Block settlement

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A block settlement (or bloc settlement) is a particular type of land distribution which allows settlers with the same ethnicity to form small colonies. This settlement type was used throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves. As a legacy of the block settlements, the three Prairie Provinces have several regions where ancestries other than British are the largest, unlike the norm in surrounding regions.

Contents

The policy of planned blocks was pursued primarily by Clifford Sifton during his time as Interior Minister of Canada. It was essentially a compromise position. Some politicians wanted all ethnic groups to be scattered evenly though the new lands to ensure they would quickly assimilate to Anglo-Canadian culture, while others did not want to live near "foreign" immigrants (as opposed to British immigrants who were not considered foreign) and demanded that they be segregated. At the time, Canada was receiving large numbers of non-British, non-French, immigrants for the first time, especially Italians, Germans, Scandinavians, and Ukrainians. The newcomers themselves wanted to settle as close as possible to people with a familiar language and similar customs. The government did not want the West to be fragmented into a few large homogeneous ethnic blocks, however, so several smaller colonies were set up where particular ethnic groups could settle, but these were spaced across the country. [1] [2]


Similar to Block Settlements in Canada, the United States had several Ethnic Group Settlements across the Great Plains, which were founded by European settlers across the 1880s. These were towns of Czechs, Norwegians, Germans, Russians, and religious groups that were allotted land to create homesteads and farms.

American

African American

Mormon

Cardston founded in 1887 was the first Latter-day Saint settlement in Alberta. [3]

Anabaptist

Hutterite

Hutterites are German-speaking Anabaptists who live in communal agricultural colonies. They have 188 colonies in Alberta, 117 in Manitoba, 72 in Saskatchewan and 3 in British Columbia. These Canadian colonies began with 18 colonies founded in 1919. [4] [5] Map

Mennonite

The Manitoba government set aside the Mennonite East Reserve now in the Rural Municipality of Hanover and the Mennonite West Reserve now in the Rural Municipality of Rhineland and the Rural Municipality of Stanley for the new Russian Mennonite immigrants coming to the province beginning in 1874. [6] Most spoke Mennonite Low German. [7] (Map)

Mennonite communities originally part of the East Reserve, Manitoba include:

Mennonite communities originally part of the West Reserve, Manitoba include:

Mennonite communities originally part of the Scratching River Settlement, Manitoba include:

Saskatchewan settlements [8] (Map)

Early Alberta settlements began in La Crete, Alberta and Didsbury, Alberta 1901 [9] [10]

Early British Columbia settlements began in Yarrow, British Columbia and Abbotsford, British Columbia 1911 [9] [11]

British

Meaning: people coming directly from the United Kingdom, not English-speaking people from Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

British Canadian

Meaning: settlers from Eastern Canada, primarily Ontario, and mostly of British and Irish origins.

Dutch

Eastern European

Ashkenazi

Many of the Jewish immigrants to Canada came from settlements in Eastern Europe, including Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire (later the Soviet Union).

Doukhobor

In Saskatchewan Doukhobors, numbering 7,500, settled in three blocks in the North-West Territories (now in Saskatchewan) from 1899 to 1918. They established 61 communal villages on 773,400 acres (3,130 km2). [16] (Map)

  • North Colony (1899-1918) contained 69,000 acres (280 km2) in the Pelly-Arran area settled by 2,400 settlers in 20 communal villages.(Map)
  • South Colony (1899-1918) contained 215,010 acres (870.1 km2) in the Canora, Veregin and Kamsack area settled by 3,500 settlers in 30 communal villages. (Map)
  • Good Spirit Lake Annex (1899-1918) contained 168,930 acres (683.6 km2) in the Good Spirit Lake and Buchanan area settled by 1,000 settlers in 8 communal villages. (Map)
  • Saskatchewan Colony (1899-1918) contained 324,800 acres (1,314 km2) in the Langham, Blaine Lake area settled by 1,500 settlers in 15 communal villages. (Map)
  • Sheho and Insinger (1909-1926) contained 1,280 acres (5.2 km2). (Map)
  • Kylemore, Saskatchewan (1918-1938) north of Fishing Lake. (Map)
  • Kelvinton, Saskatchewan (1921-1938) was west of Kelvinton. (Map)

British Columbia (1908-1938) (Map)

Alberta

Finnish

Hungarian

Old Believers

Romanian

Ukrainian

Ukrainian settlements with approximate date of founding (Map):

French

These include French Canadians from Quebec, French Americans, and Francophones from France, Belgium, and Switzerland.

