Joseph and Josephine Crowshoe, Respected Elders
Joseph and Josephine Crowshoe are respected traditional spiritual leaders of the Peigan First Nation in Southern Alberta. Aged 92 and 81 respectively, they have lived on their family farm for a number of years raising eleven children. Joseph Crowshoe is a member of the Anglican Clergy and keeper of the Blackfoot short thunder medicine bundle. Josephine Crowshoe is the keeper of the Sun Dance medicine bundle. They are the only remaining traditional Peigan Elders of the Nation and have worked to preserve their culture and bridge the gap between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal People of Alberta. Joseph worked extremely hard to preserve and develop the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump site in Southern Alberta and edited a Blackfoot language dictionary produced by the University of Lethbridge. During the 1950s, Josephine organized a children's lunch program on her reserve and in 1989, Joseph received the Alberta Lifetime Achievement Award.
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