Professor Sarah Carter
The “American Invasion”: U.S. Settlers and Landowners on the Canadian Prairies, Desired and Denounced
February 5, 2026
6:30 p.m. | Cash bar and snacks
7 p.m. | Lecture begins
AH100
Sarah Carter
Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair Emerita
Department of History, Classics and Religion
and Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta
Americans acquired vast tracts of land on the Canadian prairies as homesteaders and land buyers from the late 1890s to World War I. This “American Invasion,” the term widely used at the time, was controversial. There were keen supporters who welcomed and encouraged certain Americans but there were also severe critics who feared that the Americanization of the prairies could lead to annexation. This talk presents and analyzes these debates, drawing on Carter’s new SSHRC funded project “Who Owns the Prairies?: A History of the Land From 1871”