Cathedral in Gravelbourg La Cathedrale, Gravelbourg, SK.jpg
Cathedral in Gravelbourg

Alberta

British Columbia

Manitoba

Saskatchewan

German

German settlement began in the prairie provinces in the 1890s and continued until the 1920s during the homesteading period. Some also came to the region after the end of World War II. Canadians of German ethnicity remain numerous in the prairie provinces. Most of these settlers were Catholics and Lutherans, with minorities of Mennonites and Baptists.

German colonies

St. Joseph's Colony (Katharinental) was established from 1886 to 1904 in southern Saskatchewan. [24] [25]

St. Joseph's Colony (Josephstal) was established in 1905 in west-central Saskatchewan. [26] [27] [28] Villages in this Saskatchewan colony included

The interior of St. Peter's Cathedral in Muenster, Saskatchewan was decorated by Berthold Imhoff Berthold Imhoff remembered 2 (481919999).jpg
The interior of St. Peter's Cathedral in Muenster, Saskatchewan was decorated by Berthold Imhoff

St. Peter's Colony in Saskatchewan. [29] founded in 1903 in Saskatchewan was 4,662 square kilometres (1,800 square miles) in size. [30] It included 50 townships; townships 35 to 40, ranges 18 to 22, and townships 37 to 41, ranges 23 to 26 of the Dominion Land Survey west of the 2nd Meridian. [31] 8,000 settlers had arrived in the colony by 1910 [32] and by 1930 it was home to 18,000 Roman Catholics. Most were German Catholics. [33] Between 1903 and 1925 parishes were established at

Indigenous

Métis

Some French settlements were founded by Francophone Métis from the Red River settlement in Manitoba. Many began as Métis hivernants buffalo hunting camps from the 1840s to the 1870s. [34] [35]

Scandinavian

Danish

Icelandic

Norwegian

Swedish

See also

Related Research Articles

Russian Germans in North America are descended from the many ethnic Germans from Russia who emigrated to North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rural Municipality of Gimli</span> Rural municipality in Manitoba, Canada

The Rural Municipality of Gimli is a rural municipality located in the Interlake Region of south-central Manitoba, Canada, on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg. It is about 75 kilometres (47 mi) north of the provincial capital Winnipeg. The rural municipality's population in the 2016 Canadian Census was 6,181, making it the 12th largest rural municipality by population. The RM of Gimli has an area of 318.75 km2 (123.07 sq mi), making it the sixth smallest rural municipality by area.

The Dominion Land Survey is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout of the Public Land Survey System used in the United States, but has several differences. The DLS is the dominant survey method in the Prairie provinces, and it is also used in British Columbia along the Railway Belt, and in the Peace River Block in the northeast of the province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doukhobors</span> Ethnoreligious group of Russian origins

The Doukhobors or Dukhobors are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are known for their pacifism and tradition of oral history, hymn-singing, and verse. They reject the Russian Orthodox priesthood and associated rituals, believing that personal revelation is more important than the Bible. Facing persecution by the Russian government for their nonorthodox beliefs, many migrated to Canada between 1899 and 1938, where most currently reside.

The Christian Mennonite Conference, formerly known as the Chortitzer Mennonite Conference, is a small body of Mennonites in western Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches</span>

The Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (CCMBC) is a Mennonite Brethren denomination in Canada. It is a member of the Mennonite World Conference and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Mennonites</span> Ethnic group

The Russian Mennonites are a group of Mennonites who are the descendants of Dutch and North German Anabaptists who settled in the Vistula delta in West Prussia for about 250 years and established colonies in the Russian Empire beginning in 1789. Since the late 19th century, many of them have emigrated to countries which are located throughout the Western Hemisphere. The rest of them were forcibly relocated, so very few of their descendants currently live in the locations of the original colonies. Russian Mennonites are traditionally multilingual but Plautdietsch is their first language as well as their lingua franca. In 2014, there were several hundred thousand Russian Mennonites: about 200,000 live in Germany, 74,122 live in Mexico, 150,000 in Bolivia, 40,000 live in Paraguay, 10,000 live in Belize, tens of thousands of them live in Canada and the US, and a few thousand live in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steinbach, Manitoba</span> City in Manitoba, Canada

Steinbach is a city located about 58 km (36 mi) south-east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Steinbach is the third-largest city in Manitoba, with a population of 17,806, and the largest community in the Eastman region. The city is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Hanover to the north, west, and south, and the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie to the east. Steinbach was first settled by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from the Russian Empire in 1874, whose descendants continue to have a significant presence in the city today. Steinbach is found on the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, while Sandilands Provincial Forest is a short distance east of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Canadians</span> Canadian citizens of Ukrainian descent

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Chortitza Colony was a volost Yekaterinoslav Governorate granted to Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonite for colonization northwest of Khortytsia Island and is now part of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Chortitza was founded in 1789 by Mennonite settlers of Dutch ancestry from the Vistula delta and consisted of many villages. It was the first of many Mennonite settlements in the Russian Empire. Because the Mennonites living in these villages emigrated or were evacuated or deported at the end of World War II, or emigrated after the collapse of the Soviet Union, few Mennonites are living in the area today.

