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A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF BRIDGES
IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
 
THE Saskatoon area has been inhabited for some 6,000 years; however, it was not until the summer of 1883 that the first settlers began to arrive and subsequently in 1903 that the town charter was obtained.  "Saskatoon" is derived from 'Mis-sask-quah-toomina', the Cree Indian name for a local indigenous berry.  

Geographically, the lower two-thirds of this province is rolling hills, patches of woods, large lakes, wheat and canola fields, prairie and grasslands, while the upper one-third is the Canadian Shield (nearly 100,000 lakes and barren wilderness criss-crossed by rivers).

 Map of Saskatchewan
THE earliest residents of southern Saskatchewan were members of the Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine and Plains Cree tribes.  They shared cultural similarities with semi-nomadic bison hunters inhabiting Montana and South Dakota in the U.S.  To the north, in the western subarctic region, dwelt the Slave and Chipewan peoples. Although caribou was the chief source of food for these nomads living on the edge of the tundra, musk ox, moose, arctic hare and fish also provided sustenance. Small communities, usually kin groups, lived in semi-permanent settlements of skin or bark houses mounted with poles (not unlike the teepee, but rounder). In the winter, they insulated their caribou-hide shelters with snow, or slept outside in sleeping bags made of animal skins and fur.
 
THE inhabitants of the region now known as Saskatoon, along the South Saskatchewan River, used an area just to the north of the current city as a winter camp. This site, called Wanuskewin, was and still is a sacred place to the native peoples, rumoured to be of great spiritual power.  The South Saskatchewan River
THE first European to see Saskatchewan was the English explorer Henry Kelsey, who arrived in the 1690s. The fur trade soon attracted others, especially as the Hudson Bay Company began to establish its dominion over great stretches of territory. Eventually permanent settlements began to spring up, as farmers and ranchers tried their luck on the unspoiled prairie, particularly following the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway. But it was a lawless time-the North West Mounted Police fought tirelessly to maintain peace in the region.

Official survey, 1883SASKATOON'S founders dreamed of creating a temperance colony in the great Northwest. John A. Macdonald's government, in a hurry to develop the country, was offering large locks of land to colonization companies. Many in Toronto's Methodist community saw this as a golden opportunity to escape the evils of the liquor traffic. They formed the Temperance Colonization Society in 1881 and signed up 3,100 would-be colonists for more than two million acres. By June 1882, Reverend John Lake, a Methodist minister turned entrepreneur, was looking for a colony site on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River near the old camp at Wanuskewin.
Hand drawn map of the town, 1885
ON the advice of the Moose Woods Indian Chief, White Cap, Reverend Lake chose a place called Minnetonka, where the river was narrow enough for a ferry to cross. In 1883 the first streets of Saskatoon were surveyed on the east bank of the river, just above Minnetonka. In spite of this hopeful start, Saskatoon grew slowly. The river was too shallow and too full of shifting sandbars for easy navigation. As well, fear of native hostility, caused by reports of the Northwest Rebellion in 1885, discouraged settlement.

The Nutana colony, 1910THERE were only two Kindred living in the area at this time; the first, an old Gangrel trapper called Henri LaRocque, had dwelled in the wilds of Saskatchewan for almost a century. The other was the mysterious Nosferatu Indian Shaman, Helaku. Helaku had also embraced one of the Methodist ministers, the Reverend Blackwell, some time around 1890. No other Kindred were interested in the small town until the early 1900's, when it had grown to approximately 20,000 people due to the merging of the Nutana temperance colony and the town of Saskatoon. By then, the community had proved that it was going to survive. The change from town to city status in 1906 increased Saskatoon's borrowing powers, and encouraged an outburst of civic spending. Sewer and water works made the building of permanent structures more attractive, and many of the buildings that have lasted into modern times date from just after these first improvements were made. Downtown Saskatoon, circa 1915

JONATHAN Wright, a Toreador from Ontario, was among the first Kindred to arrive, and is believed to be responsible for the negotiations that made Regina the capital city of the new Province of Saskatchewan and gave Saskatoon the University. Saskatoon became the principal city of central Saskatchewan because he, along with small group of pioneer businessmen (including the Ventrue, Nathan Cross), tirelessly lobbied to make sure the railways came to their town. By 1908 three railway bridges and a traffic bridge crossed the South Saskatchewan and Saskatoon was the hub of a considerable transportation network. Today five of the city's seven bridges are motor vehicle bridges and only two carry rail traffic. But Saskatoon remains the place where many trails cross.

Downtown Saskatoon, circa 1920KINDRED shaped the city in many ways, from the 19th Street subway project to the diversion of railways and highways (another nickname for Saskatoon is "the Hub City"). Because of Saskatoon's relative isolation, the Kindred who came to settle here tended to be either young opportunists, or simply locally embraced. By the early 1950's, there were still only 8 Kindred in the city. This relatively weak Kindred populace prompted the Sabbat to make their first (and so far only) incursion into Saskatoon, resulting in a great fire, the explosion of the Sewage Treatment Plant, and other civic damage. The Sabbat were destroyed or chased out of town by 1960, largely due to the efforts of the newly arrived Brujah clan and the Gangrel, Henri. Downtown Saskatoon, circa 1930

TODAY in the World of Darkness, Saskatoon has grown to a population of about 300,000 people. The primary industry continues to be agriculture, and many people find work on the increasing number of company-run farms that are quickly replacing the traditional family farm. The University of Saskatchewan, Prince Jonathan's pet project, is doing more and more private research to generate desperately needed funding, mainly in the fields of biotechnology and genetics. Saskatchewan grows half of the entire quantity of Canada's major export crops: wheat, oats, barley, rye, flaxseed and canola. Mining is also an important part of the economy; the Saskatoon region is the world's largest exporter of uranium, and nearly two-thirds of the world's recoverable potash reserves are located in the area as well. Saskatoon riverbank, present day
 
The downtown district is nestled along the wooded banks of the South Saskatchewan, ringed by warehouses and slums. The harsh winters mean that homeless people must find shelter of some sort, and "abandoned" buildings rarely are. High-density housing is the option for most people. Those who can afford it live in the suburbs, where developments spring up nearly overnight. The city's boundaries are abrupt; one walks from garbage-strewn streets onto barren, empty prairie in less than fifty meters. Saskatoon of today is an odd collage of old-style University buildings, high-tech communications and research centers, grain elevators, office towers, warehouse districts, woodlands, classy suburban developments and open prairie. There are many, many opportunities for the Kindred who dwell here to find a niche in which to skulk unseen. The dance of the predator and the prey carries on into the next century, as the city continues to thrive and grow, blissfully unaware.