Blackfoot sign project continuing

By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on November 7, 2024.

Herald photo by Alexandra Noad Wood's Homes is one of a number of Southern Alberta organizations who have participated in a Blackfoot signage project.

Businesses and organizations in southern Alberta have the opportunity to have public facing signage in the Blackfoot language, thanks to a grant from Community Futures Lethbridge Region.

This project is currently in Phase 2 after a very successful first phase of the project.

Troy Grainger, executive director of Community Futures Lethbridge Region, says it took a while to get the word out because they were working with a small budget, but once it took off, he was happy with the response.

“We were really happy with the response. We were over subscribed (and) we ended up with a waiting list. So we applied for another provincial grant, which we were successful in and we were able to secure additional funding,” said Grainger.

The program pays 80 per cent of the cost of the sign up to $2,000, with the applicant paying the remainder 20 per cent as well as the cost of the installation.

While they started with road signage, as the project has grown they have also included things such as banners and window decking, as long as they were public facing, to help make the project more accessible.

Community Futures collaborated with the Blood Tribe Language Committee to help with the translation of the signage.

Because Blackfoot is one of the oldest languages, Grainger says sometimes they have to create new words for things, which didn’t exist back in the days it was widely spoken.

“We worked with the Blood Tribe Language Preservation Committee, so they would translate or interpret the phrase into Blackfoot, sometimes assigning new words. Sometimes the words weren’t really apart of the vocabulary, so they were kind of inventing words as we went along as well. That was really exciting,” said Grainger.

Another exciting thing about the signs is the project has piqued the interests of Blackfoot youth to learn the language of their ancestors.

Grainger is hopeful this project will be a catalyst for the youth and the preservation of the Blackfoot language.

“The project has really inspired some questions and some interest from youth in learning the Blackfoot language. Some of them aren’t as familiar as some Elders would like, so this project is being used as a catalyst to spur some of that interest as well,” said Grainger.