A row of tipis and eight families represented Stoney Nakoda First Nation in the Indian Village at Calgary Stampede this year.
Included in the Eagle’s coverage of the Stampede, we decided to feature each family with special thanks to Indian History, Our Village, Our Legacy.
The Mark family
The Mark’s have been participating in Stampede since the late 1920s when Jacob Twoyoungman first brought his tipi to the Indian Village. John and Georgie Mark became tipi holders in 1977 and current tipi holder, Duane Mark, took over responsibility of the tipi in 2007.
Twoyoungmen’s kin still proudly wear his original white buckskin outfit with the original geometric designed beading on a blue background and Duane participates in the Stampede powwow.
The Mark family views their involvement in Stampede as a “way to honour their First Nations traditions and as a way to help educate others.”
The Poucette family
Beatrice Poucette, 94, has been attending the Calgary Stampede since she was a teenager in the 1930s, when she would camp with her uncle, Tom Kaquitts.
After “many years” Poucette took over Kaquitt’s spot with her own tipi.
The Poucette family is involved with a lot of activities in the Village, including the powwow and many of the youth win championships in all of the categories. Beatrice has competed and judged the meat cutting competition, while her daughter Annie is a beader and makes outfits for the whole family, and her son Mark is a drummer and helps organize the powwow. Beatrice’s late son Frank was also a champion fancy dancer who did his own beadwork.
In Indian History, Our Village, Our Legacy, Beatrice said she remembers “coming by wagon to the Stampede bringing the tipi and poles, plus all their gear and camping at Jumping Pound on the way.”
The Holloway family
The family has camped their tipi in the Indian Village for the past 40 years starting with Alec Baptiste when the Village was originally at the Sun Tree.
Current tipi holder, Eddie Holloway, received the tipi from his father-in-law, Baptiste, and said he remembers coming from Morley to Calgary by horse and wagon. In Holloway’s youth, he earned Stampede Rodeo buckles for calf roping and his son, Eddie Jr., was named a champion buffalo rider twice in the early 70s.
The Holloway family has the oldest outfit on display, at 100 years old. The green woman’s outfit belonged to Eddie’s late mother-in-law.
The Chiniquay family
Current tipi holder, Georgie Chiniquay, has been coming to Stampede since her late grandmother use to carry Georgie on her back. When Georgie and her late husband, Mac Chiniquay, took over the tipi in the 1960s from Georgie’s grandfather, they made a copy of the original tipi design that her grandfather used.
Chiniquay has competed and judged in the meat cutting competition and her late husband Mac used to ride bareback horse and was a steer rider in his youth.
The Mark (Faye) family
Past tipi holders, Wilf and Lorna Mark, camped in the Village since the 1960s.
The tipi design is a mix of different representations including the triangles on the bottom for the mountains, the circles on the flaps for the sun, moon, and stars, a buffalo for Wilf Mark’s curly hair, a ram for Lorna’s traditional name, ram woman, and a wolf for Wilf’ great grandfathers name. Wilf represented Stampede at the Grey Cup in Quebec and he also had a family dance group that performs frequently in Banff. Wilf was the Stoney tribe representative for the Indian Events committee from the late 1960s until he died in 1989. Faye has been helping ever since.
The Bearspaw family
John Bearspaw had been coming to stampede since the very early days when he used to compete in the rodeo. Bearspaw asked his son David to take over the tipi in 1978 after participating many years in the Village.
David has been attending Stampede since the 1960s, won the steer riding competition once, competed in the men’s traditional category at the powwow and has also helped organize events such as the flag raising.
There are many powwow dancers from the Bearspaw tipi who dance in competitions and bring home trophies, Indian History, Our Village, Our Legacy states. The Bearspaw family is “very traditional” and always pray to the Creator when they put the tipi up.
The Lefthand family
Current tipi holders, Keith and Bonita (Anne), took over the tipi in 1997 after their father John Lefthand died.
John, from the Eden Valley reservation, was an “all around professional cowboy” as he used to compete in calf and bronc roping, and won events such as Wild Cow Milking in the late 1940s and early 1950s. John also represented Stampede in Australia in 1939.
After John died, his family has been bringing their children and grandchildren to participate in Stampede with Anne volunteering in the Village by taking First Nations dancers and elders to participate in the rodeo.
The Lefthand family still speaks their native language of Siouan and “are keen to carry on the traditions learned from their respected father and grandfather, John.” John’s grandsons now drum in powwows and use their uncles traditional name, Spotted Rock.
The Poucette family
The Poucette family has been coming to Stampede since the 1940s. Paul Francis was the tipi holder until Christine and late husband Felix Poucette took over in 1973 where they held the tipi for 35 year before Christine asked her son Marvin Big Stoney to take responsibility in 2008.
Christine played in the Indian march band in the early 1940s and loved to entertain visitors, she said her favourite activities were “tanning hides and making dried meat.”
Felix used to travel to England to entertain crowds, once danced at Buckingham Palace and he also participated in the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.
Felix was also a hunter and wrangler who trained wild horses and he treasured his regalia that originally belonged to his grandfather. The family continues to take inspiration from the original design.
For anyone who has not stopped by the 2016 Indian Village at Calgary Stampede this year, go say hi the Stoney families before July 17 when the Stampede wraps up.
