By Bryan Eneas

A celebration of culture at Wahpeton

Aug 16, 2017 | 5:51 PM

When it comes to Indigenous youth, one Saskatchewan First Nation has taken a proactive approach to cultural awareness.

The Wahpeton Dakota Nation held its annual culture camp, hoping to instill a sense of pride and understanding in local youth.

Arvol Looking Horse is a keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Woman Calf Pipe – one of the most sacred objects in the Indigenous culture. The Cheyanne River Sioux Tribe member travelled from South Dakota to Treaty 6 territory to teach the history of the pipe, traditional gender roles in a Dakota society, as well as protocol.

“It’s a great honour to be here today, to travel because of education,” Looking Horse said.

Children learned specifically about Dakota traditions, including the meaning behind Star Blankets – a gift of honour.

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Husband and wife team, Bill and Ashley Waditaka organized the event.

“Every one of us carry different teachings, different blessing, different gifts, and our children are wanting to learn,” Ashley said.

The camp allowed participants to embrace their culture and the language. Data from Statistics Canada showed in 2016, the number of people in Saskatchewan who identified an Indigenous language as their mother tongue dropped from 30,895 in 2011 to 28,340. Chief John Waditaka said as the popularity of the camp grows each year, so will preservation of the Indigenous culture and language.

“It was a struggle when we first started, but as you can see from today by the amount of people who showed up…it is growing,” Waditaka said.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas