I never fully agreed with the choice of capitol for the Algonkian-Manitou Council (Saskatoon). Mainly because there are many other locations that would be better as a capitol instead. Here is my list of candidates that should have been chosen instead:

• Regina: Regina is the only provincial capitol in the Council lands and has a beautiful Provincial building (that would rival even the White House in grandeur). It has also been a capitol city since the late 1800's (when it was going to be selected as the capitol of the North West Territories before the creation of Saskatchewan in 1905).
• Grand Rapids: The centre for the Treaty 5 Area (largest portion of the AM Council).
• Prince Albert: The centre for the Treaty 6 Area (second largest portion of the AM Council and located closest to the largest First Nation populations in Western Canada).
• Thunder Bay: The administrative centre for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation which covers most of northern Ontario and about 1/3 of the AM Council.
• Fort Qu'Appelle: The centre for the Treaty 4 Area (smallest portion of the AM Council).

I think you just put more thought and research into it than the authors likely did when they created it.

I seem to recall that there is a sort of civil war in the AM. I could be wrong (just getting back in after 1 year hiatus). Saskatoon could be a good middle ground compromise. Regina would NOT be a good choice since it represents the Anglo oppression they endured for so long.

Just my thoughts.

It should be in Saskatoon. Because Saskatoon is more fun to say, dammit.

(I'd personally suggest Regina, too, just for the size.)

If you extrapolate the population shifts and growths we are seeing now in 2009 a lot of the population is going to be situated further up north. They're finding plenty of oil sands and uranium mines in Saskatchewan -- its not just Alberta/NE BC anymore.

Plus if Regina is on the table shouldn't Winnipeg be there too? (seems like the Red River should be there if Thunder Bay is)

Don't get me wrong I love Regina (my dad used to live there) but again it really represents the Anglo repression.

Sorry, I don't have my reference material here with me. What is the city in question?

Are we sure it doesn't have religious or cultural context? The government in question was spawned from a non standard revolution.

Also, remember there are stated capitals and real capitals of industry.

BlueMax

Winnipeg is in the UCAS but otherwise I would have included that in the list as well. Besides the urban res in Saskatoon, there is nothing in the way of administrative buildings in the city. It is the largest city in Saskatchewan but most of the administrative buildings are in Regina (I think that is part of the rivalry between the two cities, Saskatoon thinks that they are better because they are larger and have better facilities for concerts, franchises, etc. While Regina has all the administrative buildings so they assume that they are the best by default).

Going over my list above I actually think that Prince Albert would have been the best location due to a couple of things, first its location is perfect in that it is near most of the largest reservations in Saskatchewan (IIRC it also has the highest population per capita of First Nations people as well). It is one multiple major roads that link most of the major sites in the AM Council and it is a resource rich centre (Diamonds, oil, potash, and Uranium). A close second would be Grand Rapids.

I also thought it was funny that Regina was part of the AM Council but White City and Emerald Park are part of the UCAS. I would have thought that the UCAS would have tried to claim Regina due to its administrative facilities (plus it being the capitol of Saskatchewan which apparently is still a province, and another argument for having Regina the capitol of the AM council). The only road going into and out of White City is the number 1 which runs straight to Regina on the one side and Indian Head on the other side (also in the AM Council. You would thing that when they made the boarder they would have used the number 1 as the line (north side being the AM Council, south side being UCAS).

The city in question is Saskatoon
Regina has all the cathedrals in Saskatchewan (actually I think Calgary has more religious centres then both Regina and Saskatoon), Culturally Prince Albert has more important First Nation and Meti historical sites then Saskatoon.
Regina is both the stated capital and industrial capital of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon is the commercial capital of Saskatchewan and the largest city.

These resources mean nothing to the NAN.

In case anyone is curious, this is what the Regina Parliament Building looks like. (no that's not me in the picture)

I feel like I just got Rick Rolled.

BlueMax

Oops.. link fixed.

Not fixed for me.I am forbidden from it.

As am I.

BlueMax
/multi rolled?

Huh, interesting.

Ah! I found a nice high resolution picture here.

Of interest, I should also point out that the building sits on the edge of a man-made lake. A creek feeds into the lake which is spanned by a four-lane bridge with pedestrian walkways on either side (it's in the Guiness Book of Records as the largest bridge over the smallest body of water). Both the bridge and the lake were depression-era make-work projects.

Some, may consider this off topic but I would mod it "Educational".
All of that work is beautiful.

For my locality, the work projects were to make wonderful camps and hiking trails. They don't look like much but they made a great deal of wilderness accessible.

BlueMax

Well I can say one thing for Regina in 2070, they have one kick @$$ Town Hall now.

