{"id":398,"date":"2026-09-14T21:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/?p=398"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:56:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T15:56:53","slug":"150th-treaty-6-gathering-at-fort-pitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/2026\/09\/14\/150th-treaty-6-gathering-at-fort-pitt\/","title":{"rendered":"150th Treaty 6 Gathering at Fort Pitt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From September 6\u201311, our community hosted the 150th Treaty 6 Gathering<\/strong> at Fort Pitt.<\/strong> Throughout the week, we heard from many knowledgeable speakers who shared teachings about our treaty rights, history, language, identity as n\u0113hiyawak, and many other important topics.
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The Gift of Language<\/strong> had the opportunity to host activities from Monday to Thursday. We set up our camp on the east side of Fort Pitt, near the riverbank, where people could stop by to visit, learn, and participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of our main activities was preparing dried meat<\/strong>. This process took the entire week. We began by gathering wood by the river and building a smoking rack. We then cut and prepared buffalo meat for smoking.  We had several Elders stop by throughout the week.  Isabelle Littlewolfe and Yvonne Carter showed us their knife skills. We were in awe as we watched them skillfully cut to make large \u201cblankets\u201d of meat. Huberta Stonechild shared a day as well when we did our bannock on a stick.  We are very thankful for the knowledge and support they shared this week. Many of the folks from the Fort Pitt colony brought their children who were eager to learn and get their hands dirty. 
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Once the meat was prepared, we hung them on the rack above the fire and smoked it for three consecutive days, while several of us took turns stoking the embers. Each morning, we set the meat over the fire atop the red willow branches that we created as a drying rack, and each evening, we carefully took it down and stored it until the following day. We also pan-fried some of the meat and shared it with people who stopped by our camp to visit. They enjoyed some dried meat with lard and bannock-on-a-stick.
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Our second activity was gathering and crushing chokecherries.<\/strong> Chokecherry bushes were growing near our camp, so we were able to pick the berries from there. A group of young boys joined us and were very helpful with gathering the berries. Afterward, we crushed the chokecherries using smooth, round rocks, as well as a meat grinder, until they formed a fine paste with a likeness to raspberry jam. This gave visitors an opportunity to see and participate in different ways of preparing the chokecherry berries. Herbalist share that crushed chokecherries can cleanse our intestinal system with the natural, rough texture of the crushed pits embedded therein.
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We also made bannock on a stick<\/strong> over the fire. Visitors were invited to wrap bannock dough around a stick, cook it slowly over the fire, and enjoy it with some of the dried meat. This was a fun and welcoming activity that gave people a chance to sit by the fire, visit, and share food together. The constant chit-chat and bubbly conversations created a friendly atmosphere that made the experience enjoyable for everyone.
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Another activity was preparing and tanning deer and buffalo hides<\/strong>, led by Michelle Whitstone. The process began with submerging a fleshed, dried, and pre-smoked buffalo hide in water for two days. After the hide was removed from the water, the hide was tied onto a hide frame, where we continued with damp-scraping to enmesh the braining solution into the dampened, flesh side. Then began the long process of stretching and drying through scraping. After the hide was thoroughly dried, we began scraping the fur side with various visitors stopping by to watch, learn, and give a helping hand to Michelle in preparing the hide, which will eventually be used to make hand drums for the schools. The deer hide needed soaking and damp-scraping. Visitors came away with memorable hands-on experiences.
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On the final day, we brought the week\u2019s work together by making soup with the dried meat and frying the crushed chokecherries. One of the Fort Pitt community members even stopped by for a trade for some dried meat for fresh vegetables from their garden, which we used in our soups. The food was prepared and served to the Elders, and the remaining dried meat was shared with visitors who stopped by our camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a memorable week by the river, filled with learning, teaching, laughter, and visiting with both new and familiar faces. We are grateful to everyone who shared their time, knowledge, and help throughout the gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From September 6\u201311, our community hosted the 150th Treaty 6 Gathering at Fort Pitt. Throughout the week, we heard from many knowledgeable speakers who shared teachings about our treaty rights, history, language, identity as n\u0113hiyawak, and many other important topics. The Gift of Language had the opportunity to host activities from Monday to Thursday. We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-updates","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oleducation.ca\/Gift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}