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As you drive down the Yellowhead Highway, you'll find a sign that reads "Chief Poundmaker Historical Centre and Tee-Pee Village" near the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, at the town of Paynton. The Poundmaker First Nation, located about 20 km south of Paynton, established the centre and tipi village for tourists, history buffs and cultural camps.
When the chief and council decided on building the centre and tipi village, the job fell to Don Favel, a Headman, one of the leaders in the community. At the time of construction, he was in charge of economic development for the Poundmaker First Nation.
The tipi village consists of 40 tipis and can be set up anywhere on the reserve according to the client's wishes.
"Depending on the situation, say somebody rents the village for a family retreat, we can take a few tipis and set them up in an isolated part of the reserve," said Favel. "They're not on foundations. One day they can be here and then moved somewhere else."
"The tribal council uses [the tipi village] for counseling. Our health committee uses it for one-on-one counseling for community healing and wellness. We can split it up to five or six little camps based on the needs. We're pretty flexible," continued Favel. "Say if the reserve brought in a facilitator for a family healing conference. We wouldn't keep the tourists and the counseling session in the same place."
There is the option of just staying overnight and there are always tipis available near the historical centre. For longer stays, tipis can be set up at different locations, in more remote settings.
"The guys traveling down the road, if they stopped and decided to camp overnight in a tipi, they'd be in the overnight camp," said Favel. "It's still isolated and quiet. It's closer to the historical centre but it's still the same kind of tipis."
In 1992, the chief and council came up with the idea to build a museum and historical centre. The museum and historical centre portrays the battle of 1885, and the battle between the Cree and Sarcee of 1840. The museum came first and the village was used to fill in the blanks, said Favel.
"We did some cultural camps in 1995. But 1996 was when we opened for the tourists and the traveling public," he said. "We did some community camps there and a major Elders' camp, where we took Elders from 12 bands and talked to them about tourism and appropriation to ask them what was appropriate and inappropriate to show to tourists."
"We know what's for sale and what isn't," he continued.
Traditional spirituality is handled very carefully at the tipi village. It is impossible to teach Aboriginal history and culture without mentioning spirituality because they are all so intertwined.
"Spirituality isn't part of our menu but we do teach [the visitors] about our traditional lifestyle," said Favel. "We tell them about that but we don't sell our sweat lodges."
The historical centre presents First Nations history without glossing over anything unpleasant or detestable. Everything good and bad about Aboriginal life from before contact with Europeans, to treaties, residential school and poverty is covered.
"We tell them how we got there, about how we're a dependent society - we don't romanticize," said Favel. But "in the evening we have storytellers and legends about our history here."
Activities range from round dancing and powwow demonstrations, to horseback riding, swimming and sightseeing. Sometimes the staff will take them to other tourist sites that are important to the 1885 Northwest Rebellion or the 1840 battle between the Crees and the Sarcee.
"A lot of the marketing efforts are co-operative efforts with other tourism operators throughout western Canada," said Gillian Ward, a Saskatoon consultant helping with the marketing of the historical centre.
Part of their other efforts include being listed in the World Wide Wilderness Directory that is setting up a separate directory of just Aboriginal tourism opertors. In order to be listed in this separate directory, the operator has to be at least 51 per cent Aboriginal owned. The Poundmaker First Nation is focusing on connecting and working with other Aboriginal directors and operators listed in the directory.
It is important to the First Nation to be able to tell its own story and not be interpreted solely through history books and other references. There is another battle of sorts going on with the town of Paynton, whish also tries to cash-in on the site where the Canadian army was driven off after it attacked the Crees led by Poundmaker.
"They're still going on the written history and what the white people wrote. They won't allow us to print what really happened on the reserve here because it's based on oral history. It puts non-Native people in a bad light," said Favel. "We've got a fourth year history university class to do straight archives work on the history of Poundmaker's and it verifies the Elders oral history on the reserve. We're getting a lot of our own research and we're getting it done by an established institution like the [University of Saskatchewan. Whatever we say is true and we can prove it."
The economic spin-off from the historical centre and tipi village is extensive. The tourism group itself employs 10 people throughout the season, with two constantly at the centre as interpreters. But other people benefit as well, including powwow singers and dancers, crafts people who sell goods at the centre, cooks, guides and horse handlers.
According to a study done by a professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, tourists who sought out Aboriginal sites were seeking the education in and the experience of Aboriginal life.
"We try to provide those two Es," said Favel.
The centre and village opened for the season on May 2, which is significant for two reasons - it is the annual day of treaty payment, and it is the anniversary of the Canadian army's defeat at Cut Knife Hill.
For booking inforation, contact Gillian Ward at (306) 664-2259. You can also visit their Internet web site at . At the time of writing this article, the web site wasn't up and running yet.
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