In a similar vein you could easily have asked why Victoria wasn't picked as the capital of the SSC. It is the administrative capital of most of the region already (BC) and contains a very impressive inner harbor full of all sorts of wonderful Victorian-style buildings (such as the Legislature, the Empress Hotel, and the Royal BC Museum). Instead we get Bellingam which is no where near as beautiful nor as prepared for being a seat of government (I think that it may be the county seat for Whatcom County but I'm likely mistaken). I think that it is safe to say that in terms of the "lesser" NANs the original authors didn't really put too much thought into it and now we're stuck with what they've made. (major being Aztlan, Tir, Sioux, Pueblo)

Easiest way to explain that away is to simply say since we don't know when Bellingham became the capital they used Victoria as an interim one whilst they expanded and remodelled Bellingham more to their liking, as for why they moved at all simply hand wave it away as they thought Vivtoria was too tied to the old Anglo system rather than a new capital that they built to be more culturally acceptable. Or it could just be that as you said the original writers didn't do much research when making the decisions.

Could also be that in the 80 years of timeline differential, the development of magic/tech and 25%+ of the population being killed off by VITAS every few years that large scale demographic changes occured. Hell, entire swaths of land could have been made completely uninhabitable by more than a few natural disastors (Look at Canon Scotland as an example, huge parts of the lowlands have been contaminated by the North Sea throwing up all over them and a few Meltdowns)

I totally agree with you that Victoria should be the capital of the SSC and I also think Edmonton should be the Capitol of the Athabaskan Council (though I can see Anchorage as well). I think the problem was the when FASA and then WizKids created the NAN they didn't do their research into where the best locations would be and as a result American cities or the largest city was choosen over the more logical city.

FYI
Regina's Parliament Building
There are no major administration buildings in Saskatoon, but here is their town hall.
Prince Albert's Treaty Administration Building

Victoria's Parliament Building
Bellingham Federal Building

Edmonton's Parliament Building
Anchorage's Federal Building

To me it seems like a no brainier, I know where I would like my capitol

All of the capital cities were decided _well_ before FASA closed and WizKids bought SR.

My guess is a lot of the places you named,whilemaking more sense, were too white. I mean you just won you're independance and you're capital is "Regina" named after the soverign of the old conqeror?

When did NAN vol 1 and 2 come out? Something like 89 (release year) or 90?

Pretty funny since it all seems like the old European way of dividing up the world. In this case, some dude in Chicago had to divide North America up into pieces and just arbitrarily drew lines and picked some random city in the middle of each "patch." Sort of like how the Middle East was created.

And Africa. I suppose it is too late now to do Retcon.

Ok strange trivia tidbit for the people that are into that stuff: Insanity's names in the link are mostly incorrect. The buildings in Regina and Edmonton should be called Legislative buildings, as that is the correct name for a building that houses a Provincial-level government. The Parliament building houses the Federal government in Ottawa. The one exception to this is the building in Victoria which houses the Provincial government for BC, but they insist on calling it a "Parliament" building. *shakes head*

That's just because we want you Easterner's to fuck off and leave us alone ;-P

Part of that is because Victoria and British Columbia existed as British colonies before they joined Canada, whereas Alberta and Saskatchewan were part of the NWT until legislated into Provinces in 1905.

I'd also like to point out that our parliament lights up at night. Victoria Parliament at Night

Names aside, I was pointing out that Anglophobia is not enough of an excuse to have an impressive structure that is already designed to accommodate the running of a large area (ie a Province or Nation) for something new or a less adequate building.

Now that I think about it there is also the worlds largest Tiepie in Medicine Hat (another much better candidate).

Yeah, no denying that its a beautiful building. It's a beautiful city in general... just really expensive to live there. Man.

Lol...welcome to the West Coast.

I've been looking deeper at the SSC and potential capitols for it and Bellingham makes even less sense now. If the SSC choose Bellingham over Victoria because it was closer to Seatle then why didn't thy choose Olympia (the current capitol of Washington state and from what I can tell, part of the SSC)? Victoria would have been the best location for a capitol (maybe Vancouver) due to it being more central to the nation as a whole. I think I'm going to go back through my NAN books to see if there are any clues in them about why certain places were chosen.

I can't think of any good reasons for Bellingham off the top of my head. Again, I wouldn't agree with Victoria because of the whole Anglo thing. There's also the problem that it is not on the mainland and (I could be mistaken) the bands living there aren't quite as war-like and pushy as some of the mainland Salish (hopefully I don't offend anyone here).

Vancouver again no because of the Anglo thing and also because we have a much lower density and absolute population of First Nations than other areas such as Esquimalt (right next to Victoria) and Merritt (close to Kelowna).

