Home | The Black Settlements of Western Canada | Black Rural Communities in Saskatchewan and Alberta
The text on this page is an excerpt from The Settlement of Oklahoma Blacks in Western Canada,a report prepared by Michael B. Payne, PhD and commissioned by Parks Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage.Dr. Payne is currently Chief Archivist, City of Edmonton Archives.
Black Rural Communities in Saskatchewan and Alberta
Although some Blacks who migrated to Canada from Oklahoma apparently decided to settle in cities or as individuals in rural areas, the great majority chose initially to homestead in a handful of rural communities. In Saskatchewan the largest of these communities was located north of Maidstone in the area of Big Gully Creek and the North Saskatchewan River. This settlement was centred on what came to be called the Eldon district. Colin Thomson and Robin Winks also mention a smaller settlement in the Wilkie area.1 In Alberta, four rural communities were established in a semi-circle roughly 100 to 150 kilometres from Edmonton. The communities were Keystone (now known as Breton) south west of Edmonton, Junkins (now known as Wildwood) west of Edmonton, Campsie near Barrhead north west of Edmonton, and Amber Valley/Pine Creek near Athabasca north of Edmonton.
The Saskatchewan settlement north of Maidstone at Eldon was located within the fertile Parkland region, but in 1910–11 it was relatively remote. It was located some distance north of the main Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern Railway lines that connected Saskatoon with Edmonton. The Alberta communities were all located in “isolated, bush-covered areas where farm land was marginal.”2 To some extent this choice of land was inevitable since fertile farmland near railways had been taken up in most areas long before 1908. Nevertheless historians have speculated over the reasons why these areas were chosen. The Palmers suggest that immigration officials may have directed Blacks to these areas because “of the apprehensions that their arrival had aroused among whites.” Bruce Shepard suggests that this may also have been a conscious choice of the Black settlers themselves designed to “minimize contact with whites.” Shepard also notes that in Oklahoma many Blacks had experience with establishing all Black or largely Black settlements and that they may have wanted to repeat this pattern in Canada.3
Despite being remote, all the chosen areas for settlement offered some advantages. They had good supplies of water and grass for livestock and wood for building and heating. With few other previous homestead claims in the areas, Blacks could also select land in close proximity to one another and thus create a group settlement.
Settlements in these areas presented serious problems though. None of the settlements were easy to reach meaning that trips out for supplies or to sell produce could take days. In addition, the settlers’ previous farming experience in Oklahoma was hard to transpose to their new homes. Some had had limited experience growing grain crops, but most were familiar with growing corn and cotton in Oklahoma and other southern states, neither of which would grow in north central Alberta or Saskatchewan.4 The isolated location and marginal agricultural nature of much of this land suited the Black settlers in some respects, but this also had profound effect on the development of these communities.
The Alberta settlements in particular offered little scope for farmers to expand their operations and isolated communities presented few opportunities for anyone not interested in farming. Most areas of rural western Canada have faced population decline since the 1920s, and this process occurred both early and quickly in marginal farming areas. Within the ten years between 1911 and 1921, for example, census records indicate that the Black population of Wildwood/Junkins had already begun to decline. At Amber Valley the population peaked in the 1930s and then began a similar decline.5 Family stories in local histories indicate that some simply left farming and moved to nearby towns such as Athabasca or the Battlefords in search of work or into larger cities such as Edmonton. Lack of opportunity also encouraged children to leave these isolated communities, but in most cases at least some vestiges of these communities have survived to the present.6
Notes
1 See Colin Thomson, Blacks in Deep Snow” p. 76 and “Dark Spots in Alberta” Alberta History, vol. 25 no. 4 (Autumn 1977) p. 33. Robin Winks also mentions this community in passing, but provides no detail on its history in Blacks in Canada, p. 303. Aside from these references, no other authors refer to it and it can reasonably be assumed that this settlement was less significant than other larger settlements such as Maidstone, Amber Valley, Breton and Wildwood.
2 Palmer and Palmer, “Black Experience” p. 373.
3 Ibid. p. 373 and Shepard, Deemed Unsuitable, pp. 104-05.
4 Palmer and Palmer, “Black Experience,” p. 373.
5 Ibid. p. 380.
6 In many cases these vestiges are physical in the form of surviving buildings; in some cases the attachments are more emotional such as the Amber Valley reunions. Relatively few Black families remain property owners in these rural communities.