Though not as well known as the Cypress hills, the Touchwood Hills in Saskatchewan are another height of land left by the glacier as it receded. The Touchwood hills are the point of land on which Henry Kelsey, the great overland explorer, turned back east after his epic travel (1690 to 1692 ), a century before any other white man visited the area. There is a cairn on a hilltop in Punnichy to mark his furthest point of exploration.
I grew up in the Touchwood Hills. Our land for the little town of Lestock became sequestered from the Muskowekwan reserve when the Grand Trunk Railway was built and a depot was needed. The original land treaty for it was signed by the Cree Chief Muscowequan in 1874 at Fort Qu'Appelle with the other Chiefs of Little and Big Touchwood Hills and the Grand Trunk.
My friend and I from Lestock. played midget hockey with the Indian team from the Oblate Father's Mission School. We were all 15. The Cree Nation boys from the Muscowekwan reserve welcomed the two of us and we felt part of things. There is nothing like sport to unite young men. We traveled extensively in the Misson Panel truck to play hockey in southeast Saskatchewan. We were a good team but we only had two forward lines and two defensemen. We must have been in good shape.
The outdoor rink we practiced on was at the Mission and the roads were often impassable on the reserve. A local batchelor farmer from Lestock liked to watch hockey and took the two of us out to the Mission on the back of his tractor. As we stood on the back of his tractor, wind whistling by our cheeks, tractor bucking the drifts, He told us it didn't snow in Burnaby. He went there every year after Christmas. As we held onto the tractor seat for dear life, I kept thinking to myself, ," One day, I will go to Burnaby."
I grew up in the Touchwood Hills. Our land for the little town of Lestock became sequestered from the Muskowekwan reserve when the Grand Trunk Railway was built and a depot was needed. The original land treaty for it was signed by the Cree Chief Muscowequan in 1874 at Fort Qu'Appelle with the other Chiefs of Little and Big Touchwood Hills and the Grand Trunk.
My friend and I from Lestock. played midget hockey with the Indian team from the Oblate Father's Mission School. We were all 15. The Cree Nation boys from the Muscowekwan reserve welcomed the two of us and we felt part of things. There is nothing like sport to unite young men. We traveled extensively in the Misson Panel truck to play hockey in southeast Saskatchewan. We were a good team but we only had two forward lines and two defensemen. We must have been in good shape.
The outdoor rink we practiced on was at the Mission and the roads were often impassable on the reserve. A local batchelor farmer from Lestock liked to watch hockey and took the two of us out to the Mission on the back of his tractor. As we stood on the back of his tractor, wind whistling by our cheeks, tractor bucking the drifts, He told us it didn't snow in Burnaby. He went there every year after Christmas. As we held onto the tractor seat for dear life, I kept thinking to myself, ," One day, I will go to Burnaby."
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