People of Treaty 4 land plant trees in honour of Indigenous language revitalization

On Wednesday young people from 11 nations on Treaty 4 Territory convened for a ceremony in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., to plant trees in honour of their Indigenous languages.

The ceremony took place under sunny skies and was part of the File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council's (FHQTC) 'Languages in Our Land' week.

Over the course of the week participants learned ways to revitalize their Indigenous languages.

The tribal council said this education is being done to ensure the languages survive for future generations.  

Young Indigenous language learners were joined by elder language keepers and community leaders at the tree planting ceremony. 

"It's a really great day. The sun is shining, the air is fresh after a fresh rain. So we're really proud and happy to be here, to do this with our youth, to do this with three generations of our people. Our old people, our youth, and then there's us in between," said FHQTC Tribal Chief Jeremy Fourhorns.

"That's the way that our people have always come together to acknowledge who we are."

Fourhorns said there are five languages spoken in the nations represented by the tribal council. 

Twenty-one-year-old Montana Blacksioux of the Piapot First Nation spoke Cree at the tree planting ceremony. She said she hopes to one day speak the language fluently. 

"This [is a way] to recognize our languages and practically make it global, and to bring recognition to what we're doing to revitalize our languages, and to bring that power back in our youth," said Blacksioux.

"Our language is so important to us. It's practically our culture. It's our identity for sure."

Fourhorns said it was important to represent language revitalization through nature.

"Our languages are very intimately … tied to the land. A lot of our language comes from the land," Fourhorns said.

"I remember this from my early days of university schooling when they talked about the way a tree moves. In the Cree language … there's a certain way that a tree moves in the wind that cannot be described in English. But the way that they say it [in Cree] is the closest thing that you can get to it."

Fourhorns said there are many aspects of their Indigenous languages that are not used anymore, but he hopes to see that change. 

"We're trying to promote our language. We're trying to champion our languages so that our young people have that drive and that motivation to learn it, to pick up as much as they can."