The Plains and British Columbia Cultural and Economic Changes

The Canadian Plains Settlers who trickled into the Canadian Plains brought trade goods, such as pots, needles, and guns but they also brought European diseases such as measles. Europeans had immunity, or natural resistance to the diseases. But the indigenous peoples did not and as many as 75 percent of them died. New immigrants from northern and eastern Europe moved to the Plains region, bringing a variety of languages and cultures with them.

Maintaining Traditions About one quarter of Canada’s farmland is in the province of Saskatchewan. Most European immigrants became wheat farmers. Two thirds of Saskatchewan’s farmland is still devoted to wheat. For this reason the province is sometimes called “Canada’s Breadbasket.”

British Columbia Each group who lived in what is now called British Columbia spoke its own language and had its own customs and complex society. Along the coast, people caught fish, whales, and shellfish. They also carved giant totem poles, which were symbols for a group, a clan, or a family. In 1858, gold was discovered along the Fraser River. Within weeks, tens of thousands of people had arrived in the town of Victoria on Vancouver Island. When gold was discovered in the Cariboo Mountains, more miners came, and boomtowns sprang up. Boomtown is a settlement that quickly springs up to serve the needs of miners.

British Columbia Today Today, about two thirds of British Columbians live along the coast, west of the mountains. Many feel that their future lies with the Pacific Rim countries, those that border the Pacific Ocean. About 11 percent of people living in the region are of Asian descent. Trade is yet another link between British Columbia and the Pacific Rim. Forty percent of the provinces trade is with Asian countries. As a result, in many of the region’s schools, students learn Asian languages, including Japanese, Cantonese Chinese, or Mandarin Chinese. Some even learn Punjabi, a language of India and Pakistan.