Tipi-yurt trade postponed

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A tipi and yurt (a traditional tent dwelling used by Chinese desert people) exchange planned to mark the start of a co-operative fossil study project between Canada and China in the Gobi desert, has been cancelled due to a lack of funding.

Initially, the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) had planned to have Peigan elder Joe Crowshoe present several painted Blackfoot tipis to the Chinese at a project camp in the Gobi desert.

The tipi's were to have been painted on the Peigan reserve August 15, according to a design authorized by Joe Crowshoe.

The tipi presentation scheduled for September was to have been a gesture of friendship that would have focused international attention on Sino-Canadian relations. Linked, as it was, to the Canada-China dinosaur project, the tipi-yurt exchange would also have been a highly visible symbol of the shared heritage of Canada and China.

But, just before Windspeaker went to press this week, notification that the exchange was cancelled was given by Susan Bramm, communications coordinator for Ex Terra Foundation of Edmonton, the spearheading organization for the dinosaur project. She said the IA has tried to find funding for the production of the tipi's and the presentation, but the monies could not be secured.

"The exchange is still planned to go in the summer of '88," Bramm told Windspeaker. However, IAA officials could not be reached to affirm the re-scheduling.

Hopefully, the last phase of the tipi-yurt exchange will take place in 1988 when yurts will be brought to Canada in a symbolic "trade-off" for the tipis.

Yurts are the traditional portable home which the Kazakh and Mongol people of China's Gobi desert once and still live in. Yurts were originally made of yak hide and were ported about by yak teams. Such infamous people as Genghis and Kublai Khan once lived in yurts.

The tipi-yurt exchange will be a symbol of the ingenuity of traditional peoples in coping with harsh environmental conditions. It will draw attention to the connection between the world of humans and the world of nature and the common struggle of all species and societies ? survival.