Herbert Strongeagle

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Herbert Strongeagle (born 1934 or 1935) is considered "a role model for 'breaking the stereotype, myths and perception of Native people that is constantly reinforced by hockey people and the media" [1] by his community, and in 2006 received the First Nations Lifetime Achievement Award - Saskatchewan. [2] Early in his life he was awarded the Tom Longboat Medal as Best Indian Athlete in Saskatchewan for his contributions to his junior baseball and midget and juvenile hockey teams, [3] along with track and field and basketball, and continued to receive awards from his community for contributions through his lifetime.

Contents

Indigenous Peoples History

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission 94 Calls to Action are dependent on identifying and making publicly available the history and legacy of residential schools and the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. There is a lack of documentation for their history as it was one of forced assimilation [4] [ circular reference ] by a dominant culture looking to erase those cultures, [5] which means little may be available. Plus digitization efforts to date have not prioritized items under copyright nor non-mainstream cultures and languages, resulting in claims of digital or electronic colonialism. Thus the lack of references from the mainstream culture for this entry.

Early years

Herb Strongeagle was born in 1934 [6] or 1935 [1] [3] and is from the Pasqua Reserve, [7] Pasqua First Nation, Cowichan Bay, B.C. [8] though Zeman, et al., report him as being from Piapot [9] as does the Cowichan News Leader, commenting he came "from a humble start in Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask." [1]

Education

Strongeagle attended Lebret Industrial School also known as Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School located on the outskirts of Lebret, Saskatchewan for 12 years, starting at the age of 5. [1] [10] The school was run by the Oblates (in charge of the boys) [11] with the assistance of the Grey Nuns (girls). [12] St. Paul's High School later opened at the Indian School in 1948. [12] Sports were a very important method of assimilation at the residential schools [13] and Lebret, for one, "developed outstanding athletic programs" and athletes, and Herb Strongeagle was one of four students from the school who received the Tom Longboat Award established by Indian Affairs and the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. George Poitras (1957), Gerald Starr (1954) and Arthur Obey (1951 and 1960) were the other three winners from the school. Sports and games were also used by students to endure their institutionalization. [13] [14]

According to the 1955 history [12] of Lebret Indian School and other sources, he:

Strongeagle not only played sports with Art Obey but George Poitras and Gerald Starr were also present at the school and playing sports around the same time.

Strongeagle went on to attend Saskatoon Business College, [1] then the University of Ottawa, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1973. [6] [8] While at university, he produced at least one article for a 4-page supplement (supplement titled Indian Week) for the student newspaper, The Carleton. [17] He later received his Life Insurance License from the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan. [10]

Sports

Zeman, et al. report that the first native high school and sports were introduced in 1948 by Father Paul Piechet. "Every boy in that original 1948 high school class...were all members of the hockey team," including Strongeagle. [9] In contrast, Sister Marcoux reports that Mr. Ed Doll started building the juvenile hockey team in 1946. [12] "The Qu’Appelle team sweater was patterned after those of the Montreal Canadiens, with the exception that an "Indian head" replaced the traditional ch logo that the Canadiens wore on the front of their jerseys." [14] Official sources such as the Saskatchewan Hockey Association refer to the hockey team as the Lebret Indians, though other sources occasionally referred to throughout this entry may use Lebret Pucksters or the Lebret Eagles.

Personal life

An AFOA Saskatchewan presentation including multiple photos offers the following information: [8]

Career

Managed Kinookimaw Resort (date unknown). [8]

Worked "with Regina's Co-op Oil Refineries while playing for the Fort Qu'Appelle Sioux Indians hockey team that won the provincial crown in 1957" (exact dates he played for the team are unknown). [1]

Then came various "management and finance positions in Federal and Provincial Government Departments, on First Nation Reserves and with the Saskatchewan Indian Federated University College." [10]

From 1986 to 1998 was a Regina Pats WHL scout. [6] [8]

From 2002 to 2005 was a Vancouver Canucks NHL Hocket scout. [8]

Management team for the Halaw Group (2005?). [25]

In 2007 he was reported as being President of the Aboriginal Financial Services Corporation, Director of Many Nations Benefit Cooperative Ltd., and "the first lay-bencher for the Law Society of Saskatchewan." [1] [10]

Also in 2007 he was also reported as being "Executive Director of Finance and Administration of the Institute of Indigenous Government in Vancouver, BC" [3] and on the "AFN Indian Residential Schools Advisory Committee." [10]

Honorary Chair when he made a bid for the 2017 National Aboriginal Hockey Championships. [26]

