Powwow celebrates Stone Pipe Days at Lethbridge Polytechnic
By Lethbridge Herald on March 26, 2025.
A dancer participates in the men’s fancy dance at the Stone Pipe Days powwow held on Tuesday at Lethbridge Polytechnic.
Herald photo by Alexandra NoadAlexandra Noad – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Lethbridge Polytechnic is hosting their annual Stone Pipe Days, which commemorates the day the institution received its Blackfoot name.
In 2017 Peter Moccasin, Kainai Kaahsinnooik (Grandparent) gifted the then-Lethbridge College with the Blackfoot name Ohkotoki’aahkkoiyiiniimaan, which translates to “stone pipe,” along with a stone pipe which is used in Blackfoot culture in sacred ceremonies and offerings.
Jordan Head, Indigenous cultural advisor for Lethbridge Polytechnic, says the collaboration between the Nisitapi (Blackfoot) people and the polytechnic is important because their culture was not recognized until the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was released in 2015.
“In the past the culture of Nisitapi was not really recognized until the last 10 years because of the TRC,” said Head.
He added that the partnership will benefit everyone and help them understand Blackfoot culture.
“We want to continue that partnership for today and for the rest of our lives, so we can work together to and help everyone that comes to Lethbridge Polytechnic to understand the Blackfoot culture and then to work with the Blackfoot Nisitapi people.”
The week is full of events which not only celebrate Blackfoot culture, but also educate people about it. Some of the events include berry soup, which was available at the opening ceremonies, and speakers who will talk about topics such as myths about Blackfoot people by Jim Bennet, a former Blood Tribe police officer, and storytelling by Blanche Bruised Head.
There will also be a viewing of the films “500 Days in the Wind,” “Bones of Crows,” “Circle of the Sun” and “Standing Alone.”
On Tuesday there was an interactive powwow where Lethbridge Polytechnic students and faculty were able to join in the traditional dancing.
Head says powwows are a way Blackfoot people celebrate, and this week is one of celebration which includes everyone.
“Today is a celebration and in our ways when we celebrate, we have powwows,” says Head. “So today we have an interactive powwow where we will show people in attendance who have never been to a powwow, how to do some of these social dances, then have everybody come on the floor and do that social dancing.”
More information on Stone Pipe Days can be found on the Lethbridge Polytechnic’s website.
14-13
I feel depressed. Somehow as time progresses the Blackfoot have forgotten Standoff?
I think I have been arguing the preservation of Standoff too long. I have, from the onset (2018) suggesting the ever growing presence of “Assistance” to the Blackfoot in Lethbridge is a Standoff Killer.
I believe that what Lethbridge is doing will result in the demise of Standoff as a community, but, I get no support from anyone in Lethbridge, not even from the Blackfoot People themselves.
So we continue to lure the Blackfoot youth out of Standoff to enjoy our “support services” that they do not have in Standoff.
The “stated mission” of Lethbridge under the Lethbridge Housing Authority gets more and more support every year.
Lethbridge Housings prime directive is to have everyone housed in Lethbridge, ……which is a noble gesture, but a misguided one, in my opinion!
So while these Pow Wows progress through the year, I ask myself are the Blackfoot spreading thier culture to the non indigenous people of Alberta, while at the same time, supporting the abandonment of their communities without realizing it?
In a previous letter I challenged the U of L who studies everything Indigenous to study the effects of Blackfoot Communities adjacent to “Cities that Care” and provide endless support services at great cost to the taxpayers. I call this “support” Residential Schools part 2!
The purpose of Res Schools was to absorb the Indigenous into our society and with all intent and purpose, make them as white as possible. It failed, as it should have, but only after pillaging surrounding communities of thier youth. They were treated badly and all Res children wanted to go home.
This time around, the shiny service industry of Lethbridge makes the comparator of home to the catering service we have in place an invalid comparator. In the end the providers state “you can’t force them to go home”!
What an amazing proclamation. We use Fed/Provincial Money to make shiny new services, promise housing etc etc and don’t lift up places likes Standoff so they can compete!
So its a self fullfilling decapitation of Standoff because you can “outshine” them with FED/GOV/Religious money.
Today, we stand back and make statements of “How can the USA do this to us, we are thier best nieghbor and friend”!
It rings hollow because we do not have to go outside of Canada to see the deceit, the betrayal, and a master plan of Annexing!
In the vanacular of the Blackfoot;
I have been beating this drum for too long, and no one wants to hear it!
Hopefully someone younger with more motivation can pick up where I have left this topic I am too old, so I am done!
What are you on about? Your words reveal an underlying colonial settler mentality far removed from the Truth and Reconciliation Report Calls to Action. As an ally, your role is to amplify Indigenous voices not your own.
https://indigenoustourismalberta.ca/travel-stories/six-ways-non-indigenous-people-can-be-an-ally-to-indigenous-peoples/
The drumming comment, apart from being an Ingenious trope, does remind one of Einstein’s comment about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.
Agreed, its now my new modus operandii, I am going to agree with everyone.