Rama (2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Invermay No. 305 and Census Division No. 9. It is located 44 km west of Canora and 60 km east of Wadena at the intersection of Highway 5 and Highway 754.
Rama is on the banks of a tributary of Spirit Creek, which is a tributary of the Whitesand River. The Spirit Creek Dam and its reservoir are located just east of the Village.
History
Community name
The rail siding and passenger platform at what is now the village was named Rama in 1904 by Canadian Northern Railways. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool archives show the name was from the Rama area of Ontario. The municipal corporation has been named Rama since its inception in 1919, but the name was not declared official by other levels of government until years later, in 1956.
While other names such as Silver Hill (1907) were discussed for the village or school district they were ultimately passed over and for simplicity's sake the decision was made to keep with the name already given to the train platform and siding there.
Rama is assigned a UN/LOCODE of CA-RMA.
Doukhobors
Until 1899 a large area directly to the east of Rama, around the north end of Good Spirit Lake, was reserved for the Doukhobors; this reserve was called the Good Spirit Lake Annex. It was part of the South Colony. The people settled eight communal villages in this area of almost 170,000 acres.
Decisions of the Canadian government in early 1907 caused almost all of these communal farm villages to be deserted for individual homesteads by 1918. The families moved on to southern British Columbia or to individual farmsteads.
Homesteading and surveys
Rama incorporated as a village on December 18, 1919. The first British-Canadian surveys in the Assiniboia district were completed in this area for the British crown by around 1879, by 1890 the provisional government began to encourage European immigration to the area.
At about the same time the site for Rama was being surveyed a large wave of immigrant homesteaders were coming to the province from all over the world.
The settlers that arrived to homestead in the area of Rama were largely of Eastern European origin. Some of the first area families lived south of the town site. They were documented as the Landstad's, Murray's, Dean's, and Lockhart's all on or near the former Pelly Trail to the south of Rama. John Berge (and family) are listed as homesteaders in the area near the rail siding.
Timeline
Timeline of notable events in Rama
1690 - Henry Kelsey, a British explorer for the HBC, is guided by First Nations People on his journey deep into the Assiniboine River area. His mission was to meet with the area First Nations people in an effort to encourage them to bring furs east to be traded at York Factory (on the shores of Hudson Bay). Kelsey was the first British person to explore the plains of Canada and this area of Saskatchewan. 1800 to 1904 - European settlement of the area was still quite limited due to uncertainty and instability. Most of Assiniboia was made part of the US in 1812 and was transferred back in 1869. In 1870 the Riel Rebellion would effectively mean the area was under Metis control from 1870. While claimed by the British, Assiniboia would not fully become a part of Canada until after 1882. Because of this instability only a few cattle ranchers were bravely tending herds in the no-mans land area of the Whitesand River and Devil's Lake. Bison still roamed the plains.
1899 - The area immediately to the east of present-day Rama (Buchanan, Canora, Kamsack, Veregin area) is turned into the Doukhobor South Reserve and Devil's Lake Annex totalling almost 384,000 acres of land. The Doukhobors establish 38 villages in this area, most of which will be abandoned by the early 20th century. 1901 - Some of the first European settlers begin to arrive at the (then) end of the train line to the south in Sheho. It was then a sometimes weeks long oxen and cart ride north from Sheho across the Whitesand River and through the bush along the Pelly and other former cart and bison trails to Rama. 1903 - The first documented European settlement activity was in this year by Joseph E. Howes and R.D. Whitman. 1904 - The name Rama is selected by the CNR for this siding. The name Rama would not be declared official for the village until much later.