But if you look at Bellingham it is deserted (no offense to someone that actually lives there). It is in one of the least populated counties in Washington state and the city isn't that large or has very many historical locations either. Olympia would have been better.

Yeah, other than the fact that there are like 3 reservations (I think) right near Bellingham there isn't much there. A lot of its business has to do with Canadians driving down there to buy cheap gas and retail goods.

I've gone through NAN Vol 1 and it states that Bellingham was chosen at the formation of the SS because it was the only active port not currently being rebuilt after the Great Ghost Dance. The structure of the SS means each tribe technically runs their own section of the SS and the tribal leaders meet at least once a month at Friendship Lodge in Bellingham to hash out inter tribe issues. Lately though meetings have been moved to Council Island (Across the pond from Seatle) and that has become the defacto capitol of the SS. Bellingham is pretty much a ghost town and a laughing stalk compared to other nation capitols.

I seem to recall something happening to Council Island but my search-fu is failing me. Can someone help me out.

Council Island is back to being Mercer Island and is now full of embassies I do believe.

I often forget that SSC is a loose confederation. Metaplot hardly ever explores that angle except for the obligatory "Everyone is upset with the smuggling conducted by the Cascade Orks" that makes it into every book.

No, nothing happened to Council Island. It's still pretty much the same as it was.

Then I would argue that it is the defacto capitol of the SSC and not Bellingham. Bellingham is the capitol in name only.

So does my local McDonalds!

I would have to check for actual numbers (since Dumpshock loves its facts), but gut instinct goes with that being iffy. It is a pretty empty county, but it is still on the water, where most of Washington's major population centers are. With areas like the Olympic Penninsula, southern Washington, the farms of eastern Washington... actually the state is fairly desolate, once you get away from the Puget Sound area.

Old map, but it was the first easy one to find: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/popden/colormap.asp

But since we're talking about wierdnesses: Mercer Island. I've never read an explanation of what actually happened, except that it was evacuated because of the eruptions. But Mercer Island would be one of the safest places in case of an eruption, so that line has never made sense to me. It's away from all the volcanoes, and it's an island, smack dab between Bellevue and downtown Seattle. If it took alot of damage, then all of Seattle would have.

(But I do love that it's full of embassies now.)

From what I've read about the SSC (NAN Vol 1, and SoNA), a lot of those embassies are for each of the tribes. The UCAS finds it easier to deal with each tribe separately then all at once. The only time they come together is in cases of National security (like their war with Tsimshian).

To argue a city's worth as a capitol merely because it has a great building and was historically capitol of the province is to ignore two facts:

- new buildings can always be erected; and
- history is sometimes a reminder of exactly what people want to put behind them.

The anglo-centricity of Regina has already been pointed out, as has the fact it was named for a colonial operessor. Why would a newly minted government representing Amerindian interests want to saddle itself with such negative history when they can pick somewhere neutral and just build a new set of administrative buildings? The same goes with the Cathedrals; Cathedrals are representitive of a forced religion, not exactly something in line with the new regime's image.

I would also argue (till I'm blue in the face) that Saskatoon is just as anglo-centric as Regina and that places like Prince Albert, Grand Rapids, Medicine Hat, and Fort Qu'Appelle have stronger connections to the First Nations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba then Saskatoon will ever have. In fact there are all ready First Nation administrative buildings in most of those communities that are strong symbols of pride for the First Nation People (the Governance Building in Fort Qu'Appelle is a prime example).

I'd think that a place like Batoche would make an amazing symbol for the AM.

It is a tiny town in Saskatchewan where Louis Riel made his last stand against the NWMP (aka RCMP). You can still go there today and they still have the church where he was gunned down and see the bulletholes. Louis Riel was a metis from the Red River settlement who'd already unsuccessfully led a rebellion against the government for native and metis land rights. His second attempt had several battles (Battleford, Duck Creek just to name a couple I remember) and the NWMP actually had to deploy new fangled gattling guns to put down the bands that joined him.

Batoche is a stone throw away from Prince Albert.

Except he wasn't gunned down, he surrendered, stood trial, and was hung?

And the Saskatchewan Rebellion was more about the Meti then the First Nations.

Whoa...shows what fuzzy memories of Grade 10 can do for historical accuracy.

You guys are of course correct. Metis rebellion was underway before the Cree decided to kick some butt and was therefore unrelated. Riel did surrender.

<Cheops retreats in shame>

Don't feel bad. I live in Saskatchewan and I would feel embarrassed if I didn't know this stuff. Just like I would expect you to know more about BC history.

No prob. The real reason I know Riel's fate is that every year a group puts on the play The Trial of Louis Riel somewhere in Regina. Plus my high school was right where the old RCMP barracks used to be, so there were rumours around the school that he was actually hung somewhere on the campus. I don't think any of it was true...