A step forward in the path towards recognition was recognized this week in Prince Albert with new interpretive signs along the riverbank and rotary trail, just east of the Historical Museum.
The signs offer an introduction the the Prince Albert and area Indigenous groups – the Plains Cree, Woodland Cree, Swampy Cree, Dakota, Dene, and Metis.
Plains Cree Knowledge Keeper, Willie Ermine, explains that it brings awareness that there have been people on the land for thousands of years, long before the missionaries and fur traders.
It was an area where people from different nations would gather for ceremonial or social gatherings, and preparing for the seasons.
He considers the location on the riverbank symbolic because it’s historically where people gathered.
Ermine says the relationship between settlers and Indigenous people hasn’t always been the way you may consider it now.
He describes a panoramic picture in the Historical Museum that is from Sturgeon Lake, taken in 1922.
Ermine describes it as a panoramic photo.
He says, “Our people are standing here and when you look at the photograph what also comes out are all these Caucasian people in that photograph. It’s a total mixture – 1922, so it wasn’t always that Indigenous and Caucasian people were separated.”
Sunday will mark National Indigenous Peoples Day across Canada.
