Grouard, also known as Grouard Mission, is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the cen ...

within

Big Lakes County Big Lakes County, formerly the Municipal District of Big Lakes, is a municipal district in north-central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Census Division 17, around the Lesser Slave Lake. Utikuma Lake and Winagami Lake are also located i ...

. It was previously an incorporated municipality between 1909 and 1944. Grouard is located north of Highway 2, approximately northeast of

Grande Prairie Grande Prairie is a city in northwest Alberta, Canada within the southern portion of an area known as Peace River Country. It is located at the intersection of Highway 43 (part of the CANAMEX Corridor) and Highway 40 (the Bighorn Highway), a ...

. It is the administrative office of the

Kapawe'no First Nation The Kapawe'no First Nation ( cr, ᑲᐹᐏᐣ, kapâwin) is a band government in Alberta, Canada. It is headquartered at Grouard, Alberta, which is near High Prairie. Indian Reserves Six Indian reserves are governed by the band: * Kapawe'no Fi ...

Location

Grouard is located near the western shore of one of the three lakes in

Lesser Slave Lake Lesser Slave Lake (french: Petit lac des Esclaves)—known traditionally as "Beaver Lake" (ᐊᒥᐢᐠ ᓵᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ amisk sâkâhikan in the Plains Cree language, and T’saat’ine migeh in Dene Zhatıé) or "Beaver people were over the ...

Etymology

The original site was called Stony Point in the Cree language. The hamlet was called Lesser Slave Lake, until its name was changed to Grouard in 1900 when the town was built. It was named after the Catholic Bishop

Émile Grouard Émile Jean-Baptiste Marie Grouard Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, O.M.I., "one of the most influential clerics in northern Alberta," was Apostolic Vicariate of Athabasca, Apostolic Vicar of Athabasca. A gifted linguist, Grouard learned a n ...

, who was a missionary in the north for sixty-nine years. He moved his headquarters to Grouard in 1920, and died there in 1931. It was also referred to as Grouard Mission.

History

Grouard has a rich Indigenous history, which includes the signing of

Treaty 8 Treaty 8, which concluded with the June 21, 1899 signing by representatives of the Crown and various First Nations of the Lesser Slave Lake area, is the most comprehensive of the one of eleven Numbered Treaties. The agreement encompassed a ...

in 1899. The hamlet, which is in what is now known as

, is located ten kilometres south of the earliest non-Indigenous settlement in the area, where the North West Company established a post in 1802 at Buffalo Bay. In 1871, the Roman Catholic Church followed with a mission, St. Bernard or Grouard Mission, at Stony Point ten kilometres south of the Buffalo Bay post. The Dunvegan mission, built in 1805, served as headquarters for the fur trade along the Peace River. and was also oldest permanent Catholic mission in the area. It was the second oldest permanent Catholic missionary base in the region. The Lesser Slave Lake had considerable populations of Cree and Metis, and Grouard was considered to be a northern Alberta hub for trade and transportation. The site, which was then known as Stony Point in Cree, was chosen for the historical signing of

between representatives of the Queen Victoria and various First Nations of the Lesser Slave Lake area, the Cree, Beaver, Chipewyan nations, on whose traditional lands, the Crown wanted to "open for settlement, immigration, trade, travel, mining, lumbering" etc. This contains primary historical documents. On September 27, 1909 Grouard was incorporated as a village. and then as a town in December, 1912. From 1910 until 1916 Grouard was well situated on the transportation route to the

Peace River The Peace River (french: links=no, rivière de la Paix) is a river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in th ...

district. In 1913, the community had a population of more than 1,000. In 1916 the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway (EDBCR) bypassed Grouard by building just south of the town, choosing instead Lesser Slave Lake's southern shore. The town but was largely abandoned. Many of the residents and businesses moved to

High Prairie High Prairie is a town in northern Alberta, Canada within Big Lakes County. It is located at the junction of Highway 2 and Highway 749, approximately northeast of Valleyview and west of Slave Lake. History Describes the nature of the ...

, a community on the railway line. Grouard reverted from town status to village status on June 7, 1940, and then dissolved from village status on January 15, 1944 to become part of Improvement District No. 764.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Grouard had a population of 166 living in 79 of its 117 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 255. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Grouard Mission had a population of 255 living in 85 of its 110 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 303. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Education

Northland School Division No. 61 hosts grades K-9. Students who continue from grade 9 travel by bus to attend high school in High Prairie. Grouard students also have the option to attend school from K-12 in High Prairie.

Northern Lakes College (NLC)

Grourd and Slave Lake have administrative offices of the Northern Lakes College, a public, comprehensive, community college that is board-governed with over twenty-five campuses in communities across northern Alberta. NLC acknowledges that it is located on Treaty 8 territory and Metis nations regions and traditional First Nations and Metis land. The Alberta Vocational College (AVC) was renamed the Northern Lakes College on August 25, 1999.

