Some First Nations members in Manitoba say they are angry that Pope Francis was given a hat as a gift after his apology Monday for the role members of the Catholic Church played in Canada’s residential school system.
After the pope’s apology in Maskwacis, Alta., Wilton Littlechild, honorary chief of the Ermineskin First Nation, presented the pope with a headdress. The Pope wore the regalia over his traditional papal head covering until it was removed shortly afterwards by a member of his staff.
“For them to give away [the Pope] this sacred object was disappointing,” said Kevin Takan, a knowledge keeper and spiritual advisor for the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in western Manitoba.
“It’s become commonplace to recognize political leadership, and it’s not meant to be.”
Takan said the hats are traditionally earned by members who do significant work in service to the community.
“[People] must constantly prove themselves. They have to continue to prove themselves in the future that they still deserve to have it.”
Kevin Takan, who works as a spiritual advisor for the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, says he was disappointed when he saw the pope was given a haircut. (Walter Bernal/CBC)
He also said there are protocols in place for spiritual leaders to take away a headdress if the recipient has not supported their work.
Takan said that because politicians and others like the pope have been given sacred Native objects in the past, many people in the Dakota Nation feel that the headdress’s significance has been diminished.
“People started saying that the headdress doesn’t mean anything anymore, that it’s tarnished — tarnished by politicians and people who just give it to anybody.”
Protocols Followed: Phil Fontaine
Others supported the gift idea.
Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor who has served as both national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said Littlechild followed protocol by requesting permission to display the hat.
“He went to the elders. He went to the leadership and asked for permission to present this gift. And so [it was] completely in accordance with the way they followed their customs and protocol,” Fontaine said.
Takan acknowledges that some, like Fontaine, support the gift, but he disagrees with them.
“I guess [the Pope is] the leader for them. But I don’t believe the pope is a leader for the rest of us,” he said. “How do we invite the fox into the henhouse and say, ‘Okay, you’re the head rooster here?’ It doesn’t work like that.”
Dakota lore keeper and elder Wanbdi Wakita said the type of feathered ornament presented to the Pope was sacred and of Dakota origin. They are traditionally made and given only under certain circumstances. People should earn each eagle feather by making a remarkable contribution to the community, he said.
“If somebody has a vision or if the community decides, ‘This is a good leader, let’s elect him,’ they go and blanket him, put a hairstyle on his head,” he said. “They will decide.”
He said healers can also decide if someone deserves a haircut.
“He already knows – he got the information from above,” Wakita said.
Dakota Nation Knowledge Keeper and Elder Wandby Waquita says the sacred meaning of the headdress is lost on many people. (Travis Golby/CBC)
He does not believe that many people already understand the meaning of a hairstyle.
“I’m sorry to say that our people, they don’t understand the sanctity of it. Not the meaning—the holiness of something that comes from the Creator.”
Chance Paupanekis, who is from the Kinosao Sipi Cree Nation (also known as the Norwegian Home) in northern Manitoba, said he was angry when he first saw Littlechild giving the pope a haircut.
“A lot of these items have to be earned through ceremony, through making commitments,” said Paupanekis, who is a cultural recovery advocate and works with families through the First Nations Family Lawyer’s Office.
He said many young people now do not have access to these sacred or ceremonial items themselves and watch them being given away. Paupanekis worries about the effect of making their own cultural values unavailable to them.
Chance Paupanekis, who is from the Kinosao Sipi Cree Nation, says he worries about the effect on young people of seeing sacred objects given away. (Travis Golby/CBC)
“What I worry about the most is how the youth, who don’t have a deep understanding of these complexities, will interpret this divide,” Paupanekis said.
“It’s division … It’s part of the Doctrine of Discovery,” he said — the 15th-century papal edict that justified colonial expansion by allowing Europeans to claim indigenous people’s lands as their own.
“That’s part of colonialism, to divide and rule. And we see that. We saw it live.”
Takan said he wishes there had been a conversation with the Dakota Nation and traditional leadership about giving the pope a haircut.
“It’s important to have these discussions, or we will lose this part of our history,” he said.
Takan is also worried about the impact on local youth.
“I hope that in the future our young people will strive to earn [a headdress],” he said.
“I hope our people can recover from this and remember … the symbolism and what the purpose – the real purpose – of [the headdress] was and is.”
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