Pride of the Cree People Preseved in a Northern Reserve Museum

May 09, 2016

We visited the Outreach School located in the Youth Centre in this northern reserve. We met three female high school students there studying their grade 12 courses in order to obtain their Grade 12 diploma.  

We  visited the band council administrative building, a stone throw away from the Youth Centre and met with the band members at the admin office. The council members were gracious and friendly, a few of them came over and shook hands with each one of us.

One of the wall murals in the museum

After the brief visit at the Council meeting, we took a quick tour of  the little museum also located within  the same building. 

Animals hunted by the Cree people, preserved and donated to the museum

The gentleman at the museum informed us that a little while ago the Cree people in this northern community realized the older people are gradually dying in the area.

People on the Reserve realized that less and less Cree people would be able to remember the past, their customs and traditions.

Tools used by the Cree people in the past to trap animals 

As people got older, passed away, their things got dropped off and given away.

Some concerned wanted to preserve the things their fathers and grandfathers used to utilize such as their tools for hunting, their ceremonial clothes and the animals they hunted etc. 

The Chief's head dress of Cree people

In this temporary museum, we saw beautiful ceremonial headdress worn by past chiefs and many other things of the past of the Cree people.

With a strong desire to preserve part of this northern reserve history and its people, the idea of a museum has started in order to store and keep the things of the past.

Though not a very big place. beautiful wall murals adorned the walls of this room.

 

For the future plan, what the museum people really hope would be to have a proper place for the museum to house the precious items left behind by their ancestors so that future generations can be taught about the customs and way of life of the past!

For a small population, I congratulate the residents of this remote northern reserve for starting your collection of museum items.

We learned a lot about the Cree people and enjoyed our visit at this northern reserve museum in Alberta!

R.T. 

A Remote Northern Reserve

Alberta