Northwestern Alberta has had a Catholic presence, under the authority of a bishop, since 1860, as part of the Apostolic Vicariate of St. Boniface. The territory was reconfigured three more times, finally being erected as the Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan in 1967. The area’s first Indian Residential School (IRS) was at the St. Bernard Mission in Grouard and operated from 1866-1961. There were five other IRS at Catholic missions in this part of Alberta.

The Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan holds nearly 30,000 photographic images of the peoples and places in this part of Alberta, dating back to the late 1800’s. In 2019-20, about 6,000 of these images were digitized with the objective of making historical materials in the archives more widely available.

In this online collection, you will find a selection of images from the following Indian Residential Schools and the Catholic missions: Assumption, Desmarais-Wabasca, Fort Vermilion, Grouard, Joussard, and Sturgeon Lake. The images are numbered and have a brief description in English and French. You are encouraged to contact the Archivist at the Chancery in Grande Prairie if you have comments about and/or if you would like to obtain a copy of any of the images.