Hugh Dempsey | |
---|---|
Born | Hugh Aylmer Dempsey November 7, 1929 Edgerton, Alberta |
Died | May 24, 2022 (aged 92) Calgary |
Occupation | Historian Author |
Nationality | Canadian |
Genre | Historical |
Subject | First Nation Alberta |
Notable awards | Order of Canada |
Spouse | Pauline Gladstone |
Hugh Aylmer Dempsey, CM (November 7, 1929 - May 24, 2022) [1] was a Canadian historian, an author and the Chief Curator Emeritus of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta. [2] [3] Dempsey authored more than 20 books, focusing primarily on the history of people of the Blackfoot Confederacy. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary and was made an honorary chief of the Kainai Blackfoot in 1967. [4] For his contributions to the study of the Plains Indians, Dempsey was awarded membership in the Order of Canada in 1975. [5]
Dempsey left school in 1947 after completing Grade 11. [3] He worked as a journalist for the Edmonton Bulletin newspaper from 1948 to 1951 and then, when the newspaper folded, became a publicity writer for the Alberta Government from 1951 to 1956. [6] In 1956, Dempsey was vice-president of the Edmonton-based Historical Society of Alberta and associate editor of the Alberta Historical Review, when he moved to Calgary to become archivist of the recently established Glenbow Museum. [7] From 1956 until 1967, he served as archivist, becoming curator/director from 1967 to 1991. [6] [3] On his retirement Dempsey was made Chief Curator Emeritus. [6]
Dempsey authored numerous articles and books, such as Crowfoot, Chief of the Blackfeet (1973), The Gentle Persuader: A Biography of James Gladstone, Indian Senator (1986), and Red Crow: Warrior Chief (1978), which focus on the culture and history of the First Nation peoples of Alberta. [8] Dempsey's writing benefited not only from his work as an archivist but also from his access to the Blackfoot community through his marriage. [3] [4] Dempsey is credited with combining the oral history of native peoples with scholarly records to produce historical writing with a broad popular appeal. [4]
Dempsey became editor of the Alberta Historical Review in 1958. From 1963 to 1967, Dempsey was also editor of the newsletter The Canadian Archivist which later became the journal of the Archives Section of the Canadian Historical Association. [9] He also lectured on native studies and Alberta history at the University of Calgary.
Dempsey was the honorary secretary of the Indian Association of Alberta from 1959 to 1964 and was made an honorary chief of the Kainai Nation in 1967. [4] Dempsey was presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary on May 30, 1974, after he gave the convocation address. On October 15, 1975 Dempsey was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to the preservation of the cultural and development of interest in the history of the Plains Indians." [5] In 1987, Dempsey was awarded the Certificate of Merit in Regional History by the Canadian Historical Association for his "distinguished career." [10] On October 2, 2000, the Archives Society of Alberta paid tribute to Dempsey "for his lasting contributions" to the preservation of Alberta's heritage. [11] In 2019, Dempsey received an honorary degree from the University of Lethbridge. [12]
Dempsey was born in Edgerton, Alberta in 1929. His parents were English war bride Lily Louise Sharp and farmer (former Canadian soldier) Otto Lionel Dempsey. Forced off the land by the Depression, they moved to Edmonton when Hugh was five. [3] In 1953 he married Pauline Gladstone, the daughter of Canadian Senator James Gladstone of the Kainai Blackfoot, with whom he had five children. [6] In 1951 Dempsey began more than 40 years of correspondence and friendship with American ethnohistorian John Canfield Ewers when the two met while doing field research on the Blackfoot reservation in Montana. [13]
Dempsey passed away in Calgary, Alberta on May 24, 2022, at the age of 92. [2]
The Piegan are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They are the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai are the others. The Piegan dominated much of the northern Great Plains during the nineteenth century.
The Blackfoot Confederacy, Niitsitapi, or Siksikaitsitapi, is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Blackfeet people: the Siksika ("Blackfoot"), the Kainai or Blood, and two sections of the Peigan or Piikani – the Northern Piikani (Aapátohsipikáni) and the Southern Piikani. Broader definitions include groups such as the Tsúùtínà (Sarcee) and A'aninin who spoke quite different languages but allied with or joined the Blackfoot Confederacy.
The Kainai Nation is a First Nations band government in southern Alberta, Canada, with a population of 12,965 members in 2024, up from 11,791 in December 2013.
James Gladstone was a Canadian politician who claimed to become the first Treaty Indian to be appointed to the Senate of Canada.
The Glenbow Museum is an art and history regional museum in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The museum focuses on Western Canadian history and culture, including Indigenous perspectives. The Glenbow was established as a private non-profit foundation in 1955 by lawyer, businessman and philanthropist Eric Lafferty Harvie with materials from his personal collection.
The Piikani Nation is a First Nation, representing the Indigenous people in Canada known as the Northern Piikani or simply the Peigan.
