Elder shares Blackfoot teachings at society AGM

Piikani elder tells Crowsnest Conservation that honouring Mother Earth begins with daily choices and shared responsibility

Roughly sixty people gathered in Crowsnest Pass on Nov. 25, 2025, as the Crowsnest Conservation Society held its Annual General Meeting and welcomed Piikani Nation Spiritual Elder and Knowledge Keeper Eric Crow Shoe as guest speaker.

Crow Shoe, who is from Brocket on the Piikani Nation, spoke on the theme Honouring the Creations of Mother Earth. He shared spiritual and cultural teachings from Blackfoot tradition, beginning with the way the Creator made Father Sun, Air, Water and Mother Earth, and the responsibilities that flow from those relationships.

Drawing on that worldview, he told the audience that every person shares responsibility for caring for the natural world, not as an abstract idea but as part of daily life in the Crowsnest Pass and throughout Blackfoot territory. Piikani is a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy, whose traditional lands span what is now southern Alberta and northern Montana, and Blackfoot law and stories have long tied people to local rivers, mountains and grasslands.

Crow Shoe also spoke about the meaning of sweetgrass, which is used in many Indigenous ceremonies across the Prairies. Holding up a braid, he described how the three strands in every sweetgrass bundle represent Love, Generosity and Kindness.

“When we think only of ourselves, we lose our connection to nature and cannot move forward,” he told the crowd. “When we are compassionate and caring of others and the natural world around us, we honour Mother Earth.”

He encouraged people to see environmental stewardship as something that begins with personal choices and community relationships, not only with policies and regulations. By “moving forward together,” he said, people can “find ourselves, find each other and find the world all connected.”

Organisers said the talk fit closely with the society mission to connect residents with local landscapes and the wildlife, watersheds and open spaces that surround the community. The Crowsnest Conservation Society is a charitable organisation that focuses on preserving the beauty and biodiversity of the Crowsnest Pass and region through advocacy, education and events.

The AGM gave members and guests a chance to hear those teachings in person while learning more about the society work in the valley. Many in attendance stayed after the formal program to continue the conversation, reflecting on what Blackfoot teachings about respect, gratitude and responsibility might mean for everything from recreation to land use decisions in the Pass.

Everyone who heard his message “was moved to be a better person,” organisers said, adding that they hoped the evening would inspire more residents to see care for the land as part of how they care for each other.