Samson Cree First Nation plans for name change

First Nations on reserves south of Edmonton say provincial and county governments will soon recognize a new name for their community.

A news release from the Samson Cree First Nation says Hobbema will become "Maskwacis" on January 1st.

The First Nation says Maskwacis was what the areas was traditionally known as, and it means "bear hills."

It says the area wasn't called Hobbema until 1891, when the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway named a flag station after a Dutch landscape painter.