Why The Calgary Stampede Is A Model For Indigenous Inclusion

@catriona_b I loathe the Stampede. Every year animals die cruelly and unnecessarily, just to amuse a stadium full of wannabe cowboys. And nobody cares.

@merry123459 Was just at a restaurant that my husband and I frequent every Friday. Management knows us. The Calgary Stampede was on 14 TV screens. Young calves being slammed and hogtied. It was disturbing and I asked them to change all the channels. They did. The table beside us thanked me.

The East/ West schism in Canada is a very real thing these days. Well, not if you live in the 416/ 613 bubble that elected Mark Carney where the sun is always shining on you. There it’s the Eternal Sunshine of An Untroubled Boomer, courtesy of the party that’s invested in keeping upper middle-class equity alive on the land.

When thoughts do stray to matters west of the Lakehead the Calgary Stampede serves as a ready template for the uncouth folk at the juncture of the Bow and Elbow Rivers. As we can see above where most see a celebration of western tradition the PETA Patrol sees a blood-soaked infield strewn with the bodies of humble beasts. They are the St. Francis of Assisi fainting squad.

Then there are the Epicureans of Etobicoke who recoil at the sight of the Stampede as they digest their crudités and sip their Sancerre. Actually this X post is so precious it might be satire. But knowing the Housewives of Hogtown it rings true.

But Calgary— more specifically the Stampede— is a convenient whipping post for them. How did we get there? Or, more to the point, why do they believe the agitprop they are fed? First, some background. We moved to Calgary in 1998, before the economic superpower label and Alberta’s separation urges. There were half as many people as now live there. The mayor was a development guy as mayor. Today’s leftist mayor could easily pass for mayor of Vancouver or Toronto. 

To our Eastern eyes it had its prickly pride. When we reported on a fatal chuckwagon crash that killed a driver and horses we suggested some upgrades be made or risk losing the mainstream audience. The page six columnist at the Calgary Sun suggested we don’t know a Charolais from a Chardonnay and should return East. 

But the Stampede did move to make racing safer. Since then there have been no fatalities. Horses have broken down (one was euthanized this weekend), and it has been slavishly reported in a mainstream media that does not extend such vigilance to reporting of equine deaths at its thoroughbred tracks. But it is far from the abattoir suggested by restaurant snobs in Toronto. Most of the horses would be table meat in Japan is not for cowboys rescuing them and giving them a second life. 

A new event called Ladies Breakaway Roping, the rope falls away from the saddle horn when the calf is roped. The wagons no longer carry mock stoves. Protection for riders of all kinds has improved. Still the clichés about animal cruelty persist.

Then, because it’s Alberta, there are questions about the charges of Rez school genocide echoed by the hyper-liberal land acknowledgements. In response to PM Justin Trudeau lowering flags for six months after fraudulent claims of murdered children or hidden graves, western culture this is extended to the Stampede each summer. 

The @tkemlups camouflage is repeated by those still marketing the missing kids graves. Former MRU prof Frances Widdowson notes, “Two months after the  @tkemlups claim was revealed to be false, Chief Rosanne Casimir discusses "stories about children missing, burial, incinerator...".  She tearfully refers to "thinking about children - they're buried here and the families that it's going to be impacting”.

Which click-baiting national media readily soaked up. But the reality of the Stampede is different. From its earliest days the Stampede has been a model of cooperation between the organizers and the indigenous. Guy Weadick, the founder of the modern Stampede in the 1920s saw the rodeo as a competition between white and “Indian” cowboys. He used his political connections within the Indian Affairs Department to allow indigenous tribes off their reserves to participate. It was estimated 1,800 Treaty 7 individuals participated in the first Stampede. 

The indigenous tribes led the parade. There were events that emphasized indigenous culture. Even today, Indian dancing and singing are featured. That’s because Weadick saw it was as much about the Indian way of life as that of the whites. The names of rodeo greats include native cowboys Charlie Still, Dave Perry and Louis Best. Today, former NHLer D.J. King, a chuck rookie, won several heats of the Rangeland Derby. 

Tipis are erected for the duration of Stampede, and house more than two dozen Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut’ina families. Their legacy is cherished at the Stampede.

Is everything perfect? Of course not. Bad habits die slowly. This historical connection with whites and indigenous competing together is a challenge to Trudeau’s unproven vision of Rez School hell. So naturally it must be knocked down at every opportunity. Hence the vigilance extended to any hints of racial strife, usually whipped upon by white progressives and hereditary chiefs who are losing control for the dynamic with the government. 

The “traditional culture” of the Stampede is linked by RCMP spokespeople to extremist groups that must be stopped before they stifle Carney’s brave new world as Europe’s caddy. It’s insensitive and it’s not representative of the Stamped in 2025. People still celebrating another four years of Liberal misrule should back off. Alberta doesn’t complain about the Ex in Toronto. But it will let you know when you’ve pushed your luck with them.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.