A group of Cree attacked a Blackfoot camp along the Lethbridge coulees 152 years ago, including the area where Indian Battle Park stands today.
“They thought that they were approaching just a small group and didn’t realize that there were many clans from Kainai and Piikani that were there,” said Camina Weasel Moccasin, Indigenous curator at the Galt Museum and Archives. “It was actually a very one-sided victory for the Blackfoot people.”
Now, for the first time the details of that fight, called the Battle of the Belly River, will be published from an Indigenous perspective.
Lethbridge College students gathered on the anniversary of the event to hear Blackfoot elders share stories about the battle.
Through a partnership between the college, the City of Lethbridge, Galt Museum and Archives and Lethbridge Historical Society, those stories will be transcribed with, and 3D images of artifacts and animation, used to create a virtual reality experience.
“If we don’t get (these stories), we’ll kind of lose them in a way and we can’t get them back afterward,” said student Wyatt Singer.
“We lost so much already.”
Accounts of the Battle of the Belly River have been published three times, all from a colonial perspective.
While Blackfoot elder Mike Bruised Head believes those descriptions are fairly accurate, he feels an Indigenous voice is important for educating people on the battle’s history.
“It may have lost the full true intent of it, but it’s close,” Bruised Head said. “We want to say it in a way that it’s a learning tool, rather than recreating or reinventing animosity. It’s just a storytelling tool now.”
Something Weasel Moccasin believes will further reconciliation efforts in the city.
“That Niitsitapi voice being acknowledged and heard and then bringing with it pride for Niitsitapi community,” Weasel Moccasin said.
The project is expected to be ready for viewing next fall.
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