How did the Hudson’s Bay Company gain control of the land that included Saskatchewan?

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) gained control of the land that includes present-day Saskatchewan through a royal charter granted in England on May 2, 1670. This charter established the company and granted it rights to the vast territory known as Rupert’s Land, which was understood to extend from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains.1

While the boundaries of this grant were not clearly defined at the time, the region encompassing Saskatchewan fell within this territory. The HBC subsequently utilized this land for the fur trade, with explorers like Henry Kelsey surveying the plains on behalf of the company as early as 1691. The company maintained its influence over these western territories until 1869, when it surrendered its claims back to the British Crown under the Rupert’s Land Act, facilitating the transfer of the region to the newly formed Dominion of Canada in 1870.12