in Right Edition Alberta
Alberta facts
ALBERTA
-Alberta is one of the three prairie provinces.
-It is the fourth largest province.
-Saskatchewan is east of Alberta; British Columbia is west.
-The Northwest Territories are north of Alberta.
-The state of Montana is south.
-Alberta was named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.
-Edmonton (capital city) and Calgary are the largest cities.
-Emblems: floral – Wild Rose, tree – Lodgepole Pine, bird – Great Horned Owl, mammal – Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
-motto – “strong and free”.
-Alberta is known as Canada’s “energy province”.
THE PEOPLE
-Alberta is home to over 3.7 million people.(July, 2010)
-The largest cities are Edmonton (capital) and Calgary.
-Two-thirds of Albertans live in these two cities.
-Immigrants came from Britain, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the East and Southeast Asia.
-Ethnic origins : British (44 percent), German, Ukrainian, French, Aboriginal, Scandinavian, Dutch, Polish, Chinese
and many other countries
-About one-half of the Aboriginal population resides in urban areas.
-They also live in over 100 First Nation communities and 8 Métis settlements.
HISTORY
-The first people settled in the area about 8000 years ago.
-In the woodland areas the Woodland Cree and Chipewyan tribes hunted moose, caribou and deer, fished
and gathered plants and berries.
-They used bark canoes to travel up and down the streams.
-On the plains the Blackfoot, Blood, and Peigan hunted the bison and lived in tipis.
-Anthony Henday ( European explorer and fur trader ) came to Alberta in 1754.
-Fur traders built trading posts on the Athabasca River and North Saskatchewan River.
-Forts were built to keep law and order.
-The First Nations traded furs and received guns, blankets and metal goods.
-In 1874 The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) established their first post in Alberta at Fort Macleod.
-Alberta grew when the railroad was built in 1883.
-Early settlers were ranchers from England and the United States.
-Immigrants came from Ukraine, Germany, Romania and many parts of Europe to farm.
-Alberta became a province on September 1, 1905.
http://www.aitc.sk.ca/saskschools/canada/facts/ab.html