NLC history

In 1970 and 1971, the hamlet of Grouard which is adjacent to

land, became the site of Vocational Centreone of a group of sister Community Vocational Centres (CVC's).

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

students received adult education basic training in Grouard at the Centre to prepare to become instructors in the area covered by the CVC's. In 1986, major changed were taking place in the Alberta Vocational College (AVC) without consulting those affected, including moving dozens of married students living quarters, programs and materials to High Prairie from Grouard. Grouard residents held demonstrations in protest. The decision was overturned following a meeting which including MLAs and Alberta cabinet ministers.

Harold Cardinal Harold Cardinal (January 27, 1945 – June 3, 2005) was a Cree writer, political leader, teacher, negotiator, and lawyer. Throughout his career he advocated, on behalf of all First Nation peoples, for the right to be "the red tile in the Can ...

, leader of the Indian Association of Alberta for nine terms and former chief of Sucker Creek First Nation asked the Education Minister Dave Russell to not let education at AVC be downgraded and to not ignore the formal political structures First Nationa already had in place to deal with the issue. A working committee composed of First Nations members was created and it was agreed that the college programs would not be moved from Grouard to High Prairie without consultation. In 1988, the Alberta Vocational Centre in Grouard amalgamated with a network of 26 community vocational centres for First Nations students in

to form the Alberta Vocational College. As of September 1, 1997, the AVC has been governed by a public board. Prior to that it was administered by province of Alberta. Northern Lakes College is one of ancillary spaces that is part of Kapawe'no First Nation School, which is located within the

. In 2019 the Kapawe’no First Nation School Authority and Kapawe'no First Nation School received authorization under Alberta's Department of Education. The school became fully operational soon after, and offers education from kindergarten through grade twelve. The Native Cultural Arts Museum is a part of Northern Lakes College and is located in the Moosehorn Lodge at the Grouard campus. The Museum's collection celebrates various aspects of Indigenous cultures, with a special focus on Métis peoples and the Woodland Cree of northern Alberta.

Historically significant site

The Grouard Indian Residential School, also known as St. Bernard’s Residential School, in the then-hamlet of Grouard is included on the online Memorial site maintained by the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTRC) and UNESCO. The residential school was operated by the Roman Catholic Church from 1894 until 1957. Approximately 169 potential unmarked graves were discovered on St. Bernard's property in 2022 using

ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a Geophysics, geophysical method that uses radar pulses to Geophysical imaging, image the subsurface. It is a non-intrusive method of surveying the sub-surface to investigate underground utilities such as concrete, ...

and drones. Previously, the names of ten children who had died at St. Bernard's had been listed on the NCTRC and UNESCO Memorial site. The residential school operated from 1894 to 1961. The St. Bernard mission's church and cemetery, also known as Grouard Mission Church, was recognized by Parks Canada as one of Canada's Historic Places.

Lesser Slave Lake Regional Forests Plan

The

, whose headquarters are in Grouard, are one of a number of

First Nations and Métis settlements who provide input and expertise in the Lesser Slave Lake Regional Forest Management Plan. Their involvement in forest management respects the constitutional rights of First Nations and Métis Settlements to engage in hunting, fishing, and trapping and for other traditional uses, such as for burial, ceremonial, historical purposes. The First Nations who are included in these consultations include the Bigstone Cree Nation,

Driftpile First Nation The Driftpile First Nation (or the Driftpile Cree Nation) ( cr, ᒪᐦᑕᐦᑕᑲᐤ ᓯᐱᕀᐩ, mihtatakaw sîpîy) is a Treaty 8 First Nation with a reserve, Drift Pile River 150, located on the southern shore of the Lesser Slave Lake on Al ...

, Duncan's First Nation,

Horse Lake First Nation The Horse Lake First Nation is a First Nations band government west of Hythe in northwestern Alberta, Canada. It consists of the Beaver and Cree people. It is a party to Treaty 8, and is a member of the Western Cree Tribal Council. Despite be ...

, Kapawe'no First Nation, Lubicon Lake Band, Sawridge First Nation, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Sucker Creek First Nation,

Swan River First Nation The Swan River First Nation ( cr, ᐚᐱᓯᐤ ᓰᐱᐩ, wâpisiw-sîpiy) is a First Nations band government in northern Alberta. Located near Kinuso, it controls two Indian reserves, Swan River 150E Swan River 150E is a Cree First Nation ...

, Whitefish Lake First Nation, Woodland Cree First Nation. The Métis Settlements include the East Prairie Métis Settlement, Gift Lake Métis Settlement, and the Peavine Métis Settlement.

Notable people

Pearl Calahasen Pearl Calahasen (born December 5, 1952) is a Canadians, Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district (Canada), electoral district of Lesser Slave Lake (electoral district), Lesser Slave Lake in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta ...

, Canadian politician, Progressive Conservative MLA and cabinet minister (1989-2015)

References

External links

Grouard & Area Historical Society
{{Authority control Hamlets in Alberta Former villages in Alberta Designated places in Alberta Big Lakes County