Current and former Alexis Nakota Sioux chiefs reflect on papal visit

Among the events included on the Pope's itinerary in Alberta this week is a visit to Lac Ste. Anne on Tuesday, where he will join tens of thousands of people on pilgrimage to the sacred site.

The annual event has long held historical significance for Indigenous people in Canada.

"Just knowing that he's coming here now, it's really important for our people," Chief Tony Alexis of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation said last week in an interview by the lakeshore.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church is expected to arrive in Edmonton Sunday, to begin three-day stay in Alberta.

The visit to Lac Ste. Anne will be the fulfilment of an invitation from the Nation in 2016 when Tony Alexis and his brother travelled to the Vatican, delivering hundreds of letters from First Nations people directly to the pontiff.

Pope Francis is expected to offer an apology to First Nations, Métis and Inuit for the church's role in residential schools, though it is unclear to what extent he will take responsibility on behalf of the church.

Alexis said there are those in the community who are still deeply wounded.

"The apology, what it's going to do, it's going to validate that it really happened," he said. 

"We hope that it releases them, it will release them then to start healing. And that's the goal and the hope."

Lac Ste. Anne is known as Wakamne in Stoney, which translates to "God's lake."

"We've been part of this lake, lived alongside the shore for years and years," Chief Tony Alexis's brother Rod Alexis, a former chief himself, said.

"We've been here all the time — way before the treaties were signed and before the church came."

Rod and Tony Alexis's grandfather was the last hereditary chief of the Nation. Their great-great-grandfather signed an adhesion to Treaty 6 and evangelized the community.

But Rod Alexis said Nakota Sioux members were not accepted by the church.