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Poundmaker Cree Nation celebrates return of century-old pipe bag

September 13, 2023
Bag is now housed at the Poundmaker Museum and Gallery 
A archive's photo of Chief Poundmaker dressed in a back vest with a blanket over his shoulder.
More than 130 years after Chief Poundmaker was wrongly imprisoned for treason-felony, a pipe bag he gave to a chaplain was returned to his homeland. (William Buell/Library and Archives Canada)

CBC Indigenous: A pipe bag that belonged to a Plains Cree chief known as a peacekeeper has been returned to his home community in Saskatchewan, more than a century after he gave it to a chaplain at a Manitoba prison.

Chief Poundmaker, whose Cree name is Pitikwahanapiwiyin, gave the bag to a chaplain at Stony Mountain Penitentiary near Winnipeg while wrongly imprisoned for treason-felony in 1885. Poundmaker was sentenced to three years in prison, but was exonerated of the charge in 2019 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

On Sept. 1, 2023, Jon Waters, the great-great-nephew of the chaplain, brought the bag from Vancouver Island back to the community of Poundmaker Cree Nation, about 175 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

Waters said the bag had been passed down through generations, eventually to him from his mother. While he treasured the bag, and grew up knowing it was a gift to the family, he said he wondered, “Why do I have this?”

Poundmaker Cree Nation celebrates return of century-old pipe bag

WATCH | Poundmaker Cree Nation celebrates return of century-old pipe bag: Duration 2:20

Chief Poundmaker, who was imprisoned for a charge of treason-felony he would later be exonerated for, gifted a beaded pipe bag to a chaplain.

Click on the following link to view the video:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/pipe-bag-returns-to-community-1.6964869

Coming home

Waters decided to return the pipe bag to the community. He reached out to Floyd Favel, curator of the Poundmaker Museum and Gallery on the nation, and arranged the delivery.

A ceremony was held at the museum to welcome the sacred item back to the community.  “It was quite amazing, though I have to say I felt like, you know, really it was where it belonged,” said Waters.

Mavis Poundmaker Billesberger, Chief Poundmaker’s great-granddaughter, said the pipe bag is more than 130 years old. “You’re thinking back about the history. I can envision my great-grandfather sitting in a cold, dank cell, and a chaplain that is very kind and compassionate to him,” Poundmaker Billesberger said.

A beaded pipe bag made of hide lays on a kitchen counter.
A pipe bag gifted to a prison chaplain by Chief Poundmaker was returned to Poundmaker Cree Nation. (Submitted by Jon Waters)

She said the ceremony, with just a few people, was “fitting” because there were only a handful of people present during Chief Poundmaker’s funeral, and an item was returned to the community at that ceremony as well. 

“It isn’t just that they belong to an individual or a family or myself — being a Poundmaker, I can’t say they belong to me or or my family. They belong to the community. They’re cherished in the community,” said Poundmaker Billesberger.

Chief Poundmaker was convicted of treason-felony after the Northwest Resistance in 1885, even though he did not join the conflict. During the Battle of Cut Knife in 1885, Chief Poundmaker stopped his warriors from chasing retreating Canadian forces, preventing the deaths of hundreds of troops.

“He was really a peacemaker and he went out there to keep the warriors from doing anything and actually stop them from going any further than what they did, and it was all due to hunger,” said Poundmaker Billesberger.

‘True reconciliation’

Poundmaker Billesberger said the community is grateful whenever somebody decides to return an item that was given to them. It is different from when something was stolen, or confiscated. “You can’t demand gifts back, let’s put it that way. If they give it back to us, then … it’s gratification all around.”

The Morning Edition – Sask: 5:35

Beaded pipe bag that was gifted to a chaplain by Chief Poundmaker returned in ceremony. Chief Poundmaker was exonerated for his 1885 charge of treason. While he was in prison for that false charge, he gifted a beaded pipe bag to a chaplain. That bag is now back on Poundmaker Cree Nation after the chaplain’s great-great-nephew returned to it the community.

Click on the following link to listen to the “The Morning Edition”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/pipe-bag-returns-to-community-1.6964869

Poundmaker Billesberger said the bag doesn’t look like it’s more than 100 years old. It has been well preserved, with the beadwork intact. She said the beadwork is more Assinibione than Cree. “Nowadays the word reconciliation seems to have lost its meaning. But this is true reconciliation on a human-to-human level,” she said.

Both Waters and Poundmaker Billesberger encourage people to visit the Poundmaker Museum and Gallery to see the story of Chief Poundmaker and the people of the community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aishwarya Dudha, Reporter

Aishwarya Dudha is a reporter for CBC Saskatchewan based in Saskatoon. She has previously worked for Global News and the Times of India. She specializes in social justice issues and elevating voices of vulnerable people. She can be reached at aishwarya.dudha@cbc.ca

with files from Samanda Brace