Palliser expedition

One of the early visionaries of western Canada was Arthur Dobbs, who saw the possibilities of agricultural potential and fertile soil in the mid-18th century.[6] Even with little information or supporting evidence of the land's potential, visions of the west were influential in portraying Canada as an untouched and unsettled wilderness full of opportunity.[6] In the 1850s, the image of the west was influenced more by the British government.[6]

Thomas Devine created the first map of Canada's West in 1857,[7] which showed western Canada and the Hudson's Bay territories.[5] The map described the land and its potential rather than focusing on the physical features of the landscape, and reflected the expansionist views of the west at the time.[5] Expeditions such as Palliser's and Henry Youle Hinds’ were results of the expansionist campaign.[5] With the increasing expeditions out west, exploring the North West became more popular specifically by young British men interested in experiencing the wilderness before being taken over by settlers.[5]

Palliser, Hector, Bourgeau, and Sullivan sailed for New York on 16 May 1857.

In May 1857, Palliser and the group of men began the expedition.[2] They sailed from Sault Ste Marie by steamship across Lake Superior and Lake Huron.[2] They continued by canoes and by June 12 they had almost reached Isle Royale and continued through Thunder Bay, across the Kaministikwia River and into Fort William, the starting point of the routes they had set out to explore; the first stretch of land was between Lake Superior and Red River.[2] The expedition continued with horses and carts, with supplies provided by the Hudson's Bay Company.[8] At Red River Palliser employed a number of Metis guides to assist on the trip west. These Metis were: John Ferguson, Henry Hallett, Pierre Beauchamp, Samuel Ballendine, George Daniel, Peter Erasmus, Pierre Falcon Jr., Amable Hogue, Donald Matheson, Antoine Morin, John Foulds, John Morrison, Charles Racette, John Ross, John Simpson, Thomas Sinclair, Robert Sinclair, George Taylor, and Joseph Vermette. These guides also acted as interpreters, scouts and armed escorts.[9]

In June 1857, the party explored White Fish River to determine the river connections and potential usage of the water-ways along with the help of three local Ojibwas.[2] They travelled from Thunder Bay up the Kaministikwia River, climbed Mountain Portage, stopped at the Priest's Portage and crossed nine other portages.[2]

They continued via the Red River and across the prairies. They met Charles W. Iddings, an American surveyor, along the United States border. The expedition continued through Turtle Mountain, Fort Ellice, Roche Percée, along the South Saskatchewan River to Fort Carlton, then along the North Saskatchewan River, where they spent the winter of 1857/1858.

In the spring they marched west, and searched for mountain crossings west of modern-day Irricana. Palliser and Sullivan mapped the North Kananaskis Pass and North Kootenay Pass before returning to Fort Edmonton for the winter. Hector crossed the Vermilion Pass and discovered the Kicking Horse Pass. During the winter, Palliser, Captain Arthur Brisco and William Roland Mitchell went south to Rocky Mountain House to meet the Blackfoot and Northern Peigan First Nations.

In 1859, the expedition mapped the confluence of the Red Deer River and South Saskatchewan River, as well as the Cypress Hills, before turning again west. Hector crossed the Rockies through the Howse Pass, and tried unsuccessfully to push through to the Pacific Coast. Palliser and Sullivan crossed the mountains through the North Kootenay Pass and continued down the Kootenay River to Fort Colvile, which by then was on American soil as a result of the Oregon Treaty of 1846 and placement of the boundary at the 49th Parallel.

Sullivan explored the Columbia River and its tributaries as far west as the Okanogan Valley, while Palliser crossed over land to Midway, BC. Unable to find passes to the Pacific north of the 49th Parallel, they reunited with Hector in Fort Colville. From there, they traveled 598 miles downstream on the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver and the Pacific Coast, then north to Fort Victoria. The expedition returned to the East Coast by ship through San Francisco and Panama (where they had to go overland to reach a ship to travel in the Atlantic), then to Montreal. From there, they finally sailed back to Liverpool.

Two of the main areas that were discovered on the expedition were the stretch of land which is known now as the fertile belt for the prosperous soil between Red River and the Saskatchewan River Valley and the Rockies.[6] The second expanse of land is through the prairies and extends across the American border, and has become known as Palliser's triangle.[6] They reported to the government that this region was too arid for subsistence agriculture, a finding that was overruled by later officials. That was much to the detriment of those who tried to farm there, particularly when homesteading was encouraged by government grants of land[2] From surveying the land, large amounts of fertile land were found which contributed to the change from an economy built around fur-trading to agriculture.[6] The knowledge and plans for western Canada became more clear after Palliser and Hind's expeditions, with the detailed records and observations they were able to create a more accurate representation and understanding of the west.[5] After three years of publishing details of the expedition, Palliser presented his report to the British Parliament in 1863. A comprehensive map of the surveyed areas was published in 1865.[11][5] They concluded that transport through American territory was more feasible. While they found several passes suitable for crossing the Rocky Mountains, they were prevented from proceeding to the Pacific by mountains further west. From this better understanding and supported evidence of promising land and opportunities, work on expanding the west, settlement and connecting the rest of Canada to the west through additions to transportation.[6] One of the passes that that party explored on their expedition was later used for transportation purposes, as the Canadian Pacific Railway had been built through part of it.[12] The opportunities that the land provided became a priority.[5] In connecting the west with the rest of Canada, by 1870 agriculture was becoming the main focus and resource in the western prairies, though trading fur continued to be part of the economy.[13] Palliser and Hind's expeditions and the research they conducted and the information that they contributed led to the western prairies being divided into regions based on the geography, climate, soil and agricultural potential.[5]

The transition in the economic sectors from fur trading to agricultural created more development in western Canada, with a growing population of European settlers.[13] The large presence of European settlers in the west made them a large economic power and created conflict with Indigenous communities in the region.[13] The changes in the economy as a result of this expansion were very rapid and had effected the Metis and Indigenous people as they experienced a shift in their economic, political and cultural control over their communities.[13] Within the 1870s, the foundation of the economy in western Canada was broken down with the isolation and separation from the rest of Canada, and systems of power among Indigenous communities.[13] The disappearance of the buffalo led to the Indigenous communities becoming more reliant on European settlers and the government as they lost their main resource of economic dependency and began selling their land and moving on to reserves.[13]