Fransaskois

In the same census, 125,810 (about 11%) Saskatchewanians claimed full or partial French ancestry. There are several Fransaskois communities in Saskatchewan, although the majority of francophones in Saskatchewan reside in the province's three largest cities, Saskatoon, Regina, and Prince Albert. The first francophones to enter the region were French Canadian coureurs des bois employed in the North American fur trade during the 18th century. Francophone settlement into the region first occurred with French Canadian fur traders, along with Roman Catholic missionaries, and the Métis, during the mid 19th century. In 1885, a rebellion that included the French-speaking Métis broke out in the region. In the early 20th century, the provincial government attempted to assimilate the francophone minority into the anglophone majority by curtailing French language education in Saskatchewan. The enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 resulted in several decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada, that reaffirmed the educational, and judicial rights of the francophones in Saskatchewan. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, the number of people that reported French was their mother tongue in Saskatchewan was 17,735, or approximately 1.6 per cent of the population.