Strongeagle "has spent the past 30-plus years assisting First Nations organizations, helping develop and maintain accountable financial records, completing audits and developing business plans for First Nations businesses and economic development initiatives." [3]

Awards

In 1953 he won the Tom Longboat Award, an award that honours outstanding First Nations athletes and sportsmen in each province; national male and female winners are selected from the provincial winners. He received the Regional (R) award at age 19 for Track and field, Hockey, Baseball, and Basketball. [6] [7]

Fort Qu'Appelle Fire Department Hall of Fame. [27]

1996 Rural Sports Hall of Fame, Indian Head, Saskatchewan. [8]

1997 Sports Hall of Fame, First Nations, Saskatchewan. [8] One of the second set of inductees. [6]

2006 Lifetime Achievement Award, First Nations, Saskatchewan. [3] [8] [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Strongeagle a role model: lifetime achievement: Saskatchewan First Nations Award a fitting tribute" (PDF). Cowichan News Leader. 6 January 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  2. 1 2 Debates and Proceedings (Hansard) of the Third Session - Twenty-Fifth Legislature of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan (PDF). Published under the authority of The Honourable P. Myron Kowalsky, Speaker. November 13, 2006. pp. 328–329.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Congratulations Herb Strongeagle, Many Nations Board of Directors member" (PDF). Many Nations News. Spring–Summer 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  4. ↑ Forced Assimilation
  5. ↑ Jiwani, Yasmin (March 27, 2016). "Obituaries as Markers of Memory: Grievability and Visibility in Representations of Aboriginal Women in the National Canadian Imaginary". Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies. 16 (4): 387–399. doi:10.1177/1532708616638691. S2CID   147335138.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Individuals' Contributions To Sport Recognized". Saskatchewan Indian. 27[4]: 33. Winter 1997.
  7. 1 2 Forsyth, J.M. (2005). The power to define: A history of the tom longboat awards, 1951–2001. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: University of Windsor.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "AFOA Saskatchewan Honouring Herb Strongeagle" (PDF). Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of Saskatchewan. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  9. 1 2 3 Zeman, B.; et al. "1955-59 Lebret Indians. In Hockey heritage: 88 Years of puck chasing in Saskatchewan" . Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Igniting change (article from Say Magazine)". In the Community. 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  11. 1 2 Balcarres Free Lance (March 1961). "Art Obey Top Indian Athlete" (PDF). Indian Record. XXIV (III): 7.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Marcoux, Sister G. (1955). History of the Qu'Appelle Indian School, Lebret, Saskatchewan: In Fulfillment of the request by the Department of Education on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Province of Saskatchewan (PDF). s.n.
  13. 1 2 Forsyth, J. (2013). "Bodies of meaning". Aboriginal peoples and sport in Canada: historical foundations and contemporary issues. Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Press. pp. 15–34. ISBN   9780774824224.
  14. 1 2 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015). "Sports and the arts: 1940 to 2000". Canada's residential schools: the History, part 2, 1939 to 2000. Volume 1. The Final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 471. ISBN   9780773546516.
  15. 1 2 Prairie Messenger (Oct. 1949) (October–November 1953). "Qu'Appelle Residential School shows constant progress" (PDF). The Indian Missionary Record. XVI[16]: 4.
  16. ↑ "Lebret School graduates form alumni group" (PDF). Indian Record. XXII[8]: 8. October 1959.
  17. ↑ Strongeagle, Herbert (November 19, 1965). "Indian's Thoughts". The Carleton. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Lebret hockey players retain Coach Obey: Q.V.H.A. Champions 1952" (PDF). The Indian Missionary Record. XV[9]: 6. November 1952.
  19. ↑ "Sports Leaders Honoured: Arthur Obey And Tony Cote". Saskatchewan Indian. 10[2-3]: 5. February–March 1980. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  20. ↑ "1961 Southern League Game Reports". www.attheplate.com. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  21. ↑ "1962 Southern League Game Reports". www.attheplate.com. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  22. ↑ Ledoux, Gloria (April 1981). "Sandy Lake Chiefs compete in international hockey tournament". Saskatchewan Indian. 11 (4): 36–37.
  23. ↑ "World Peace Day". Cowichan Valley Quakers. January 17, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  24. ↑ Rusland, Peter (13 November 2013). "That's my boy". Cowichan News Leader Pictorial. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  25. ↑ "Management Team". www.halawgroup.com. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  26. ↑ "Cowichan Valley bids on National Aboriginal Hockey tournament". Cowichan Valley Citizen. 27 June 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  27. ↑ "Fort Qu'Appelle Fire Department Hall of Fame". www.fortquappelle.com. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
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