Elder has 83 years Stampede attendance

Page

It only takes John Lefthand Sr. two hours to get to the Calgary Stampede from his home. It used to take him 14 hours, but that was back in 1915.

Since then the 93-year-old Nakoda elder hasn't missed one Stampede yet, and now almost a century later, his lodge and family are a regular part of the stampede's Indian Village.

He doesn't come just to be a part of the Indian Village, but to make all visitors be a part of the Indian Village, said Clifford Jimmy John, Lefthand's grandson and interpreter.

"He's hoping he can preserve the culture by coming every year and teaching us young fellows about the old ways and how the tipi is important to us," his grandson explained.

Lefthand Sr. now makes his home in Eden Valley, but the first year he participated in the Stampede, he was camped with his uncle along the Oldman River somewhere between Eden Valley and Morley.

"They came on horseback," Jimmy John said. "The tipi poles were also brought in on a wagon.

"He used to tell us it took them from six in the morning to about eight in the evening to get here."

Lefthand has done more at the Stampede than pitch his lodge at the Indian Village, he has been a champion wild cow milker and a contestant in almost all the other rodeo events from saddle-bronc to chuckwagon racing. The Elder also danced in the competition powwows at the village until just six years ago when he was 87.

Lefthand has seen many changes in the world, Canada and the First Nations of Treaty 7. Some of those changes have been for the worse. Many First People are no longer speaking their mother tongue and are in danger of losing it. In the Nakoda communities and within their section at the stampede's Indian Village, only Nakoda is spoken.

"Our Elders teach us," Jimmy John said. "They hardly speak English and to learn English we have to go to school."

The tradition of representing the family at the stampede may soon passed on to a younger generation. When it eventually becomes Jimmy John's honor, he'll be ready, "when it comes around to my time."