Premier Danielle Smith says Sikhs who settled in Alberta in the early 1900s “literally built the foundations” of the province. Smith’s comment was made in the midst of the premier’s celebration of “Sikh Heritage Month,” the premier wrote on social media. “When the first Sikhs settled in Alberta in the early 1900s, they worked as miners, farmers, and lumber workers,” wrote Smith, quoting a 2018 CBC article.“They quite literally built the foundations of our province.”“For more than a century, Sikhs have enriched Alberta, helping create a province that is strong, welcoming, and prosperous.”“I was honoured to have joined with my friends and the Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism Muhammad Yaseen, in Calgary to celebrate the conclusion of Sikh Heritage Month.”.Smith's Sikh tribute follows that of the three major political party leaders over the weekend. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who is himself Sikh, all got up on stage at a Sikh event wearing the ethnic religion's signature headwear, and sang songs and prayed in the Sikh language. .According to the Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada, the number of Sikh migrant pioneers arrived in Canada in the 1910s “peaked” at 5,000 — with settlers “predominately living in and around Vancouver, BC.”They were all men, as Canada’s immigration policies did not allow them to bring their wives and children until the ‘20s.According to the Alberta Sikh History Project, Sikhs in Alberta largely avoided the “discrimination and prejudice” which were “embedded in the white, social-gospel dominated Alberta society” because they were small in number. Alberta Sikhs “had yet to produce the moral panic and mob violence inflicted on Sikhs in places where their numbers were greater,” researchers state, noting black and indigenous people were the largest minorities. “In Alberta, the number of Sikhs was small. But the price of those small numbers was often loneliness, sparse community connections, and very limited space for Sangat. But these early Sikhs — like those who followed them — remained resilient and determined in the face of these hardships. They carved out space for themselves and often carried the expectation of providing for their families.”.According to the in-depth research project, there were two Sikhs identified as arriving in Alberta in the 1910s. Notably, some Sikhs were listed as “Hindu” or “Indian” in Canada’s census.For example, as per original records, there was one “Hindu” worker at one particular mine, and 966 Canadians, 2,454 Brits, and 1,029 Scots. .The CBC in 2018 published a feature exploring Michael Hawley’s Alberta Sikh History Project. Hawley, Mount Royal University associate professor of religious studies, has been researching Sikhs history in Alberta for over 20 years. "The third largest concentration of Sikhs in Canada is right here in Calgary and southern Alberta," Hawley told the publication at the time. "I thought here's something that needs to be told, here's something that needs to be talked about.”.He referenced passenger and voter lists, census information, birth, marriage and death certificates, and photographs to piece together Sikh’s history in the province. "I really started to uncover a tremendous history, lots of Sikhs in the Crowsnest Pass (on the border of BC and Alberta) as early as 1903, others who came to Calgary as early as 1908," said Hawley."Sikhs helped to build Alberta. When you think of it that way, Sikhs are as much a part of Alberta history as any other group and it really challenges this idea that Sikhs are migrants or immigrants. No, they were here and they were founders and builders."
