Indigenous Sports & Recreation
Our archives hold a unique history of Indigenous creation and participation of sports and games throughout the Treaty 7 region and into the west coast and far north. There is mention of Indigenous participation in many different sports and activities, such as hockey, golf, horse races, rodeos, archery, canoe races, kayaking, and more. This history we have archived includes materials such as photographs, textual records and books.
To start your own research into this topic, try searching our online database using key words such as sports, recreation, games or any specific sport or activity you would like to look into.
For activities such as horse racing, wood cutting competitions or rodeos, try looking into events such as Banff Indian Days, the Calgary Stampede or the Banff Winter Carnival where most of these kinds of events took place; check out the Events & Powwows page for more information.
For the history of Indigenous sports, look through books or newspaper articles about sports. Try looking under call numbers 02.8, 01.5 and 07.2 in our library to find relevant books on sports that may involve Indigenous participation. Morley - people, views and buildings in the Luxton family fonds has some record of Indigenous sports in Mînî Thnî (Morley) which may be of use. The Stoney News and Bulletin newsletters also contain records of sports teams in Mînî Thnî. Also, look under Sports in our newsfiles to find newspaper articles that may be relevant to your research.
We also have several prints, negatives, transparencies, and videos displaying Indigenous participation and creation of different types of sport and recreation. Examples of these can be seen in the grid below.
See How To & FAQ to see how to narrow your search to Indigenous content and Research Tips for more help on where to look.
This webpage has been designed and created by Jacinda Brisson, Archives Indigenous Research Intern, as part of the Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage Internship Program.