RETROactive

Editor’s note: Aba Wathtech. June is National Indigenous History Month, an invitation to honour the history, diversity, strength and contemporary achievements of Indigenous Peoples.

The banner image above features Walking Buffalo, Stoney, at Calgary Exhibition and Stampede grounds, Calgary, Alberta, unknown date, (CU189040) by Oliver, W. J. Source: Glenbow Library and Archives, Glenbow Archives, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.

Reading residential school histories can be a painful process. If reading this is causing pain or bringing back distressing memories, please call the Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419. The Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day and can also provide information on other health supports provided by the Health Canada Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program.

Written by: Laura Golebiowski, Indigenous Consultation Adviser, in collaboration with the Stoney Nakoda Nations

When Tatanga Mani was a small boy, he went by the name of Little Bear. He grew up under the protection of his maternal and paternal grandmothers and the sheltered forests of the Bow Valley. The Stoney Nakoda (contemporarily the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations) lived in small familial groups, hunting buffalo, moose, deer and goat. Wild carrot, wild rhubarb and sour grass were harvested from the mountains. Sweet tree sap was harvested and boiled in the springtime and cranberries, huckleberries, chickenberries and chokecherries were harvested through the summer. In the winter, groups would gather together in the valley flats of what is now Banff National Park. By Tatanga Mani’s own recollections, life was simple and happy:

In my young days, [there were] no roads, no horses. One time I remember there was five in a family. I would be about five years old. There’s my grandmother, my uncle Ben Kaquitts, there’s another uncle, and one aunt…and just one horse, to travel around with. And one dog. And I always remembered that that time, that [we were] the poorest people…but at that time we didn’t notice at all, we still lived contented and happy. We didn’t worry about nothing.

For Stoney children born one generation prior, their education was informal but holistic, grounded in respect and reciprocity. Nature was the teacher. Per Chief John Snow in These Mountains are Our Sacred Places, “A child would grow up learning about nature and the importance of respecting all things in creation…It was an ongoing educational process about religion, life, hunting, and so on. Other topics were bravery, courage, kindness, sharing, [and] survival…”

But by the 1870s when Tatanga Mani was born, Methodist missionaries had established their foothold in Stoney Nakoda territory. Despite having an extended family and community who loved and cared for him, Tatanga Mani was adopted by Methodist missionary John McLean. He was assigned the name George McLean and forced to attend the McDougall Orphanage at Mînî Thnî. (The “Orphanage” was a misnomer, per Chief John Snow: “The reason for the name is not clear; my people’s extended family system made the use of European-style orphanages unnecessary and records suggest that many children in the institution certainly had parents who were willing and able to care for them.”).