THE PRAIRIE PIONEERS
The Canadian Prairies were peopled in six great waves of migration, spanning from prehistory to the present. The migration from Asia, about 13,300 years ago, produced an Indigenous population of 20,000 to 50,000 by about 1640. Between 1640 and 1840, several thousand European and Canadian fur traders arrived, followed by several hundred British immigrants. They created dozens of small outposts and a settlement in the Red River Colony, where the Métis became the largest part of the population. The third wave, from the 1840s to the 1890s, consisted mainly but not solely of Canadians of British heritage, like my Grandma’s maternal Grandparents who migrated in this period. The fourth and by far the largest wave from 1897 to 1929 was drawn from many nations, mostly European; this is the period in which my Grandma’s paternal family decided to migrate.
As each new area of Canada was opened to European settlement, pioneers faced the difficult task of building homes and communities from the ground up. Pioneer life revolved around providing the basic necessities of food, shelter, fuel and clothing. Pioneering life was integral to family life and provided social stability for the settlement of a larger population across the country. Earlier life in the prairies was not easy and consisted mostly of strenuous farming labour – this is mostly what my Grandma’s family would have experienced before moving back to Britain.
If you would like to learn more about the Prairie Pioneers -
References:
Friesen, G., 2019. History of Settlement in the Canadian Prairies. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prairie-west
[Accessed 20 April 2020].