Blackfoot elder calls for education after stone marker vandalized at Nose Hill Park in Calgary

Calgary police are investigating after a sacred stone marker in Nose Hill Park was vandalized.

Calgary police are investigating after a Blackfoot stone marker in Nose Hill Park was vandalized over the weekend.

The incident took place at one of the park’s peaks at what Blackfoot elders describe as a marker. It has also been described as a medicine wheel.

“The significance of the construction of that marker was so that we can relate to each other, that we can understand each other, that we can respect each other, that discrimination is abolished,” said elder Calvin Williams.

Giovanna Longhi told Global News on Monday she and her husband were walking their dog near the site Friday afternoon when they noticed two women inside the circle who appeared to be praying.

Longhi said she and her husband also noticed some of the rocks had been moved, and there were some red crosses placed in between the rocks. She said they approached the women, asked them what they were doing there and explained the site’s significance to Blackfoot people.

Longhi said it did not appear as if the women believed what they were hearing, and eventually, she and her husband went down the hill to a police station to report what they saw.

“To deface it, to vandalize it just seemed wrong. It was an opportunity to shed light on this site, which is for all Calgarians,” Longhi said.

“This is a place that you can use, but you have to respect it. You don’t deface it, you don’t change it, you don’t put religious markers on it.”