One Story Among Thousands
It is a familiar story. Near the turn of the century, Nicholas Kitzan came to Canada from Bukovyna, now part of Ukraine, to make enough money to bring his family to the New World. In 1911, his wife Nettie and their children followed. Together, they settled a homestead in Saskatchewan that was near friends and family and in a setting that reminded them of home. Eking out a living, however, was never easy. They arrived with little money, few possessions and no ability to speak English. The land they chose was marginal, and the Canadian environment unpredictable. Despite these challenges they persevered.

Nicholas and Nettie were my great grandparents. But they were just two out of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, Britain, and America who arrived in the Canadian West between 1896 and 1914. In isolation, their individual stories may be of interest only to their ancestors. Collectively, however, these stories form the framework for the history of Western Canadian settlement.

Together these men and women from different countries and cultures played an important role in developing the Prairie West and its unique identity. In so doing, they also contributed to the development of the country as a whole.

The Twentieth Century Shall Belong to Canada
In the early 1900s, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier boldly predicted that "as the nineteenth century was the century of the United States, so shall the twentieth century belong to Canada." The main reason for his optimism was increased immigration into the Prairie West. During Laurier's term as Prime Minister (1896-1911), hundreds of thousands of immigrants chose the West as their destination. This influx had long been awaited.

The West and Confederation
At the time of Confederation in 1867 the Prairie West — current day Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta — was not part of the new Canadian union. The Hudson's Bay Company held title to the land. This vast territory, however, was attractive to Canadians, including Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, for a number of reasons.

Macdonald believed that adding the Prairie West to Confederation would keep Canada's powerful neighbour, the United States, from moving into the territory and claiming it as its own. The addition would also allow Canadians to continue pursuing their dream of creating a nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Most importantly, it would give Canada an opportunity to fill the land with settlers who would develop the region and strengthen the country's economy. These settlers would, it was hoped, help make Canada a world leader in agricultural production. They would also contribute to the development of Canadian business by buying goods manufactured by Eastern Canadian companies.

With these objectives in mind, Canada purchased the land in 1869, and, in 1870, Manitoba and the North West Territories (current day Saskatchewan and Alberta) were officially added to Confederation. The search to find people to fill the vast territory began in earnest.

Prior to 1870, the population in the Prairie West was small. There were very few farms, and most of the cultivated produce was used almost strictly for the purposes of self-sufficiency or to provide for local markets. Despite the large tracts of available land, the Canadian government could not immediately open it all up to new settlers. First, it had to recognize the land rights of the region's Aboriginal inhabitants. Compensation for the land was negotiated through a number of Indian Treaties signed between 1871 and 1877.