Palliser's Triangle (French: Triangle de Palliser), or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Canadian Prairies, namely southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be unsuitable for crops outside of the fertile belt due to arid conditions and dry climate, expansionists questioned this assessment, leading to homesteading in the Triangle. Agriculture in the region has since suffered from frequent droughts and other such hindrances. The region is named after the Irish/Canadian explorer John Palliser, who described it circa 1880.
History Before Western European interests and settlement expanded to the region, Palliser's Triangle was inhabited by a variety of Indigenous peoples, such as the nêhiyawak ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐘᐠ (Plains Cree), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux), and the Niitsítapi (Blackfoot Confederacy). Their lifestyle was centred around the buffalo hunt, as the bountiful herds of buffalo made this a sustainable and effective means of feeding themselves, the meat of which was used to make pemmican. By the mid-1850s, however, the hunt had become an economic venture, their hides and meat sold by Métis and First Nations hunters to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), and the increased demand led to a decline in herds. In the middle of the 19th century, a large variety of factors contributed to an increase in Canadian expansionism, and eyes fell upon what would become western Canada for this purpose given that the cold and uncultivatable Canadian Shield was found in the north whereas the expanding United States controlled the south. This American expansionism also drove Canadian expansionism due to the fear that the United States would look north and lay claim to the land before they could. With this said, it became apparent that no sources existed that had a full and reliable assessment of the land. While the HBC had a working knowledge of the land inasmuch as it was useful to their end and business interests, it was insufficient to the needs of the Canadian government. In addition, the HBC was hesitant to share information about the land they controlled for the sake of protecting their monopoly in the region. Even the Royal Geographical Society was uninformed about the North West. All the above drove the United Kingdom and the Dominion of Canada to organize the Palliser and Hind expeditions, respectively, especially since the 1840s discovery that latitude alone did not determine climate, which in turn suggested that good farmland may exist in the region. The area was named after John Palliser, the leader of the aforementioned British Palliser expedition into Western Canada from 1857 to 1859. The expedition had the objective of spending two or three seasons:
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
