Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement is a

Metis settlement Alberta is the fourth-most populous province in Canada with 4,262,635 residents as of 2021 Census of Population and is the fourth-largest in land area at . Alberta's 344 municipalities cover of the province's land mass and are home to of ...

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 ...

, Canada along the northern boundary of the

County of Northern Lights The County of Northern Lights is a List of municipal districts in Alberta, municipal district in northwest Alberta, Canada. Located in Division No. 17, Alberta, Census Division 17, its List of municipal districts in Alberta#Office locations, m ...

. It is located along the

Mackenzie Highway The Mackenzie Highway is a Canadian highway in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. It begins as Alberta Highway 2 at ''Mile Zero'' in Grimshaw, Alberta. After the first , it becomes Alberta Highway 35 for the balance of its lengt ...

(Highway 35), approximately south of the Town of

High Level High Level is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located at the intersection of the Mackenzie Highway (Highway 35) and Highway 58, approximately north of Edmonton and south of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. High Level is located wi ...

. Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement is the largest of eight Metis Settlements in the Province of Alberta. The community is rich in timber, natural resources and agricultural land. The community is also known for constructing solar power generating units for several of its community buildings.

History

The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the 1930s saw much deprivation among the nomadic Métis population of Alberta, estimated at about 11,000 in 1936. A royal commission was formed to investigate the living conditions of Alberta's "half-breeds" (as the Métis were known), who were then squatting on road allowances with no ready sources of cash income, or trapping in remote areas without access to education or health services. This Ewing Commission saw agriculture, particularly stock-raising, as the means by which the Métis could be made into "self-supporting citizens". Farm colonies, in which the Métis themselves would provide most of the physical labour, would be a suitably inexpensive relief scheme for the cash-strapped Alberta government to implement. Following these recommendations, the 1938 ''Metis Population Betterment Act'' enabled unoccupied

Crown land Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...

to be set aside for the creation of new Métis settlements. Eleven were originally created by

Order-in-Council An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council (''Kin ...

through 1938 and 1939 – Wolf Lake, Utikuma Lake (now Gift Lake), Cold Lake, Marlboro, Keg River (now Paddle Prairie), Big Prairie (now Peavine), Touchwood, Goodfish Lake (now Kikino), Elizabeth,

Fishing Lake Fishing Lake is a closed basin freshwater lake in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lake is north of the town of Foam Lake, and east of the town of Wadena and is accessed from Highways 5 and 310. The northern and eastern shore ...

, and East Prairie. Caslan (now Buffalo Lake) was the final addition, reserved for Métis veterans returning from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

before being thrown open to general settlement in 1951. Settlement at Paddle Prairie progressed rapidly. A 1941 report of the Alberta Bureau of Public Welfare recorded nineteen heads of families resident in the area, with a total population of 72. The settlement's central village was established at its approximate geographic center, the Paddle Prairie proper, an area of open land and productive soil, where a lumbering operation produced 91,372

board feet The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a length of a board, one foot wide and thick. Board foot can be abbreviated as FBM (for "foot, board measure" ...

of rough sawn lumber. From here, of road was cleared to a landing on 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 ...

, suitable for the unloading of supplies.

Geography

The largest and most northerly of Alberta's Metis settlements, Paddle Prairie consists of approximately seventeen townships. It is bounded by the Peace River on its eastern border, where the La Crete ferry still operates.

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 Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Paddle Prairie had a population of 551 living in 212 of its 256 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 544. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The population of the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement according to its 2018 municipal census is 536, an increase from its 2015 municipal census population count of 530. As a

designated place A designated place (DPL) is a type of community or settlement identified by Statistics Canada that does not meet the criteria used to define municipalities or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the Canadian census as the ...

in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Paddle Prairie Metis Settlement had a population of 544 living in 185 of its 240 total private dwellings, a decline of 3.2% from its 2011 population of 562. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paddle prairie metis settlement alberta Métis settlements in Alberta Designated places in Alberta County of Northern Lights

History

Geography

Demographics

See also

References