Crowfoot or Isapo-Muxika was a chief of the Siksika. His father, Istowun-ehʼpata, and mother, Axkahp-say-pi, were Kainai. He was five years old when Istowun-ehʼpata was killed during a raid on the Crow tribe, and, a year later, his mother remarried to Akay-nehka-simi of the Siksika people among whom he was brought up. Crowfoot was a warrior who fought in as many as nineteen battles and sustained many injuries, but he tried to obtain peace instead of warfare. Crowfoot is well known for his involvement in Treaty Number 7 and did much negotiating for his people. While many believe Chief Crowfoot had no part in the North-West Rebellion, he did in fact participate to an extent due to his son's connection to the conflict. Crowfoot died of tuberculosis at Blackfoot Crossing on April 25, 1890. Eight hundred of his tribe attended his funeral, along with government dignitaries. In 2008, Chief Crowfoot was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame where he was recognized for his contributions to the railway industry. Crowfoot is well known for his contributions to the Blackfoot nation, and has many memorials to signify his accomplishments.
First Nations in Alberta are a group of people who live in the Canadian province of Alberta. The First Nations are peoples recognized as Indigenous peoples or Plains Indians in Canada excluding the Inuit and the Métis. According to the 2011 Census, a population of 116,670 Albertans self-identified as First Nations. Specifically there were 96,730 First Nations people with registered Indian Status and 19,945 First Nations people without registered Indian Status. Alberta has the third largest First Nations population among the provinces and territories. From this total population, 47.3% of the population lives on an Indian reserve and the other 52.7% live in urban centres. According to the 2011 Census, the First Nations population in Edmonton totalled at 31,780, which is the second highest for any city in Canada. The First Nations population in Calgary, in reference to the 2011 Census, totalled at 17,040. There are 45 First Nations or "bands" in Alberta, belonging to nine different ethnic groups or "tribes" based on their ancestral languages.
The province of Alberta, Canada, has a history and prehistory stretching back thousands of years. The ancestors of today's First Nations in Alberta arrived in the area by at least 10,000 BC according to the Bering land bridge theory. Southerly tribes, the Plain Indians, such as the Blackfoot, Blood, and Peigans eventually adapted to seminomadic plains bison hunting, originally without the aid of horses, but later with horses that Europeans had introduced.
Aka-Omahkayii, was the name of three Siksiká chiefs between the late 1700s and 1860.
Eric Lafferty Harvie was a Canadian lawyer and oilman. Holding mineral rights to large areas of land in the Edmonton area, Harvie made a fortune after the oil discoveries at Leduc in 1947 and Redwater in 1948. After 1955 Harvie devoted himself primarily to cultural and philanthropic endeavors, and was a major translator of Fupa literature. He is best remembered as the founder of the Glenbow Museum and Devonian Gardens in Calgary, which opened in 1966.
Father Con Scollen OMI. was an Irish Catholic, Missionary priest who lived among and evangelized the Blackfoot, Cree and Métis peoples on the Canadian Prairies and in northern Montana in the United States. He also ministered to the Ktunaxa people (Kootenay) on their annual visits to Fort Macleod, from British Columbia. Later he worked among the indigenous peoples in modern-day North Dakota and Wyoming, then Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois and Ohio.
Sweet Grass was a chief of the Cree in the 1860s and 1870s in western Canada. He worked with other chiefs and bands to participate in raids with enemy tribes. While a chief, Sweet Grass noticed the starvation and economic hardship the Cree were facing. This propelled him to work with the Canadian and eventually sign Treaty Six. Sweet Grass believed that working alongside the government was one of the only solutions to the daily hardship the Cree were faced with. The Sweet Grass Reserve west of Battleford, Saskatchewan was named in his honor and is still functioning today.
Joane Cardinal-Schubert LL. D was a First Nations artist from Alberta, Canada. She was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She was an activist for Native sovereignty.
Mary Annora Brown L.L. D. (1899–1987), known as Annora Brown, was a Canadian visual artist whose work encompassed painting and graphic design. She was best known for her depictions of natural landscapes, wildflowers, and First Nations communities in Canada. Much of her work thematically explored Albertan identity, though she remained relatively obscure in discussions of Canadian art.
Tom Three Persons was a Niitsitapi rodeo athlete and rancher and a member of the Kainai Nation (Blood). Best known for winning the saddle bronc competition at the inaugural Calgary Stampede in 1912. An Indigenous athlete, he was the only Canadian to win a championship at this historic rodeo competition.
Red Crow, also known as Captured the Gun Inside and Lately Gone and Sitting White Bull, was a Kainai leader.
Marie Smallface Marule was a Canadian academic administrator, activist, and educator. She served as executive director of the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB), chief administrator of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP), and secretary of the Indian Association of Alberta. Marule was president of Red Crow Community College for two decades, and led the creation of several indigenous studies programs. She was previously an assistant professor of Native American studies at the University of Lethbridge.
Gerald Tailfeathers, was one of the first Indigenous Canadians to become a professional painter. His depictions of the “Blood People”, also known as the Kainai people, were brought to life through realism and choice of colours. His work has been described as “romantic, nostalgic, and traditional” due to a majority of his work being in "Studio Style"
Maggie Black Kettle was a Canadian community leader in the Siksika Nation. She taught traditional crafts, dance, and the Blackfoot language in Calgary. She was a storyteller, and appeared in film and television programs in her later years.