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University of Alberta Ethnicity and Local Community Building: The OpaVMaybndge Farm Sentement in East-Central Alberta, 19 19- LW5 Aya Fujiwara c A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial futfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts History Departrnent of History and Classics Edmonton, AI berta Spring 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale l*I ofCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 WeDlngton Street 395, rue Wellington OmwaOtJ K1AON4 OtiawaON K1AON4 canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exc1usive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothéque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, disûibute or sell reproduire, prêter, distri'buer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts hmit Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. A bstrac t This thesis examines the role of ethnicity in the formation of rural comrnunities and identity on the Canadian prairies. focusing on the OpaVMaybridp district in east- central Alberta between 19 19 and 1945. The Ukninians and Japanese, w ho settled in the area with other national groups. developed a sense of community beyond ethnicity through persona1 and formal interactions in everyday life, creating a shared "Canadianized prairie experience and identity. Yet the impact of ethnicity on the character of this multiethnic settlement was obvious, especinlly rvhen local famers discovered the "ethnic" meanings of their culture and traditions by coming into contact with people of other origins. Ukraininn and Japanese ethnic consciousness was most pronounced, however, and caused tensions in the community, when Local residents received political influences from their respective ethnic elites centred in the distant urban centres of Winnipeg and Vancouver. This aspect of their identity drew them away from the local community into a much larger national and international world. World Wnr II totally changed ethnic relations in OpnllMoybndge, imposing a test of loyalty on both Ukrainians and Japanese, and segregating the latter as Enemy Aliens. Acknowledgernent Many people assisted me in the prepmtion of this thesis. 1 express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Frances Swyripa for much helpful advice at every stage of the MA programme and the large amount of time she vent with me. Discussion with her was always interesting, stimulating and encoumging. I would also like to thank rny other cornmittee members, Dn. Gerhard Ens and Andriy Nahachewsky for their many helpful suggestions and comrnents. The encouragement I received from Professor Kazuo Kimun at the University of Tsukuba is aiso deeply appreciated. This thesis owes much to the infamants who shared their mernories with me. l wish to thank al! of them for their fascinating Stones. pictures, and mernoirs. I rnust especially note Mrs. Chizuko Kimura and Mr. John Hawrelko, who showed a great interest in my project and introduced me to other interviewees. I received much encouragement from rny parents and friends. Specid thanks go to Taro. not only for his assistance in the preparation of maps but dso for his moral support at rny hardest times in Canada. Table of Contents Chapter i Scholarf y Understanding of Prairie Ethnic andor Rural Communities ------------------- 10 Chapter 4 Beyond the Local Community: OpailMaybridge Ukrainians and Japanese and Canadian Ethnic Politics ---------------- 89 Chapter 5 Test of Loyalty and Identity: Ukrainian and Japanese Canadians dunng World War II -------------------------------- 1!6 List of Figures Figure 1 Map of the OpdMaybridge District (Source: Provincial Archives of Alberta. Cummins Rud Directory Maps for Aiberta, Cummins Map Company, 1927) -----------------------------53 Figure 2 Raiiway Stops and Towns around OpaVMaybridge 1 Source: Mmynowych, Orest T. Uhminianr in Can~rdn. T'IL.Forniarive Yc'nrs, 1891- 1924. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukminian Studies Press, 199 1, Mûp 9)------------------ ---- ------------------------- ---------- 53 lntroduction Western settlement has been a dominant theme in Canadian history as physically and psychologically important to nation building. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a multitude of rural settlements emerpd on the Canadian prairies in response to pvemment initiatives to remit immigrants from various places in the world. In order to survive in a completely different physical and cultural environment, the newcomers began to create new and often close-knit communities. Factors shaping the social networks they established include the natucal environment, the frontier, ethnicity. and metroplitan influences.' Studies on the impact of ethnicity on prairie settlement and society have tended to treat it as a key element in uniting people and to focus on one ethnic group at a tirne. This thesis. however. suggests that although ethnicity was undoubtedly r crucial part of people's identity at both elite and gnssroots levels. and often preoccupied et hnic elites, who usually resided in larger urban centres. its impact was different among the mnl grassroots. How settlers felt about their ethnic identity varied depending on whether they were politically, economicûlly, and cultunlly incorponted into the lorger Canadian society, had contacts with people of other ethnic origins, or were preoccupied with everyday survival, Ethnicity became a major therne in studies of prairie settlement for several reasons. Fint. Anglo-Canadian politicians, scholan, educaton, and othen during the settlement period, who had their own vision of Canada as a British country, were tryin,0 to corne to terms with the ethnic (and reiigious) diveaity ernerging on the prairies. Womied about mass irnmi,gation which might retard settiers' assimilation to British noms, they regarded ethnic ûnd/or religious bloc settlements as se nous problems w hich emphasized settlea* cultural distinctiveness. Educators and politicians, especidly, cmfully investigated these bloc settiements on the prairies, and their observations often appeared as studies on assimilation.' By the interwar yean, while never doubting British supremacy in the political sphere, some writers came to enjoy the cosmopolitan character of the Canadian prairies, exoticizing the settlements in the West and arguing that the heritage which irnmi=gantsbrought with them would e~chCanadian culture? In this way, the ethnic and religious distinctiveness of pnirie settlements was, more or les, defined by the rnainstream society. As a result, groups like the British and Scandinavians, who had fewer cultural adjustrnent problems in the new land, remained relatively invisible. Ethnic groups' own elites, who usually resided in larger urban centres. also played an important part in defining prairie settlements, determining the role of their people in Canadian society. Because non-British immigrants were always regarded as second-class citizens by mainstrem leaders, these elites saw the need to mobilize and politicize their compatnots around stntegies to secure full participation and recognition in Canadian society. At the same time as urging the settlen to be loyal to Canada, and to acquire Anglo- Canadian customs and English, they insisted on their nght to maintain aspects of their old- world culture. loyalties, and identity, Iaunching the idea of the Cadian "mosaic." Regarding themselves as the representatives of their people, these elites tried to influence often geographicdly remote rural settlernents with a vanety of messages promoted through Paul Voisey, Vulcan: 'The hkrking of a Prairie Co~nmuniy(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), 5. ' See, for example, James T.M. Anderson, The E;ducaion of the New Canadian: A Treatise on Canada f Greatcst EducatiunaiProblcnt (London and Toronto: J.M. Dent and Sons, 19 18); Robert England, The Ce& European Immigrant in Cd(Toronto: Macmillan, 1929); Robert England, The Colonization of Western Cdu:A Study of Contcmporq Lund Settfemen~,18964934 (London: P.S. King & Son, 1936); Charies Young, The Ukrainian Cdm:A Study in Assimilation (Toronto: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 193 1); and James S. Woodsworth. Sirmgers Wifhin owGate or Coming Canadians (Toronto: Department of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, 1909). ' See, for example, John Murray Gibbon, CdimMasaic: The klctking of n ivonhern Nation (Toronto: MacCleLland and Stewart, 1938); Kate A. Foster, Our Canadiun Mode cornpetin: organizations and institutions. The grassroots, however, were not always interested in the politics or agenda preoccupying a distant elite. Another reason which made ethnicity a popular topic is that immigration patterns indeed made ethnic (and religious) cohesiveness one of the most distinctive features of many prairie settlements. Ethnoreligious groups such as the Mennonites and Doukhobors - who came en masse and settled together in integrated colonies with a distinctive way of life. supported by the Canadian government's special policy of land reserves