Students walk 140 kms to commemorate Treaty 6
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To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing Treaty 6, students from Chief Ahtahkakoop School had an ambitious idea.
From June 15 – 19, over the span of five days, students are walking 140 kilometres from their home community of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation to Fort Carlton, a historic trading post not far from Duck Lake.
The 18 students on the journey, from grades 10 and 12, decided they wanted to do something special to mark the important anniversary.
“We were talking about how our people got to Fort Carlton 150 years ago,” said Eleonore Maurice, teacher at Chief Ahtahkakoop School and organizer of the trek.
“They started to get out their maps, and got excited about this idea of walking to Fort Carlton. They wanted to do something that was above and beyond the classroom.”
So Maurice and colleague Millissa Anderson, grade 10 teacher, took the classroom on the road.
The walk, they say, serves as a ‘living classroom’, bringing together youth, educators, and Indigenous leaders to actively trace the historic steps of the past while building paths to a unified future.
“There’s been so much positivity from the kids. They’re so resilient. Not one person has complained or had anything bad to say,” said Maurice.
The young group of students began training for the journey on May 1, walking 5 kilometres a day to build up their stamina. Before the journey, Saskatoon shoe retailer Brainsport outfitted each of the students with a new pair of shoes, sold at cost.
Now on their trek, the group is ahead of schedule – Maurice said they have travelled as much as 50 kilometres a day. They have hired horses and a wagon to carry supplies and give students a rest when needed. But the students enthusiasm for the journey is making the wagon often vacant, said Maurice.
