First Nations teens dig into their ancestors' past at archeological site

On a warm spring morning in southern Alberta, KerisaMcHugh-Kerrsquats on the dusty ground where her ancestors once camped hundreds of years ago.

The 16-year-oldis part of a program that brings teens from the nearby SiksikaHigh School to this site to take part in a real archeological dig on traditional Blackfoot land.

"There areno words to describe digging up your own history," saidMcHugh-Kerr, as she sifts dirt through a screen, searching for clues as to how her people lived three centuriesago.

Thisspotlocated near the BlackfootCrossing Historical Park on the Siksika Nation, just outside Cluny, Alta.was a busy gathering place for the Blackfoot people, as it was the only place for many kilometres where the Bow River could be crossed by foot.

"The fact thatourpeopleused to cross this river, cross this bank to trade,"makes it the ideal place forMcHugh-Kerrand her classmates to learn about their past, the Grade 11 studentsaid.

It is a real world classroom that teaches her more than just history, she said.It makes her better prepared to face the future.

"It's important for me to do this because then I can actually tell my kids and my grandkids that I had a chance to be a part of your ancestors' way and to give theman understanding of what it [was]like."

Rekindling the kids' connection with their traditional land is the reason the University of Calgary's archeology department started its Aboriginal Youth Engagement Project, of which this dig is a part.

"There is so much history contained in the land all around[the dig site]," said KelseyPennanen,a master's student who helps run the newly launched program.

Everyone gets their hands dirty here. High school students andarcheologistsworkshoulder to shoulder to uncover the secrets of the only known prehistoricfortified villageon the Canadian Plains.

About 300 years ago, a group of people came to this spot in the heart of Blackfoot territoryandbuilt the Cluny Fortified Village, but laterabandoned it, saidPennanen.

She said who those people were,and what their relationship was to the Blackfoot, is still a mysteryand one that thearcheologists working with the students here are aimingto solve.

It's also why Pennanenbelieves that helping toexcavate the site gives the kidsan amazing opportunityto learn their own history and to"tell those stories themselves."

It is an opportunity that Lisa Calf Robe never had. Calf Robe said she grew up playing in the trees that ring the dig site but had noidea about the area's historical significance.

Now a teacher at SiksikaHigh, Calf Robe blames that on being educated in a residential school, where there was"little to no cultural component to her education."

She said she's had to "go back and relearnmany things that Ilost over the years."

By taking part in programs like this, Calf Robe said she is hopefulher students will not have to go through that process.

"It's really empoweringfor myself as a Niitsitapi, Blackfoot person;these are things that they are finding in my own backyard," she said.

Back at the dig site, McHugh-Kerr is using a trowel to carefully scrape away hundreds of years of history, searching for and then finding tangible evidence of how her ancestors lived.

"We have found bone that is still trapped in the dirt; we are just trying topick around it,"she said,describingan earlier find.

It's an exciting discovery.Butby sifting through the past,McHugh-Kerrsaid she hopes to do more than uncover clues as to how Blackfoot people lived centuries ago:She also hopes to change how her people are perceived today.

"We are not just Siksika, or just Blackfoot, or Indigenous people. We are real people,Siksikaitsitapi,real people."