Two Blackfoot Elders: Circle of Hope

I am writing this to say that I am passing on my role with the Bissett School of Business to my good friend, Hayden Melting Tallow, and I leave it in good hands. I am leaving my role at the end of this year, 2019. I have had good experience with my role that manifested out of “fate” that later developed as an Elder-In-Residence for the Bissett School of Business. I enjoyed every minute of it even through the aches and pains resulting from old age or bouts of gout attacks (ouch).

My friend and fellow Elder, Hayden, and I are Blackfoot or Siksikaikoan. We were both born and raised on the Blackfoot reserve back in the days of wood and coal stoves, kerosene lamps and outhouses as well as hauling water from community pumps. Our parents were Blackfoot through and through with the language intact in spite of efforts to eradicate it. We also went to residential school in our formative years. But this is where the forks in the road started to branch out for us. I went to an Anglican residential school and my friend went to a Catholic residential school. Rather than being Siksikaikoan, we were the Blackfoot Catholic and the Blackfoot Anglican; there were two residential schools in Siksika, the Catholic one on the east side and the Anglican one on the west side of the reserve. The religious orders started to separate us and we eventually learned not to like each other. As often echoed, the Catholics shouldn’t mingle with the Anglicans so staying on your side is understood even though we were all Blackfoot in every sense of the word. Even a choice of a small town separated us as the Catholics shopped in the town of Cluny and the Anglicans shopped in the town of Gleichen. Back in 1964-65, I briefly attended the Catholic residential school as a boarder but I was quickly told that I couldn’t stay there because I was not a Catholic but I could still attend school as a day student. I left shortly afterwards.

However, after all these years and getting back to our way of life through the language my friend and I are Siksikaikoan and not Catholic and an Anglican as defined by our separation through the residential school system. We were moulded to think Catholic and Anglican rather than Blackfoot by the nuns and priests as well as the reverends and various supervisors over the years who looked after us, respectively.

Today as survivors of the traumatic residential school area we are in the position to continue to pass on our Siksika culture, language and history to the next generation of Siksikaikoans through lectures, books, and other forms of communication. This information is not limited to Siksikaikoans but to all people willing to embrace and gain knowledge about Siksika people. The whole purpose is to educate and create empathy for the Siksika way of life and the willingness to break down barriers and stereotypes as we continue to seek reconciliation.

My friend and I are doing this as we continue to do our part as fluent speakers of the Siksika language and sharing our knowledge of the culture through a lunch & learn that will continue even though I will not be directly involved but in an indirect way. My cycle of sharing the Siksika language and culture has come to a point where I felt that new knowledge and information should be brought in to continue to share with anyone who is interested and the reason why I brought in my friend, Hayden, who has a wealth of knowledge to share. I will re-echo what I said that I am passing on my role with the Bissett School of Business to my good friend, Hayden Melting Tallow, and I leave it in good hands. People will not be disappointed.

As two Blackfoot Elders who have gone through a system that could have impacted both of us further in negative ways but we chose to get better rather than continue to be bitter about our experiences. We bring forth a ‘circle of hope’ through our language and culture by sharing it with others. We hope that you can join our circle by visiting with us at the Lunch & Learn to gain more knowledge and insight into our Blackfoot lenses.

Thank you.

Respectfully submitted by two Siksika Nation Elders

Roy Bear Chief

Hayden Melting Tallow