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Chapter 9 Cemeteries- A Rest From Their Labours
1917
Southern Saskatchewan

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Chapter 9

Cemeteries- A Rest From Their Labours

"Cemeteries are the canvases that reveal the ebb and flow of community history."
P.49 Can. Geographic quote by Randy Adams Fall 1989

This chapter will explore several cemeteries in this 80k (50 mile) radius of Assiniboia: a First Nation Cemetery; Métis, featuring some notables who are interred there; assorted styles of tombstones and markers, one burial practice, private graves, one of several interdenominational cemeteries.

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First Nations Burial Platform
1885
Southern Saskatchewan

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First Nation

One of the burial practices of the Sioux as reported by Fr. Hugonard in early 1870s of a child: "The little body was dressed in beads and wrapped with yellow cotton, then covered with buffalo skin and deposited on a platform on a little hill, the higher hills were reserved for men. The relatives accompanied the corpse; then came the mother, crying loudly and proclaiming the qualities of her child. For eight days, she went, exactly at sunset, to the specific hill and cried out for 15 minutes about the virtues of the little deceased." p87 1879-1970 W. Bunch

"The Sioux abhorred the grave (lowering into the ground). It had the deceased too far away from the Maker; therefore the platform had the deceased closer." P.44 Once Upon a Tomb

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First Nations Medicine Wheel
1940
Southern Saskatchewan

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The Canadian Government ordered the Sioux to bury their dead in graves like the Christians. P87 1870-1970 W. Bunch
In recent times several old burials have been recovered in this area (as in others) and have been reinterred in a central area.

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Gravesite of the First Nations Reserve near Wood Mountain
1925
Wood Mountain Reserve Cemetary, Saskatchewan

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Gravesite of the First Nations Reserve near Wood Mountain

Inscription reads
"1925-1925
Mini Napsun (Cinca)
Spill Water's (Baby)"

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Another Gravesite of the First Nations Reserve near Wood Mountain
1919
Wood Mountain Reserve Cemetary, Saskatchewan

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Another gravesite of the First Nations Reserve near Wood Mountain

Inscription reads
1918-1919
Tipi Waseuin
Good Wigwam

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First Nations Gravemarker Wounded Knee
1976
Southern Saskatchewan

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An example of a recent Sioux grave marker

"James Wounded Horse
1894-1976"

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Willow Bunch Cemetery Gate
1882
Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan

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One document of First Nations interment is a boy ten years of age, his name unknown, although placed in the records as 'Pied Noir (Black Foot), Antoine.'

Also a First Nations area was Old Wives, near the lake that gave the name to this area.