Southern Saskatchewan was once populated by great herds of bison (often called buffalo) and the indigenous nations who hunted them. By the 1800s these were mainly the Cree and Assiniboine nations. Wascana Creek, which gets its name from the Cree term for “bones” and was originally called Pile O' Bones Creek in English, was a favorite hunting area. The name came from the mounds of bones of slaughtered bison on the creek bank. According to the local story, the Cree built the mounds in the belief that the bison would not abandon the remains of their dead.
In 1882, as the country's first transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific, was being built across western Canada, the railway company laid out the site of a town near the Wascana Creek crossing. Almost immediately the Canadian government decided to move the headquarters of the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to this new settlement, which was named Regina in honor of Queen Victoria of Britain. Regina became the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1883, was incorporated as a city in 1903, and was made the capital of Saskatchewan when the province was created in 1905. The headquarters of the police force were moved in 1920 to Ottawa, the nation's capital, but the force's training facility remained in Regina.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Regina Information info
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