First Nation in southern Saskatchewan celebrates return of sacred items | APTN News

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Signatory Chiefs are honored today. This mini powwow marks the 150th anniversary of when Chief Piapot signed Treaty 4 with the Crown and the Canadian government in 1874.

[00:00:17]But it is also a celebration for the return of Chief Piapot's items.

[00:00:23]Many of the items returning back home for the very first time. The items include Chief Piapot's four pipes, a beaded shirt, leggings, a belt, an eagle fan, and moccasins among other items.

[00:00:37]All kept in museums and have not been used by Chief Piapot for almost 130 years since 1898.

[00:00:46]It is emotional when we first seen the items and and very emotional when we brought them home. The place that he eventually came here to with the Qu'Appelle Valley. Our people originated in the Cypress Hills.

[00:01:04]Chief Mark Fox is the First Nations current Chief. He sees every item not as artifacts, but as sacred ceremonial items and tools of learning.

[00:01:14]And he believes Piapot's belongings will bring more prosperity to the nation.

[00:01:19]Belongings, the pipes, everything that's here is going to benefit our people, carry our people, make us stronger, and to continue to work hard and strive for our people for a better life.

[00:01:30]Born in 1816 as Gisi Guasin or lightning in the sky, Chief Piapot was given the name Piapot or a hole among the Sioux after he and his grandmother was released from the Dakota at the age of 12, gaining much Dakota knowledge and teachings. At 24, he became the leader of the Young Dogs band, a group that ranged from southern Saskatchewan to Montana who refused to work with the Hudson's Bay Company and its impacts on the land and food resources. Throughout his lifetime, Chief Piapot was also seen as a respected spiritual leader who continued to fight for indigenous sovereignty even when the Canadian government decimated the buffalo herds for Western expansion, a long time food resource for Piapot's people. When treaty was signed in 1874, Chief Piapot demanded several changes to the treaty a year later to ensure his people would still have their home territory in the Cypress Hills. However, the Crown never added Piapot's additional demands into treaty leaving a lasting distrust between Piapot and the federal government. Our chief, a lot of his sacrifices was uh >> [snorts] >> fighting Canada, um negotiating the the the treaty, talking about the treaty, didn't agree with the treaty.

[00:02:55]At the time, the federal government believed Chief Piapot had too much influence as a Cree and Assiniboine leader. So, a military fort was built nearby Piapot's reserve to monitor him for fears of First Nations people uniting against the government. In 1902, Indian Affairs Commissioner William Morris Graham assisted in stripping Chief Piapot of his leadership role and he was put behind bars for organizing a Sundance ceremony as all First Nation cultural and ceremonial gatherings were outlawed and banned by the Canadian government in 1892.

[00:03:33]With the British government instead leaning heavily on assimilation against First Nations people. Chief Piapot refusing to stop ceremony for his people said, "I agree that my people do not pray to their God in their own way if the commissioner is in agreement not to pray to their own in their own way."

[00:03:52]Elder Murray Ironchild says Piapot's sacrifices were not in vain. Some of those songs that he sang back then, we still sing them today.

[00:04:02]We use them for special type of ceremonies. Our sun dance or rain dance, you want to call.

[00:04:09]The way he come and done it, we still do it exactly the same way today. We haven't changed anything.

[00:04:16]Chief Piapot died in April of 1908 in his early 90s and still embraced his culture and ceremony right to the end.

[00:04:24]His grave standing as a lasting testament to that. For now, Piapot's items will be on display at Piapot's Health Centre's medicine room and the First Nation is working on building a heritage centre to keep the items for safekeeping. All of the belongings are going to be in a showcase. They're going to be protected. So, whenever any member of our community would like to see the belongings of of Chief Piapot, they'll be there for them to go and sit for a while and meditate, pray, whatever they need to do.

[00:04:57]In part two of Chief Piapot's items returning home, we'll show you where the items were kept all these years and what efforts were done to bring them back home.

[00:05:07]Chris Standing APTN National News, Piapot First Nation.