to the north by the Northwest Territories, to the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the United States. Saskatchewan and neighbouring Alberta are the only landlocked provinces in Canada. In 2025, Saskatchewan's population was estimated at 1,266,234. Nearly 10% of Saskatchewan's total area of is fresh water, mostly rivers, reservoirs, and lakes.
Saskatchewanians live primarily in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Roughly half live in Saskatchewan's two largest cities; Regina and Saskatoon. Other notable cities in Saskatchewan include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, North Battleford, Estevan, Weyburn, Melfort, and the border city; Lloydminster. English is the primary language of the province, with 82.4% of Saskatchewanians speaking English as their first language.
Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples. Europeans first explored any part of the province in 1690 and first settled in the area in 1774. It became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast North-West Territories, which had until then included most of the Canadian Prairies. In the early 20th century, the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy, with the 1944 provincial election electing North America's first socialist government to office.
Saskatchewan's economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy. In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a historic land claim agreement with First Nations in Saskatchewan, granting these nations compensation which they could use to buy land on the open market for the bands. Presently, Saskatchewan is governed by the Saskatchewan Party, led by Premier Scott Moe, which has been in power since 2007.
Etymology
The name of the province, "Saskatchewan", is derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river is known as ᑭᓯᐢᑳᒋᐘᓂ ᓰᐱᐩ kisiskāciwani-sīpiy in the Cree language. Anthony Henday's spelling was Keiskatchewan, with the modern rendering, Saskatchewan, being officially adopted in 1882, when a portion of the present-day province was designated a provisional district of the North-West Territories.Geography
Saskatchewan is the only province without a natural border. As its borders follow geographic lines of longitude and latitude, the province is roughly a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However, the southern border on the 49th parallel and the northern border on the 60th parallel curve to the left as one proceeds east, as do all parallels in the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, the eastern boundary of the province follows range lines and correction lines of the Dominion Land Survey, laid out by surveyors before the Dominion Lands Act homestead program.Saskatchewan is bounded on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the north-east by Nunavut, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. 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. Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two land-locked provinces.
The overwhelming majority of Saskatchewan's population is in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel.
Saskatchewan contains two major natural regions: the boreal forest in the north and the prairies in the south. They are separated by an aspen parkland transition zone near the North Saskatchewan River on the western side of the province, and near to south of the Saskatchewan River on the eastern side. Northern Saskatchewan is mostly covered by forest except for the Lake Athabasca Sand Dunes, the largest active sand dunes in the world north of 58°, and adjacent to the southern shore of Lake Athabasca. Southern Saskatchewan contains another area with sand dunes known as the "Great Sand Hills", covering over. The Cypress Hills, in the southwestern corner of Saskatchewan and Killdeer Badlands, are areas of the province that were unglaciated during the last glaciation period, the Wisconsin glaciation.
The province's highest point, at, is in the Cypress Hills less than from the provincial boundary with Alberta. The lowest point is the shore of Lake Athabasca, at. The province has 14 major drainage basins made up of various rivers and watersheds draining into the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Climate
Saskatchewan receives more hours of sunshine than any other Canadian province. The province lies far from any significant body of water. This fact, combined with its northerly latitude, gives it a warm summer, corresponding to its humid continental climate in the central and most of the eastern parts of the province, as well as the Cypress Hills; drying off to a semi-arid steppe climate in the southwestern part of the province. Drought can affect agricultural areas during long periods with little or no precipitation at all. The northern parts of Saskatchewan – from about La Ronge northward – have a subarctic climate with a shorter summer season. Summers can get very hot, sometimes above during the day, and with humidity decreasing from northeast to southwest. Warm southern winds blow from the plains and intermontane regions of the Western United States during much of July and August, and very cool or hot but changeable air masses often occur during spring and in September. Winters are usually bitterly cold, with frequent Arctic air descending from the north, and with high temperatures not breaking for weeks at a time. Warm chinook winds often blow from the west, bringing periods of mild weather. Annual precipitation averages 30 to 45 centimetres across the province, with the bulk of rain falling in June, July, and August.Saskatchewan is one of the most tornado-active parts of Canada, averaging roughly 12 to 18 tornadoes per year, some violent. In 2012, 33 tornadoes were reported in the province. The Regina Cyclone took place in June 1912 when 28 people died in an F4 Fujita scale tornado. Severe and non-severe thunderstorm events occur in Saskatchewan, usually from early spring to late summer. Hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes are a common occurrence.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in Saskatchewan was in July 1937 when the temperature rose to in Midale and Yellow Grass. The coldest ever recorded in the province was in Prince Albert, north of Saskatoon, in February 1893.
| City | Average maximum in July | Average minimum in July | Average maximum in January | Average minimum in January |
| Maple Creek | ||||
| Estevan | ||||
| Weyburn | ||||
| Moose Jaw | ||||
| Regina | ||||
| Saskatoon | ||||
| Melville | ||||
| Swift Current | ||||
| Humboldt | ||||
| Melfort | ||||
| North Battleford | ||||
| Yorkton | ||||
| Lloydminster | ||||
| Prince Albert | ||||
| Uranium City |
Climate change
The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province. Evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan's boreal forests is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress, stemming from global warming, most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions. While studies as early as 1988 have shown climate change will affect agriculture, whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars, or crops, is less clear. Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature. The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions, "The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan", in June 2007.History
Saskatchewan has been populated by various indigenous peoples of North America, including members of the Sarcee, Niitsitapi, Atsina, Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, and Sioux.The first known European to enter Saskatchewan was Henry Kelsey from England in 1690, who travelled up the Saskatchewan River in hopes of trading fur with the region's indigenous peoples. Fort La Jonquière and Fort de la Corne were first established in 1751 and 1753 by early French explorers and traders. The first permanent European settlement was a Hudson's Bay Company post at Cumberland House, founded in 1774 by Samuel Hearne. The southern part of the province was part of Spanish Louisiana from 1762 until 1802.
19th century
In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase transferred from France to the United States part of what is now Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1818, the U.S. ceded the area to Britain. Most of what is now Saskatchewan was part of Rupert's Land and controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, which claimed rights to all watersheds flowing into Hudson Bay, including the Saskatchewan River, Churchill, Assiniboine, Souris, and Qu'Appelle River systems.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 1870, Canada acquired the Hudson's Bay Company's territories and formed the North-West Territories to administer the vast territory between British Columbia and Manitoba. The Crown 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. Since the late twentieth century, land losses and inequities as a result of those treaties have been subject to negotiation for settlement between the First Nations in Saskatchewan and the federal government, in collaboration with provincial governments.
In 1876, following their defeat of United States Army forces at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory in the United States, the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull led several thousand of his people to Wood Mountain. Survivors and descendants founded Wood Mountain Reserve in 1914.
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 United States border.
File:Battle of Batoche Print by Seargent Grundy.jpg|thumb|The 1885 Battle of Batoche was a battle during the North-West Rebellion. 1885 illustration by Sergeant Grundy
Many Métis people, who had not been signatories to a treaty, had moved to the Southbranch Settlement and Prince Albert 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 Canadian prairies by the new Canadian Pacific Railway. Riel, who surrendered and was convicted of treason in a packed Regina courtroom, was hanged on November 16, 1885. Since then, the government has recognized the Métis as an aboriginal people with status rights and provided them with various benefits.