research. The two trading posts returned to Rossdale in the winter of 1812‐1813, with what are known as Edmonton House IV and Fort Augustus IV. [Nancy Saxberg, Claire Bourges, Scott Haddow, and Brian Reeves, “Fort Edmonton Burial Ground: An Archaeological and Historical Study,” Report prepared for EPCOR by Lifeways of Canada Limited, Calgary, 2003] The site of Edmonton was established as one of the principal fur trade settlements in the district after 1813. James Bird, in charge of Edmonton House IV in 1815, wrote in his “Edmonton Report, 1815,” that “all … methods for improving the trade that could be suggested have already been tried, outposts have been made in all favourable situations, and even the principal Settlements abandoned and new ones built….” With the transfer of Rupert's Land from the HBC to Canada in 1870, the HBC took formal ownership of an important land “reserve” at the emerging Edmonton Settlement. The HBC would continue to administer this land. In addition to these reserves, the HBC also received one‐twentieth of the land in the fertile belt, which includes Edmonton. This represented about two sections for every township in the Northwest Territories. The Crown administered the remaining land. The Hudson’s Bay Reserve (HBR) at Edmonton, which included the site of Fort Edmonton, amounted to 3,000 acres north of the Saskatchewan River. All of Rossdale was included in the HBR. Indian Commissioner Wemyss M. Simpson reported in 1871: “In the neighourhood of Fort Edmonton…there is a rapidly increasing population of miners and other white
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