Molotschna Colony or Molochna Colony was a Russian Mennonite settlement in what is now Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. Today, the central village, known as Molochansk, has a population less than 10,000. The settlement is named after the Molochna River which forms its western boundary. The land falls mostly within the Tokmatskyi and Chernihivskyi Raions. The nearest large city is Melitopol, southwest of Molochansk.

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References

  1. ↑ "Atlas of Saskatchewan (Ethnic Bloc Settlements map)" . Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  2. ↑ "Ethnic Bloc Settlement in the Prairies". 1989. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  3. ↑ "Mormon News Room: Facts and Statistics (Canada-Alberta)" . Retrieved 2014-06-19.
  4. ↑ "Regional index of Hutterite colonies" . Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  5. ↑ "Mapping Hutterite Colony Diffusion in North America". 26 June 2012. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  6. 1 2 "An Experiment in Immigrant Colonization: Canada and the Icelandic Reserve, 1875-1897 by Ryan Christopher Eyford (map page 4)" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  7. ↑ "Krahn, Cornelius and Adolf Ens. (1989). Manitoba (Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online" . Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  8. ↑ "Rempel, John G. and Otto Driedger. (1990). Saskatchewan (Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online" . Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mennonite Historical Society of Canada (history/migrations to Canada)" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  10. ↑ "Gingerich, Melvin, C. Lorne Dick and Reynold Sawatzky. "Alberta (Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online" . Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  11. ↑ "Klassen, Cornelius F., John M. Klassen and Richard D. Thiessen. "British Columbia (Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online" . Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  12. ↑ Feldman, Mottie (January 2002). "Sonnenfeld Colony: A Piece of Saskatchewan History" . Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  13. ↑ Feldman, Mottie (January 2002). "Pioneer Stories from Sonnenfeld Colony" . Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  14. ↑ "S.W.20-2-15-W.2nd, Sonnenfeld, Saskatchewan. [textual record] – 1975". Canadian Jewish Heritage Network. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Story of Saskatchewan's Jewish farmers goes to national museum". CBC News. 12 July 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  16. ↑ "Doukhobor Reserves in Saskatchewan, 1899-1918". Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  17. ↑ "A map of the Ukrainian bloc settlement of east central Alberta". University of Alberta. 2007. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  18. ↑ "Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Alberta)". 2009. Retrieved 2014-07-26.
  19. ↑ "Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Manitoba)". 2010. Retrieved 2014-07-26.
  20. ↑ "Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Saskatchewan)". 2008. Retrieved 2014-07-26.
  21. ↑ Saskatchewan's Ukrainian Legacy. Saskatchewan Ukrainian Historical Society. 2006.
  22. ↑ "Francophone land settlement in southwestern Saskatchewan by Beckey Hamilton" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-03-23.
  23. 1 2 "German Saskatchewan Genealogy Roots" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  24. ↑ "St. Joseph's Colony, Katharinental Colony, Kronau-Rastadt, and Odessa (1886-1904)" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  25. ↑ "Historical Sketch of St. Peter's Parish and the Founding of the Colonies of Rastadt, Kathrinenthal and Speier" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  26. ↑ "St. Joseph's Colony - Index Page" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  27. ↑ "St. Joseph's Colony: 1905 - 1930" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  28. ↑ "Towns & Villages Of St. Joseph's" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  29. ↑ "St. Peter's Colony Map". Archived from the original on 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  30. ↑ "Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan (GERMAN SETTLEMENTS)". Archived from the original on 2017-05-05. Retrieved 2012-12-28.
  31. ↑ Jerome Weber O.S.B. (1949). "St. Peter's Abbey 1903-1921" (PDF). CCHA Report. Canadian Catholic Historical Association. 16: 37–49. Retrieved 2015-01-26.
  32. ↑ "Colony Beginnings(p.6)". Archived from the original on 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2013-01-06.
  33. ↑ "The German Catholics of St. Peter's Colony: 1903-1930 By Paul Paproski, OSB" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2012-12-12.
  34. ↑ "Atlas of Saskatchewan (French and Francophone Métis Settlements)" . Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  35. ↑ John Welsted (1 January 1996). The Geography of Manitoba: Its Land and Its People. Univ. of Manitoba Press. p. 89. ISBN   978-0-88755-375-2.
  36. ↑ "Vatnabyggd: An Icelandic Settlement in Saskatchewan" . Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  37. ↑ "Major Icelandic Settlements in America". Archived from the original on 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  38. ↑ New Stockholm Lutheran Church Archived 2014-03-23 at the Wayback Machine

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