Earlier this week, the Town of Okotoks was presented with a poplar tree by a Blackfoot Elder and educator.
The International Society of Arboriculture Prairie Chapter held its annual conference and trade show in Okotoks on October 7 and 8 at the Viking Rentals Centre. It featured Elder Ninna Piiksii Dr. Mike Bruised Head as a guest speaker on Monday (Oct. 7).
Bruised Heads gave a presentation called The Blackfoot Relations to the Land and the Environment to those in attendance, where he spoke about the erasure of Blackfoot place names and the ongoing work to reinstate them.
It was the subject of Bruised Head's Ph.D dissertation The Colonial Impact of the Erasure of Blackfoot Miistakistsi Place Names in Paahtoomahksikimi, Waterton Lakes National Park, which he defended entirely in the Blackfoot language in 2022.
Following the presentation, Bruised Head, along with Okotoks Mayor Tanya Thorn, CAO Elaine Vincent, and Indigenous relations advisor Desmond Jackson, took part in a transfer ceremony wherein a poplar tree sapling was given to the town.
The tree was given a Blackfoot name by Bruised Head, which translates to "Sacred Long Time Popular Tree" in English.
It's to be planted in Iitopatopa Park.