The First Hereditary Chief of Muskoday First Nation will now be honoured on an important Highway 3 bridge southeast of Prince Albert.
The highway structure over the South Saskatchewan River, known as Muskoday Bridge, is now named Chief John Smith Bridge. Representatives from Muskoday, the Saskatoon Tribal Council and Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations were on hand on Tuesday for the ceremony.
The renaming honours Chief John Smith, Muskoday First Nation’s original chief and a signatory to Treaty 6 and coincides with the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 6.
Chief Ron Bear of Muskoday said they renamed the bridge to commemorate the signing of Treaty 6 150 years ago.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while because it was coming around the corner,” Bear explained. “This is my second term, so I was thinking about this in the first term with my first council members, but it wasn’t good timing to actually do something like that. It fit better to do it in the 150 (anniversary year).”
Bear said that they worked with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner and Treaty Commissioner Kathy Walker to get the process under way.
“They kind of spearheaded it for Muskoday by getting involved with Ministry of Highways with the Minister (Kim Gartner) himself,” Bear said.
Several staff members from the Ministry of Highways were an important part of the planning committee for the new name and signage.
“We just start planning and, trying to move it forward and trying to see ‘how can we move the needle, is the province going to approve this’ and things like that,” Bear said.
Bear said the project was a collaboration between the Ministry of Highways, the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, and Muskoday First Nation. He was proud to see Chief John Smith recognized.
“I wanted to honour our first Chief in a really good way,” Bear said. “He was a very bright, visionary type person.”
Bear said the renaming reflects a shared commitment to recognizing Indigenous history, celebrating Treaty relationships, and advancing reconciliation.
He said that there was great cooperation with the departments in the Ministry and they were able to work with what the signs would look like. Chief John Smith signed Treaty 6 on behalf of Muskoday First Nation.
Chief Ron Bear posed with photos of Chief John Smith before the ceremony to unveil the new name Chief John Smith Bridge at the Muskoday Band Office on Tuesday.
Bear said Smith is remembered as a respected leader whose efforts helped establish a foundation for future generations. The Bridge sign features naming in English, Cree and Cree Syllabics.
“We consulted with Elders and they said, ‘okay, this is something that’s doable, something that you can do’ and then we went with getting the syllabics as well,” Bear said.
The Bridge was originally opened in 1970. At the time, Chief Everett Bear heard that the bridge was to be called the Birch Hills Bridge and he made sure that the bridge was called the Muskoday Bridge. The new name carries on that tradition.
“This is carrying on that story,” Bear explained. “It’s going full circle actually to our first chief to recognize and honour him in that way.”
Bear added that he was proud to see the work finally completed.
“It’s been lots of work. It’s been a long time coming and it was something that I had some great thoughts and wanting to do that and to sharing that with my council members and our people and getting a direction and support from them as well.”
Minister of Highways Kim Gartner said that the consultation and work with First Nations on the project was important.
“That’s where it originates,” Gartner said. “It’s a discussion item that they bring to us and then from there, we do a review. They do all the hard lifting and then in conjunction with our staff, it gives us an avenue to understand and to reconcile and to be a part of what they’re trying to accomplish.”
The day opened with a Pipe Ceremony at the Muskoday Powwow Grounds. Gartner said it was important for Ministry staff to be a part of the proceedings.
“It was actually quite a humbling experience to be a part of today. As I said to the chief, we don’t get to do this enough, to be able to be part of the ceremony. It was quite emotional actually to be part of the ceremony and the song and everything that took place this morning and understanding the history and why this had to take place.”
Gartner said that this project is one of several and there are more in the works.
“It’s a process that we go through and it’s spearheaded by the First Nations to come forward along with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner.”
Bear said that the collaboration is a large part of Truth and Reconciliation. Bear said that he was glad that it was able be completed during the year that celebrates the 150th Anniversary of Treaty 6.
“It’s the cooperation and it’s the aspirations of working together and I think everybody realized that well, this is something that’s very doable and something that has been done before.”
There are still members of the family of Chief John Smith around. Bear said that at the Muskoday Powwow and Treaty Celebration on Saturday they plan to honour all historical leadership at the first Grand Entry on Saturday.
“I always aspire to what our leadership has done in the past because they paved the way for us to continue to build on in those in that sense,” Bear said. “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have visionaries like Chief John Smith and then the ones that come after him and things like that so we’re working for the next seven generations. That’s what we aspire to (and) our people aspire to. We want to be able to continue to build and then the next people that come in, they’ll pick up the lands and continue with that.”
Gartner summed up the day as a great way to recognize history.
“I guess maybe to sum it up, it was a celebration of celebration of community and family, right? And we are one big community in the province and to recognize the families that built it,” Gartner said.
The emcee for the event was Randy Bear. Speakers included Chief Bear, Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand, FSIN Vice Chief Dutch Lerat and Gartner.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
