Amber Valley is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

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 ce ...

, Canada, approximately north of

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

. Its elevation is . Originally named Pine Creek, Amber Valley was among several Alberta communities settled in the early 20th century by early Black immigrants to the province from

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

and the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

of the United States. About 1,000 African Americans emigrated to Alberta from 1909 to 1911. Amber Valley is the location of the Obadiah Place provincial heritage site, a homestead of one of the first African-American settler families.

History

In 1905 - 1912

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

homesteaders established the community. The homesteaders, African Americans from

and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, were attracted by the government's promises of land to homestead, as it was trying to encourage immigrant settlers to develop the land. They were leaving

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...

conditions in the United States that discriminated against their rights. Henry Parson Sneed, a clergyman and mason, led a group of settlers from Oklahoma to an area by the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') in Alberta, Canada, originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is protected in nationa ...

. For the first few years they had difficulties, as the climate was harsher than what they were used to in Oklahoma. They had both to clear and cultivate land for crops, and build their houses from the ground up. Most of the early ones were log cabins. The settlers were resilient and three quarters of the African Americans stayed on their land in Alberta long enough and developed it in order to secure their homestead patents, a higher percentage than of some other settlers groups. They built a school house in 1913 and a

nondenominational church A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism, Baháʼí Faith, Zoro ...

in 1914. J.D. Edwards who was one of the original homesteaders founded and managed a baseball team that was widely known in the north. Amber Valley was the largest community of

Black people Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...

in Alberta until the 1930s. It received a post office in 1931, when it officially established the name of the community. At that time the community had about 300 people, and supported a two-room schoolhouse. Because of a decline in population as people moved to cities and areas with more economic opportunity, the post office was closed in 1968. Other primarily American Black settlements formed at this time were Junkins (now Wildwood), near Chip Lake; Keystone (now

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

), southwest of Edmonton; Campsie, near Barrhead; and Eldon, near Maidstone, Saskatchewan. From 1908 to 1911, about 1,000 African Americans settled in Alberta to homestead."Black Settlers Come to Alberta"
Alberta Settlement Beginning in the 1950s, many descendants of the original settlers began moving to near cities such as Edmonton to escape the rigours of rural life and have more economic opportunity. In Edmonton, Amber Valley descendants founded the Shiloh Baptist Church, one of the few

Black church The Black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that predominantly minister to, and are led by, African Americans, ...

es in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. Amber Valley is now considered a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Original settlers

Parson Henry Sneed was one of the first to settle in Amber Valley. With Jordon Murphy and Nimrod Toles, he arrived in 1905. On a train from Oklahoma he met Jefferson Davis Edwards in 1910, who married Martha Murphy. Initially the young couple lived with Martha's father, Jordan Murphy. Martha was the first woman to live in Amber Valley, and her son, Romeo, was the first child born there. Willace Bowen established a homestead that his son

Obadiah Bowen Obadiah Bowen (born May 16, 1907, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, US; d. Apr. 7, 2004, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada) was one of the original settlers to Amber Valley, Alberta, as well as a pastor and community leader. He was one of the first Black settler ...

continued to work. Obadiah replaced the first house with a brick one in 1938. The house and homestead, with outbuildings, has been preserved as Obadiah Place and honoured for its historic provincial significance. * John King and Stella King, parents of Violet King Henry, the first Canadian Black female attorney * Willace Bowen, also recorded as

Willis Reese Bowen Willis Reese Bowen (February 6, 1875 – 1975) was one of the first settlers in Amber Valley, Alberta. His home, Obadiah Place, is a historic site. Bowen was born in Butler County, Alabama, and was one of a group of black Americans who moved fro ...

* Henry Parson Sneed * Hazel Proctor * J.D. Edwards

Notable people

* Oliver Bowen, grandson of Willace Bowen and engineer * Cheryl Foggo, author, documentary film director, playwright * Violet King Henry, descendant of settlers and the first Canadian Black female attorney *

Floyd Sneed Floyd Chester Sneed (November 22, 1942 – January 27, 2023) was a Canadian drummer, best known for his work with the band Three Dog Night. Born on November 22, 1942, in Calgary, Sneed grew up in a musical family (his parents were both musicia ...

(drummer for the 1960s -'70s pop music band

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...

), descendant born in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, related to Harrison Sneed * Judi Singh, South Asian-Black Jazz singer

Popular interest

* The community was the subject of the 1984 documentary film ''We Remember Amber Valley'', directed by Selwyn Jacob. * Esi Edugyan's debut novel, '' The Second Life of Samuel Tyne'' (2004), is set in the fictional town of Aster, based on this historic settlement. It features a Ghanaian-Canadian civil servant from Calgary who moves his family there in 1968 after inheriting property. * In 2021, the community was honoured with a

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Can ...

stamp. * One of the silver coins in the

Royal Canadian Mint The Royal Canadian Mint () is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under an act of parliament referred to as the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada. The mi ...

's Commemorating Black History series was designed in honour of Amber Valley's original Black settlers. The coin was issued in connection with

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

2024.

References

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External links