Beatrice Lavallee on Chief Piapots Monument

Beatrice Lavallee discusses Chief Piapots monument and the importance of the Qu’Appelle Valley.

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We made a special monument uhhh for our Chief Piapot. It’s on, at the edge of the hill in Piapot over looking the valley. We thought it would, we thought it was uhhh time that we did something for him that uhhh that took care of us in not only with the treaties, but took care of us people in finding a very special place like the Qu’Appelle Valley and part of our reserve is on the valley; some of it’s on the hill, up the hill. Uhmmm because it has been good to us, the valley has been very good to us. It has a lot of meaning to us. And like I told you about these little people and how, where we have our ceremonies.

Those times and those things are very special to us people still today. And uhmmm so we buried him and every year on his, on the June the 15th is the day we picked is the day we celebrate by having a feast and we go to his gravesite where we have this new monument for him, of him and it’s got a nice fence all around and we go there to feast and we go there to pray, we go there and the men with the pipe and the sweet grass. Cause he’d always told his people I guess a long time ago before he left, before he went on, not to forget your ways; don’t leave them. You know this is what we were given, this is what we do, don’t forget he would tell these people.

So this is what we remember him on those days is why we practice with the feast and the pipe and the sweet grass on, on that day.