Six eagles for six ancestors

The following is a continuation of a SooToday.com article about the repatriation of the remains of six Batchewana First Nation ancestors. To return to the beginning of this article, please click here.

After a few songs, a thorough sage-smudging and a few short speeches, the single cedar box that seemed much too small to hold the remains of six people was loaded onto the back of a pick-up truck.

The box was just under a metre long, about half a metre wide and half a meter high.

A blanket covered it during its journey across the river and while it travelled in the back of the truck the 50 kilometres from Bellevue Park to the traditional burial grounds at Goulais Bay.

The sacred eagle staff was an ever-vigilant and close companion to the box throughout its travels down from Washington and all the way home to the bay.

The people escorting the remains formed a long procession, with nearly 100 vehicles in all, travelling west on Queen Street to Church Street then up to Great Northern Road and out of town by Highway 17 North.

The procession was escorted by Sault Ste. Marie City Police and Ontario Provincial Police and Batchewana First Nation Police Service.

Every intersection along the way was attended by City Police officers and traffic was halted to allow passage of the procession.

One officer saluted as the procession passed while some others stood at attention.

Most vehicles travelling in the opposite direction stopped and several pedestrians also stopped, removing their hats and standing still as the procession passed.

It took about an hour to travel to the church in Goulais Bay Reserve, then another 15 or so minutes for the people to walk up the hill to the traditional burial grounds.

The chain across the entrance to the grounds had been lowered for the truck carrying the remains to back in.

A cedar trail marked the way from the truck to the six graves, circling a large swath of land.

A sacred fire was lit to the southeast of the row of graves.

Blankets were spread with sacred bundles to the north of each grave.

The row of graves had been dug from east to west across the centre of the burial grounds.

Chief Sayers asked that the grounds not be photographed, saying he wanted people to remember this event with their minds and hearts, to talk about it with their children and grandchildren and to tell the story of it to all who will listen.

As the men sang and drummed to the northeast of the graves, the people lined up to offer tobacco and prayers at each of the six medicine blankets.

Once everyone was done, four strong young men were selected to carry the box of remains from the truck to the eastern-most grave.

The box was blessed and smudged again then opened.

On top were the remains of the three women.

These were set aside by the medicine women in attendance so the remains of the chief could be retrieved first.

A piece of red cloth was set inside another box nearly identical to the one that carried the remains of all six Batchewana ancestors.

The chief and another man carefully and slowly lifted the remains of the chief from the box.

They made a small bundle wrapped in white cloth, no more than half a metre long.

These were laid gently in the box, followed by another piece of red cloth, two sheets of birch bark and several boughs of cedar.

It was again smudged with sage smoke, sprinkled with tobacco and sealed.

The same course of action followed five more times until each of the individual remains rested in its own box.

Chief Sayers and several other men lit their sacred pipes and Sayers carried his pipe to each box in turn.

"The holes are for the smoke, yes," he said. "But they are also doorways for the ancestors to come and go as they wish."

He said it was a very good day.

One of the best in his lifetime.

It was a day for Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways to assert its sovereignty by bringing its ancestors home across the river in a birch bark canoe and not across a bridge and through customs.

It was a day to remind the governments of the visitors that Batchewana First Nation citizens have the right to move freely around this area.

Best of all, he said, it was a day of celebration as six ancestors finally came home.

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