Thursday, September 29, 2011

Treaty 4

I've always thought of Canada as being so young compared with the rest of the world. When I got to go to France and see old castles or even to Texas and drive through old towns, Canada seemed so young. I remember as a kid going to Saskatoon's 100 year anniversary.


Now that I live where Treaty 4 was signed between the crown and First Nation's people, I have a different perspective. There are people living here whose people have lived here many, many generations. The land seems older somehow and even non First Nations people who grew up here seem to come back and stay.



There is a lot of heartache and pain in this area as well as a lot of beauty and rediscovery.


This year is already so different for us than last year. People have seen us around and we are slowly starting to make connections- beyond our cousins.

I'm so thankful the cousins were here though as they have helped us meet people and as we already had an easy friendship with them. I'm not sure we would have survived the winter without them, but as we look to the future and our lives here, we know that there are other people that are or will become our "people", our fellow travelers on this journey of life.

Dominique dislocated her finger the other night and I got to have my first visit to the hospital here. In the ER, I recognized two women who have children our kid's age. The nurse practitioner who relocated Dominique's finger has a daughter in her class and was talking about play dates. It was nice that not everyone was a complete stranger. We are starting to have our own little history and connections here.

4 comments:

Kimberley said...

I worked on First Nations archaeological sites in Saskatchewan that were more than 6 thousand years old (that's older than the pyramids). It's easy to forget the long history that we have on the prairies.

sheena said...

Angela, thank you for this post. Yes, this valley and it's memories are old and strong. I feel honoured every time I'm given a glimpse into this history; I'm also humbled to be walking into it's future with people like you!

Ian said...

I suspect that the thumb injure to Dominique won't slow her down much.

Ian said...

injury