When European explorers first entered southern Alberta in the 1700s, it was chiefly the domain of the indigenous Blackfoot confederacy. The Blackfoot lived by hunting bison (often called buffalo) and other large animals, as their ancestors had done for perhaps 10,000 years. The evidence of this plains region way of life survives at numerous archaeological sites, such as the nearby Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, now a World Heritage Site.
In 1873, alarmed by the activities of a few Americans who were trading whiskey and guns to the Blackfoot in exchange for bison robes, the Canadian government created the North-West Mounted Police—now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—to bring law and order to the plains. One of the police forts, built at the mouth of the Elbow River in 1875, was Fort Calgary. The fort's commander, Colonel James F. Macleod, named the fort after a place in Scotland.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Calgary Information info
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