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‘I wouldn’t doubt it if there were several lodges (tipis) that sat on this site at one time’
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Blackfoot elders were at Calgary’s historic Lougheed House on Sunday morning, raising the first tipi on the land since the sandstone mansion was built in 1891.
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Tipi raised at Calgary’s Lougheed House for first time in 130 years Back to video
Constructed as a home for Senator James Lougheed and his wife Isabella Lougheed — the grandparents of former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed — the house was built on what was then the outskirts of the budding town of Calgary and, historically, Blackfoot territory.
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“I wouldn’t doubt it if there were several lodges (tipis) that sat on this site at one time,” said Elder Joyce Healy (Ussangahgee/Always Singing Woman) of Kainai Nation, watching on as her son and grandson helped to erect a tipi in a field just south of the home on Sunday morning.
After the Lougheeds died, the local government took ownership of the home, and following use as a barracks and blood donor clinic during the Second World War, it sat unused for several years until talks of restoration began in the 1990s. It’s been open to the public since 2005 as a museum managed by the Lougheed House Conservation Society.
Tipi helps tell full history of the land
While the Victorian-inspired building remains on the land now, it’s not indicative of the full history of the site. The tipi ceremony Sunday recognized that history and is an important step on the museum’s path to truth and reconciliation, officials said.
“It’s a way for us to help people see different uses of this land. It’s a way of interrupting the colonial story of this place,” said Naiomi Grattan, executive director of the Lougheed House Conservation Society, noting the land was once used by local Blackfoot peoples as a bison kill site. “It’s got a very formal Victorian-era garden, and it’s easy to think that that’s the only way this land would ever have been used. This is a simple way to demonstrate that, of course, this land has been used in many different ways over time.”
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Kainai First Nation members raise a tipi as part of celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month at Lougheed House on Sunday, June 25, 2023. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Kainai First Nation members raise a tipi as part of celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month at Lougheed House on Sunday, June 25, 2023. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Kainai First Nation members raise a tipi as part of celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month at Lougheed House on Sunday, June 25, 2023. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Kainai First Nation members raise a tipi as part of celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month at Lougheed House on Sunday, June 25, 2023. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Kainai First Nation members raise a tipi as part of celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month at Lougheed House on Sunday, June 25, 2023. Gavin Young/Postmedia
Kainai First Nation members raise a tipi as part of celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Month at Lougheed House on Sunday, June 25, 2023. Gavin Young/Postmedia
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Healy is a member of the house’s community advisory committee, which has led efforts to give more diverse perspectives to the stories of the home and the way they’re told. She noted the tipi-raising at the site — the first in more than 130 years — as a symbolic gesture to the land’s past and said that both the tipi constructed Sunday morning and Lougheed House are “living entities.”
“All of history — Canadian, North American history — has been told through one lens, and that is a very patriarchal, colonial, wannabe monarchy system. And it’s a very powerful institution,” said Healy. “When (Lougheed House) came through, all of the history has been from that perspective … What we’re trying to do now is to begin to dismantle that perspective, that type of history telling. Really, it is about truth and reconciliation.”
Tipi among exhibits exploring concept of ‘home’
The display was part of Lougheed House’s Hearing Home and Seeing Home exhibits that are running until October. The exhibits examine the concept of “home” and its different meanings.
“(The tipi-raising) gives us the opportunity to explore the idea of home and what it means to build a colonial house on ancestral lands, and how we might reclaim some of this space in a good way,” said Grattan.
The lodge remained up through the afternoon as Healy and Siksika Elder Clarence Wolfleg shared Blackfoot traditions, ceremonies and stories with attendees and passersby.
mrodriguez@postmedia.com
Twitter: @michaelrdrguez
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