Maggie Black Kettle
{{short description|Canadian actress and community leader}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Maggie Black Kettle
| image = MaggieBlackKettle1988.png
| alt = An elderly Siksika woman, grey hair parted and in braids, from a 1988 newspaper
| caption = Maggie Black Kettle, from a 1988 newspaper
| other_names = Maggie Blackkettle, Niinayiiniimakii
| birth_name =
| birth_date = August 20, 1917
| birth_place = Siksika Reserve, Alberta, Canada
| death_date = September 14, 2011
| death_place = Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| occupation = Community leader, educator, storyteller, dancer, artist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| parents =
| relatives =
}}
Maggie Black Kettle (August 20, 1917 – September 14, 2011) 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.
Early life
Black Kettle was born in the Siksika First Nations Reserve near Gleichen, Alberta. At age 7, she was enrolled at a Catholic boarding school in Cluny,{{Cite news|last=Mayes|first=Alison|date=1994-06-19|title=Making a Difference: Maggie Black Kettle Arts and Culture|pages=15|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83671889/making-a-difference-maggie-black/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} where she was forbidden to speak Blackfoot, her only language as a child.{{Cite web|last=Meili|first=Dianne|date=2011|title=Blackfoot Elder overcame fear to pass on traditional ways|url=https://ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/maggie-black-kettle-footprints|access-date=2021-08-17|website=AMMSA|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Lloyd James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RP55AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Maggie+Black+Kettle%22|title=Warriors of the King: Prairie Indians in World War I|date=1999|publisher=Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina|isbn=978-0-88977-101-7|pages=13|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1997-07-01|title=Maggie Black Kettle, Alberta|pages=50|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83672778/maggie-black-kettle-alberta/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Black Kettle was considered a matriarch and spiritual leader of the Siksika people.{{Cite news|date=2011-09-27|title=Maggie Black Kettle: Spiritual Elder Passed on Cree and Blackfoot to Future Generations|pages=24|work=National Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83649487/maggie-black-kettle-spiritual-elder/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1992-12-27|title=Storyteller Tries to Keep Culture Alive|pages=7|work=Edmonton Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83650675/storyteller-tries-to-keep-culture-alive/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Dudley|first=Wendy|date=1992-12-24|title=Native Nativity|pages=23|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83670861/native-nativitywendy-dudley/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} She attended community events, including local ceremonies,{{Cite news|date=June 25, 2009|title=Principal renamed 'Rain Woman' by Blackfoot|work=CBC News|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/principal-renamed-rain-woman-by-blackfoot-1.781543|access-date=August 17, 2021}} large North American powwows, and the Indian Village exhibition at the annual Calgary Stampede. She taught the Blackfoot language and traditional crafts and dances at the Plains Indian Cultural Survival School,{{Cite news|date=1988-09-11|title=Vanishing society: 'I Think We're Going to Lose our Heritage'|pages=62|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83679309/vanishing-society-i-think-were-going/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} and at the Piitoayis Family School, both in Calgary.{{Cite book|last1=Dils|first1=Ann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFcVAgAAQBAJ&dq=Maggie+Black+Kettle+Blackfoot&pg=PA123|title=Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader|last2=Albright|first2=Ann Cooper|date=2013-06-01|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-7425-1|pages=123–124|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Voyageur|first=Cora J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oV10DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Maggie+Black+Kettle%22&pg=PA40|title=My Heroes Have Always Been Indians: A Century of Great Indigenous Albertans|date=2018-11-14|publisher=Brush Education|isbn=978-1-55059-754-7|pages=40–41|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Zickefoose|first=Sherri|date=2002-12-24|title=School Plants Deep Cultural Roots|pages=91|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83651529/school-plants-deep-cultural/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} During the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Black Kettle shared her weather forecasts for the event.{{Cite news|last=Braungart|first=Susan|date=1988-02-06|title=Wise Weather-Watchers Wonder What's in the Wind|pages=10|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83670190/wise-weather-watchers-wonder-whats-in/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} The following year, she cofounded the city's Native Awareness Week.{{Cite news|last=Lowey|first=Mark|date=1989-04-11|title=Native Event to Push Goodwill|pages=14|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83670446/native-event-to-push-goodwillmark-lowey/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} She served on the board of the Calgary Indian Friendship Centre, and assisted First Nations women who were new to the city. She was recognized with a Woman of Distinction Award from the YWCA of Calgary in 1994.{{Cite news|date=1994-06-04|title=Maggie Black Kettle|pages=26|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83651204/maggie-black-kettle/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} She was a member of the Sundance Society Motookiiks, the Buffalo Women's Society, and the Horn Society.{{Cite web|date=September 18, 2011|title=Remembering the life of Maggie Black Kettle 1917 - 2011|url=https://calgarysun.remembering.ca/obituary/maggie-black-kettle-1064548818/|access-date=2021-08-17|website=Calgary Sun|language=en}}
Black Kettle was a storyteller in her later years,{{Cite news|title=Native Day Care; 'Into Young Hands Shall the Feather be Passed'/Wendy Dudley - Newspapers.com|language=en|work=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83670649/native-day-care-into-young-hands/|access-date=2021-08-18}} and appeared in Canadian film and television shows, including roles in North of 60 (1993), Medicine River (1993),{{Cite book|last=Hilger|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9PuICgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Maggie+Black+Kettle%22&pg=PA404|title=Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present|date=2015-10-16|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4422-4002-5|pages=404|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Schweninger|first=Lee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mbyZTrbz4gC&dq=%22Maggie+Black+Kettle%22&pg=PA83|title=Imagic Moments: Indigenous North American Film|date=2013-05-01|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4514-7|pages=83|language=en}} Wild America (1997), and Dream Storm (2001).
Personal life
When she was 16 years old, she married Nickolas Black Kettle, in an arranged union. They ran a farm together, and had seven children.{{Cite news|last=Zickefoose|first=Sherri|date=2011-09-24|title=Black Kettle was a Spiritual Leader|pages=2|work=Times Colonist|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83650975/black-kettle-was-a-spiritual-leader/|access-date=2021-08-18|via=Newspapers.com}} She also raised some of her many grandchildren. She was widowed when her husband died in 1973, and she died in 2011, aged 94 years, at a hospital in Calgary.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDB name|0085708}}
- [http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?AC=GET_RECORD&XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&BU=&TN=IMAGEBAN&SN=AUTO22839&SE=705&RN=0&MR=10&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebResults&EF=&DF=WebResultsDetails&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=4032&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=ISO-8859-1 Maggie Black Kettle with grandsons, Calgary] (1968), photograph in the collection of Glenbow Museum
- Dianne Meili, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5Z1uAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Maggie+Black+Kettle%22 Those who Know: Profiles of Alberta's Native Elders] (NeWest Press 1991); includes a profile of Maggie Black Kettle
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Kettle, Maggie}}
Category:First Nations artists
Category:Siksika Nation people
Category:First Nations women artists
Category:20th-century First Nations women
Category:20th-century First Nations people