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The Société historique de la Saskatchewan is the oldest provincial service association of its kind. It was in the fall of 1977 that the idea was launched to create a Fransaskois historical society, with the following goals:

One month later, at the ACFC Biennial Congress in Saskatoon on November 10, 11 and 12, 1977, the Société historique de la Saskatchewan was formally established. "A large and interested audience took part in the launch, and so far more than 50 memberships have been collected." A provisional committee was set up to incorporate the Society, composed of René Rottiers, André Lalonde, Lucille Tessier and Laurier Gareau, all from Regina, Gilles Leray from Prud'homme and Henri Poulin from Zénon Park.

The meeting at which the Société historique de la Saskatchewan was formally incorporated took place on March 4, 1978, at the Centre for Bilingual Studies at the University of Regina. André Lalonde became its first president. From its founding, the Society recognized the need to work closely with the Saskatchewan Archives — a seat was created on the Board of Directors for the Archives representative.

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The first major project undertaken by the Société historique de la Saskatchewan began in January 1980. Thanks to a grant of $8,400 from the Secretary of State, the Society was able to collect historical documents relating to Francophones in the province.

All the documents collected were then sent to the Saskatchewan Archives, which reproduced the documents entrusted to them and returned them to their owners. This collection forms the foundation of the Société historique de la Saskatchewan's archival holdings. Since then, the Society has continued to encourage the repatriation of Francophone heritage — each year, the Saskatchewan Archives receive box after box of documents relating to the history of Francophones in the province.

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As early as 1980, the leaders of the Société historique de la Saskatchewan began to dream of writing a history of Francophones in Saskatchewan. In 1981, the project was entrusted to Lucille Tessier, who called upon Richard Lapointe to assist with the research.

In February 1986, Richard Lapointe and Lucille Tessier proudly attended the launch of Histoire des Franco-Canadiens de la Saskatchewan, the Society's first major publication — a 336-page volume, richly illustrated.

Meanwhile, other projects were underway: Les Fransaskois (1983), Perspectives sur la Saskatchewan française (1983), La Saskatchewan de A à Z (1987), 100 Noms (1988), Le Défi de la radio française en Saskatchewan (1990), Saskatlas and La Voix du peuple (1990). Ideas were never in short supply at the Société historique de la Saskatchewan.

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Despite the Society's many activities, the organization began to face difficult times from 1986 onward. President Albert Dubé turned to the media to encourage Fransaskois to become members:

To address this situation, the Society decided to amend its bylaws and open its doors to genealogy researchers. In the spring of 1990, the new bylaws were adopted and a Board of Directors was elected with Lucille Tessier as president.

The Society became an associate member of the Commission culturelle fransaskoise and the Association culturelle franco-canadienne de la Saskatchewan. In the fall of 1990, it launched its new history magazine, the Revue historique, published four times a year ever since.

In 1991, the Society began organizing annual colloquia. The first attracted more than 30 people; the second, organized jointly with the Commission culturelle fransaskoise in April 1992, drew more than 50. In 1994, the Society moved into the offices of the Commission culturelle fransaskoise. Laurier Gareau served as president in 1991, succeeded in 1993 by Éric Poliquin.

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