An Arab Community in the Canadian Northwest: A Preliminary Discussion of the Lebanese Community in Lac La Biche, Alberta
Year: 1968
Type: article
Abstract: Dans l'ouest canadien, la communaute du Lac La Biche, secteur nord-est de l'Alberta, offre des caracteristiques uniques a cause de la forte proportion de musulmans qu'on y trouve et aussi du fait que ce groupe ethnique consacre une bonne par tie de ses efforts a l'elevage du vison.Cette etude decrit les caracteristiques sociales de cette com munaute libanaise et musulmane du Lac La Biche, discute sa position sociale, surtout par rapport aux Metis, et etudie enfin les changements culturels survenus en elle.The Lac La Biche area of east central Alberta is a region of innumerable lakes, muskeg and rolling countryside covered with poplar, birch and occasional spruce and interspersed with some cultivated land1.The trading area encompasses close to 3000 square miles and has a population of almost 7000, including about 1650 in the town of Lac La Biche.Probably half the people have Indian ancestry, while persons of Ukrainian, French-Canadian and British extraction each are roughly ten to fifteen percent of the population.Twenty percent of the people, mostly Metis, receive welfare assistance.Small farming operations are the main bulwark of the economy, producing chiefly beef and wheat.Com mercial fishing supports close to ten percent of the people, again 1 The author is most grateful for the kind assistance of the members of the Lac La Biche Lebanese community.He also thanks the University of Alberta, which provided the financial support for this research, and Mr. Douglas Babcock, Community Development Officer in Lac La Biche, for providing him with background materials on the Lac La Biche trading area and community.
Source: Anthropologica
DOI: 10.2307/25604772
Author: Harold B. Barclay
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2611399690