Treaty Day celebrations are now wrapped up at Montreal Lake Cree Nation.
The festivities started Thursday with opening ceremonies and wrapped up on Sunday.
Part of the celebrations saw the chiefs of the Woodland Cree nations, Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB), Montreal Lake Cree Nation and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) speak to students at Senator Allen Bird Memorial School about Treaty and the importance of it.
During her remarks, LLRIB Chief Tammy Cook-Searson spoke about the history of Treaty and touched on the long history the Woodland Cree people have in the area. She as well spoke about the importance of passing on language and traditions.
“We have always been in this territory, we’ve been hunters, fisherman, trappers, gatherers, its in our DNA, our Cree language, we have to pass that on, because we’re losing our Cree language,” she said.
The LLRIB chief as well spoke about the launch of a Cree language dictionary, which helps translate Cree to English and English to Cree. Cook-Searson presented a dictionary to Montreal Lake chief Joyce McLeod and said she hopes to see the dictionary help in a some big ways.
“I am hoping that it’ll help us revitalize our languages even more because there’s been a lot of work done,” she said.
(Participants in the grand entry shake hands after being introduced. Photo by Michael Joel-Hansen.)
Montreal Lake Chief Joyce McLeod took time to thank many people, she especially singled out the young people who have represented their communities.
“Its a blessing to be part of Woodland Cree, the Woodland Cree is associated with the students, when they go to summer games, when you go to winter games, its the Woodland Cree that take most of the medals, I acknowledge the students for showing your leadership in representing our territory,” she said.
The Montreal Lake chief as well took time to acknowledge elders in the community and reminded those in attendance not to forget about the nation’s past leaders who worked to make the First Nation a better place in a number of different ways.
“Think about the school, you think about the clinic and the past leadership that did so much work during that time,” she said.
During her remarks to the crowd at the school, PBCN Chief Karen Bird talked about how family members of hers had served as leaders and also touched on working as an educator for her band. Chief Bird encouraged the young people in the crowd to get involved in their communities and work to ensure their nations are better off heading in to the future.
“You are important as a Treaty person, you are important in our community,” she said.
Bird also called on people to be kind and to try to support their nations leadership in any ways they can given how challenging their roles can be.
“This head dress is heavy, meaning that the responsibilities that we have as chiefs is very heavy and there’s only so much we can do,” she said.
(The gym at the Senator Allen Bird Memorial School was full on Friday. Photo by Michael Joel-Hansen.)
(Top Photo: Montreal Lake Cree Nation Chief Joyce McLeod, left, with PBCN Chief Karen Bird and LLRIB Chief Tammy Cook-Searson. Picture courtesy of Michael Joel-Hansen.)