The Empyrean Cemetery in Yellowhead County, Alberta, is a historic burial site for Indigenous Black and African American families, recognized as Canada’s first Black settlement in the prairies. It was founded in 1905 by the Imperial Baptist Church for the Junkins Black community and saw its last interment in 1957. As time passed, many original Black families relocated to cities, leading to the cemetery’s abandonment for over 70 years.
The Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots discovered the neglected Empyrean Cemetery, once an integral part of one of Alberta’s earliest Black Homesteader communities. This sacred ground has now been returned to descendants of those who endured hardships to achieve land ownership amidst Jim Crow restrictions in the U.S.
