Every year Calgary Stampede parade watchers expect to see First Nations people riding the route, but their first ride 100 years ago almost didn't happen.

In 1912, most members of First Nations lived on reserves with many of their traditions banned.

The federal government’s policy was to "civilize" the Indians, not to celebrate their traditional cultures.

"At this time, they were totally committed to turning the natives in this area at least, into agriculturalists, into ranchers and farmers, to have the children in residential schools where they learned English and so on," said historian Hugh Dempsey.

The department of Indian Affairs controlled nearly every aspect of natives’ lives, and their culture was dissolving, said Blackfoot Elder Reg Crowshoe.

"There was regulation that our Pikani or Blackfoot people couldn't leave the reserve, and the only way they could leave was to access a permit," he said.

When Stampede founder Guy Weadick asked for blanket permission for the First Nations to attend, federal officials said no.

"The bureaucrats didn't want anything to get in the way. And to them to put a ‘yahoo wild west show’ on was to recount all those times that the Indian department was now trying to suppress," said Dempsey.

So Weadick, the consummate promoter, started working his local contacts.

"There were a couple of boys in town that were pretty influential in Ottawa. One was Sir James Lougheed, who was in the cabinet, and the former prime minister was also living in Calgary at that time. And they both interceded on behalf of the Stampede," Dempsey said.

The local bureaucrats were overruled and 1,800 First Nations people made their way to the first Calgary Stampede.

But Weadick's victory was only temporary. Two years later a law was passed making it illegal for any Indian to take part in a cultural ceremony off reserve.

It was decades before the rules and attitudes finally changed.

On Friday, chiefs from the Treaty 7 First Nations rode as honourary parade marshals to mark the anniversary.

"A hundred years ago we had to hide our culture to practice it. Now a hundred years after, because of our ancestors that wanted to preserve our culture and people like Guy Weadick that had an interest, because of those partnerships today we're developing institutions that we can be proud of our culture," said Crowshoe.