Chefs help tell the Making Treaty 7 story through Indigenous cuisine

Making Treaty 7 was back this week with performances at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino.

The groundbreaking theatrical storytelling of the events of the signing of Treaty 7 at BlackfootCrossing in 1877 one of a family of numbered treaties signed between Canada's First Nationsand Queen Victoria incorporates a cast of over 20 First Nations and non-Aboriginalperformers, musicians, dancers, poets and elderswho composed each line, actionand gesture of their 90 minutes on stage to tell the story of the consequences and implicationsof the treaty139 years later.

The project was the vision of the late Michael Green, who was given the Blackfoot name ElkShadow/Pona Ko'Taksi and was co-founder of the One Yellow Rabbit theatre company, andFirst Nations elder and filmmaker Narcisse Blood (Middle Bull/Tatsikiistamik), who became thecultural and spiritual advisor to Making Treaty 7.

Both were killed in a car accident in early2015.

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On Thursday eveninga special inaugural gala event had chefs Jamie Harling of the DeaneHouse, River Cafe's Matthias Fong and Grey Eagle chef Bill Alexander prepare a meal usinglocal and Indigenous ingredients, many of them foraged from the Tsuut'ina First Nation.

Everynation was represented at the dinner, an opportunity to learn more about this part of ourcollective history through performance art and music, as well as food.

"There are 175 different species of mushroom on Tsuut'ina land," says chef Alexander.

An inkcap mushroom, which transforms into edible ink as it decomposes, was used to make aioliserved with elk carpaccio, saskatoon berries and bannock.

Wild rice cabbage rolls were toppedwith wild garlic aioli, and family-style platters of smoked trout with foraged Tsuut'ina nation wildhorseradish, bison hump stew and roasted pumpkin risotto were served to guests who wereencouraged to get toknow those they were sharing their meal with.

There were maple glazedcarrots with pemmican a mixture of dried meat and fat, traditionally bison, and often saskatoonberries duck tempura, salt-baked beets with wild rice crisps and hazelnut butter, whole roastedcauliflower and saskatoon and crabapple cider.

(They did have to source some of the crabapplejuice elsewhere, as a beaver or beavers chewed down two crabapple trees outside the DeaneHouse last weekend.)

They hope to continue to carry on the narrative with other food-related events connected to theMaking of Treaty 7 at River Cafe and the Deane House, both of which are known for their use of Indigenous ingredients and for incorporating an educational component, sharing knowledge andideas with Calgarians as well as on the international culinary stage.

The Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society intends to take the show on the road, and plans for theMaking Treaty 7 Festival, which incorporates music, dance, colour, flavour, tradition andceremony to help define our collective sense of place are well underway for Canada's 150thbirthday in 2017.

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